FDD rebel leader "suspended"

Long-running divisions in one of Burundi's two main Hutu rebel groups deepened sharply this week, with a military commander "suspending" the group's leader, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, AFP reported on Tuesday. A commander in the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), Adolphe Nshimirimana, said on Monday that Ndayikengurukiye, FDD "coordinator-general", had been temporarily relieved of all his responsibilities within the movement. He said the decision was taken in the interests of peace, following a meeting of military commanders held earlier in October. He accused Ndayikengurukiye of being more concerned with violent criminals and looters than with others in the FDD or with the civilians of Burundi. The FDD's two spokesmen, however, reacted in opposite ways to the statement. Brussels-based Jerome Ndiho said the suspension lacked legitimacy since such a decision could only be taken at a national congress of the FDD, which has been fighting Burundi's Tutsi-dominated government since 1993. Ndayikengurukiye "is still our coordinator-general", AFP quoted Ndiho as saying. Nshimirimana's alleged that Ndayikengurukiye had failed to organise such a congress but Ndiho said a congress would be held in "a very few months". In Johannesburg, another spokesman, Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, told AFP that Nshimirimana's statement was genuine and that Ndayikengurukiye's suspension could speed up the peace process. Although many Burundi groups, most of them non-combatant, have signed a deal aimed at ending the war, neither the FDD nor another rebel group, the Forces nationales pour la liberation, put their names to the document and neither have they reached a cease-fire agreement with the government. A transitional power-sharing government is due to be inaugurated on 1 November in Burundi.