Ex-rebel group denies harassment claims

A former main rebel movement in Burundi, the Conseil national pour la défense de la democratie-Forces pour la défense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), led by Pierre Nkurunziza, has denied claims that its combatants have been harassing the public in and around the capital, Bujumbura. Some 5,000 CNDD-FDD combatants, who now work alongside government forces, have been accused of looting, arbitrary arrests and the illegal detention of civilians. The claims follow an attack on Tuesday at Nyabugiga, in Bujumbura's suburb of Kanyosha, where residents lost their property to aggressors, whom witnesses said were CNDD-FDD combatants. CNDD-FDD military spokesman Col Jéremie Ngendakuma told IRIN on Thursday that the movement's combatants could not have been responsible for the Kanyosha attack because the CNDD-FDD was preparing for elections, due in April 2005, and could not mistreat the population from whom it would seek votes. Instead, he said that combatants loyal to the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), of Agathon Rwasa, the only rebel group that is still fighting, were disguising themselves as CNDD-FDD combatants before attacking the population because the FNL was undergoing "serious setbacks" in their stronghold, Bujumbura Rural Province, which surrounds the capital. However, Ngendakuma said it could not be ruled out that there could be a few undisciplined elements within the CNDD-FDD. "Such systematic lootings would mean that the military command is behind [it] and that is quite impossible," Ngendakuma said. The UN peacekeeping mission in Burundi, known as ONUB, expressed concern on Wednesday about the looting of the population by armed elements that, it said, included the CNDD-FDD. The mission threatened to take appropriate action to stop the looting. ONUB was especially disturbed because the lootings targeted susceptible people. "Humanitarian food supplies made available to vulnerable people, including recent food distribution of the [UN] World Food Programme in Bujumbura Rural, are being stolen at gunpoint by recipients," ONUB said. Food supplies are provided to former combatants in assembly areas "expressly to avoid such actions and protect vulnerable populations". ONUB expressed concern that if such acts were to continue, they could compromise the supply of food to the ex-combatants. At least 20,000 combatants from the CNDD-FDD are in pre-assembly areas, awaiting cantonment, but some 5,000 who are stationed in Bujumbura Rural and its surroundings, do not receive food supplies from the international community. At a news conference on Thursday, the deputy representative of the UN Secretary-General in Burundi, Nurreldine Satti, said the combatants fighting on the side of government forces were under the responsibility of the government. Ngendakuma said that since October, the government had been providing food for these combatants. He added that the CNDD-FDD had been supplying food to the combatants at its own cost, estimated at 10 million Burundian francs (US $9,475) a week. Residents of Bujumbura Rural Province and the northern suburbs of Bujumbura have accused the CNDD-FDD of arrests and the illegal detention or beating of civilians. On 27 October, CNDD-FDD combatants arrested an employee of a local NGO, Innocent Nzeyimana (with three other civilians), and put him in an illegal prison run by the CNDD-FDD in the northern suburb of Kamenge, according to Nzeyimana. He said he was accused of siding with the FNL. "I have been advising CNDD-FDD combatants from my home village in Bujumbura Rural to stop harassing the population - that is why they accused me of supporting the FNL," Nzeyimana added. He said security should be every citizen's concern. CNDD-FDD combatants see some people as a threat to security and, if a person is suspected of helping the FNL rebels, they arrest him. They can detain them just for interrogation but later they are released or - if thought to be guilty - handed over to the police, according to Ngendakuma. Burundi army spokesman Maj Manirakiza Adolphe said that even if the collaboration between the CNDD-FDD combatants and government forces on the ground was in place, "They [the CNDD-FDD] sometimes go beyond their competence in arresting people; that is the role of the police and if they need people arrested, they should call the police". Manirakiza said the two military leaders from the government and the CNDD-FDD could meet to find a solution, so that the public could be spared subjugation of fear and illegal arrests.