Burundi said on Wednesday it has strong evidence that former high-ranking politicians and a dissident rebel leader arrested this week planned to kill President Pierre Nkurunziza and overthrow the government.
Government spokesperson Karenga Ramadhani told a local radio station a coup was planned for June 30 and that 15 people, including military personnel, were involved.
”We have their written plans, even some phone conversations on tape. I had the opportunity to listen to the tape,” he said.
”The plotters planned to first assassinate the head of state, Pierre Nkurunziza, then the chairman of the ruling party, Hussein Radjabu,” Ramadhani told Radio Bonesha.
”After that, they were going to dismiss the National Assembly and the Senate and put in place a body called the Superior Council,” he added.
Ramadhani said Alain Mugabarabona, dissident of the Hutu rebel Forces for National Liberation (FNL) and leader of a small Hutu party, was the mastermind of the plan.
Burundi security services arrested Mugabarabona, along with his brother-in-law and a friend, former vice-president Alphonse Marie Kadege, and two other former officials this week.
Local radio said Burundian authorities on Wednesday arrested Damien Ndarisigaranye, an army colonel, in connection with the alleged coup plot.
One official, for whom an arrest warrant has also been issued, criticised the arrests.
”This is a government strategy to harass and eliminate all its opponents, so that we keep quiet about all the bad things we are witnessing now,” Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesperson for the main Hutu opposition party Frodebu, said from Dar es Salaam, where the government is holding peace talks with the FNL.
Cimpaye said he and ex-president Domitien Ndayizeye, along with Frodebu chairperson Leonce Ngendakumana, met Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
”We explained the worries of our party with regards to the situation in our country, notably human rights violations,” Cimpaye said. ”We asked him to involve himself to ask the government to respect the constitution and to stop arbitrary arrests of opponents.”
Burundi’s newfound peace is generally seen as an African success story, but rights watchdogs have warned its security services still commit abuses.
Nkurunziza, a Hutu, said five months ago that three unnamed men were plotting a coup against him. Burundi is tasting peace for the first time in more than a decade after a civil war killed more than 300 000 people. — Reuters