Amnesty expresses concern at attacks on civilians

The human rights organisation Amnesty International has expressed its concern over the reported extrajudicial killing of scores of unarmed civilians, including children, in Bujumbura Rurale and demanded that the government "ensure that unarmed civilians taking no part in hostilities are not targeted by its forces during counter-insurgency operations." Amnesty also called on the armed opposition "to refrain from committing human rights abuses." Humanitarian sources have told IRIN that rebel groups had been increasingly active in the region in the past few weeks and appeared to be largely unaffected by increased counter-insurgency operations by the army. More frequently emerging reports of brutal reprisals on civilians indicated the army's growing frustration, they added. Government disputes reports of civilian dead The presidential spokesman, Appollinaire Gahungu, has denied that over 475 civilians were killed last week in renewed clashes with Hutu rebels in the southern suburbs of the capital Bujumbura, saying that only 11 rebels and one gendarme had been killed in fighting. "This is mere speculation. I do not know where those reports got those figures", RNA quoted Gahungu as saying on Friday. Alarming body count cited by human rights group Amnesty cited sources which said 100 bodies had already been counted in Busoro and Nkenga, with still more buried in destroyed houses. An Amnesty release received by IRIN also reported scores more civilians killed on Friday in Ruziba, Kabezi commune; 30 or more unarmed civilians shot in Busoro and Nkenga areas in retribution for a rebel attack on Kanyosha; and up to 80 killed when soldiers from Gitaramuka military post, Ruziba, threw hand grenades into a group of hundreds of civilians detained by the road at Butoza after first demanding information on the attack on Kanyosha market. Amnesty also reported extrajudicial killings in Bujumbura itself.