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Police in the northern town of Kayanza have arrested 15 members of a government-trained defence militia unit known as Guardians of the Peace for running a vast network of armed robbers, news organisations reported on Tuesday.
The group has been blamed for an upsurge of crime in Kayanza and its suburbs, the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) and AFP reported. PANA added that the town's residents had hunted down the militiamen and handed them to the police on Monday.
The militia has been trained and armed by the government to combat Hutu rebels, who have been fighting the army since 1993. On Friday last week, Human Rights Watch accused the militia of being behind a spate of killings, rapes and lootings, and called on the government to disband the force. However, President Pierre Buyoya said on Saturday that the militia had proved efficient at ensuring law and order in the war-traumatised country, according to PANA. "People may criticise, say what they think about it, but they have no right to order us around in that regard," he said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
