The main witness in an alleged plot to topple Burundi’s government on Thursday recanted his claims, saying he had made the accusations under torture and threats from authorities.
Alain Mugabarabona’s surprise statement came three days after police arrested the country’s former president Domitien Ndayizeye in connection with the purported plot, bringing to nine the number of detainees.
In jailhouse interviews with three local radio stations, Mugabarabona, the first to be arrested in a sweep against alleged conspirators that began July 31, said the coup plot was an invention of the security services.
”This coup story has been invented by the Documentation Nationale,” he said, referring to Burundi’s powerful presidential police and intelligence service.
”Everything I accused former president Domitien Ndayizeye, former vice-president Alphonse-Marie Kadege and the others of was extorted by torture and threats,” Mugabarabona said.
Mugabarabona, who had been presented as the brains behind the plot, said he had been deprived of food for three days while in custody and that his jailers had threatened to ”bring me on a dish the heads” of his wife and children.
”I was forced to sign statements and accuse these people because I could not do differently,” he said, blaming the chief of the presidential police, Adolphe Nshimirimana, and attorney general Jean-Pierre Ndikumana for his treatment.
Mugabarobona added that he had complained about his mistreatment but had been warned he ”would be a dead man” if he recanted.
He suggested the plot had been invented to strengthen President Pierre Nkurunziza’s Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) party by arresting its opponents, including ex-president Ndayizeye and Kadege, former vice-president.
It was not immediately clear why he chose to recant his allegations on Thursday or how he was able to contact the private radio stations to make the public statements.
The high-profile arrest of Ndayizeye on Monday and the failure of authorities to explain details of the plot fuelled domestic and international scepticism about the allegations.
Burundi has suffered several coups and attempted coups since it won independence from Belgium in 1962 and is currently struggling to emerge from a 13-year ethnically driven conflict that has claimed about 300 000 lives. — Sapa-AFP