Anti-genocide leader released from prison

The leader of a Tutsi anti-genocide organisation, Diomede Rutamucero, was released on Tuesday from Mpimba Central Prison in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, after being held for 40 days without charge. Net Press quoted him as saying he could not understand how "they can continue to unjustly, illegally and arbitrarily imprison, exclude and marginalise those who are at risk of genocide". Rutamucero, who is the president of Puissance d'Autodefense-Amasekanya, was arrested on 2 May after members of his organisation staged a protest in Bujumbura against the Arusha peace accord and the adoption of laws on provisional immunity for returning political leaders, many of whom they hold responsible for massacres of Tutsis. On 5 June, authorities informed Rutamucero that he had been arrested in connection with a complaint that a government minister had lodged on 27 April, claiming that members of Amasekanya had been singing offensive and intimidating songs. A regional analyst told IRIN that Rutamucero's detention was an attempt by authorities "to get anti-genocide organisations to shut up". The analysts added, "You can't charge someone over what someone else said." He was referring to Rutamucero's imprisonment on the basis of what members of his organisation had done. This is the 15th time during the current tenure of Burundi President Pierre Buyoya that Rutamucero has been imprisoned. Under a deal to end the brutal eight-year civil war largely between the ruling Tutsi minority and the majority Hutu opposition, Buyoya, a Tutsi, is heading the new power-sharing administration for 18 months until mid-2003. During this period, Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, serves as vice-president. Ndayizeye is then to assume the presidency for the next 18 months.