Former president under house arrest

Former Burundi President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was on Monday placed under house arrest in the capital, Bujumbura, a government official said. "We have uncovered that he has a plan to destabilise and even to shed blood," Salvator Ntihabose, the minister of home affairs and public security, told reporters in Bujumbura. He was speaking after eight grenades exploded in the capital’s residential districts of Ngagara, Nyakabiga and Musaga. "Militants of Bagaza’s Parena [Parti pour le redressement national] party wanted to dissuade people from going to work, children to school and merchants to the market," he added. Bagaza's residence was searched on Saturday, and gendarmes arrested four of his colleagues: Parena Secretary-General Leonidas Ntakare, Permanent Secretary Christophe Hicintuka, party spokesman Zenon Nimubona, and party member Benoit Ndorimana. Meanwhile, the commander of the South African Protection Support Detachment, Col Degeode, said he had withdrawn Bagaza's protection detail because Bagaza had refused to cooperate with police forces and judicial authorities.