Ex-rebel movement in plea over landmine use

Former rebel movement Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) appealed on Monday to the Burundian army and the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) rebel faction led by Agathon Rwasa to stop using landmines. "Mines constitute a danger to the life of the civilian population. Reports indicate that four people are killed by mines every month in the southern province of Makamba," Hussein Radjabu, the CNDD-FDD secretary-general, told a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura. He added that most of the victims were refugees coming home from neighbouring Tanzania. "We take this opportunity to announce that our movement is going to destroy all its stock of mines and clear those we had laid in different areas," he said. "We want the army and the FNL, who are still fighting, to do the same. In particular, we ask the government of Burundi to respect the Ottawa Treaty prohibiting mines, which it ratified on 22 October 2003." The CNDD-FDD had signed the same treaty in Switzerland on 15 October 2003, Radjabu said, and by doing so also committed itself to sensitising the population about the danger of landmines. He admitted that the CNDD-FDD had laid mines in certain parts of the communes of Nyanza Lac, Kayogoro in southern Burundi, and near the border between Burundi and Tanzania in the eastern province of Cankuzo. An army spokesperson who requested anonymity told IRIN that the army had laid mines in some areas in the hills surrounding Bujumbura to curb FNL infiltration into the city. IRIN failed to obtain a comment from the FNL.