Coup attempt ahead of regional summit

Army mutineers staged a coup attempt in Bujumbura on Sunday night, ahead of a regional summit on the future of Burundi which began in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Monday. Residents of the Burundian capital told IRIN shooting broke out in what Defence Minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye described as a coup attempt by a group of soldiers opposed to the Arusha peace accord. “A group of soldiers, that we call mutineers, have attempted another coup,” Ndayirukiye said over state radio on Monday. “These mutineers are against the Arusha peace accords and do not know the need for the accords.” President Pierre Buyoya is in Arusha to finalise a power-sharing agreement which gives him presidency of the transition for the first 18 months of a three-year period, assisted by a Hutu vice-president, Domitien Ndayizeye. Within the country, there is fierce opposition to this deal from both Hutu and Tutsi groups. Rebel movements have said it does not concern them and have vowed to continue fighting. Residents said Bujumbura was calm on Monday and people were going about their normal business. However, telephone land lines have been cut off. The mutineers who fled Bujumbura towards the north of the country reportedly took army chief-of-staff General Libere Hicuburundi hostage. The army is in pursuit, officials said. Two rebel soldiers were killed, and the Bujumbura area commander Colonel Fabien Ndayishimye and his bodyguard were said to have been wounded in the fighting. According to security officials cited by Associated Press, two battalions - about 1,600 troops - were involved in the coup attempt. This is the second attempted coup this year. In April, a low key attempt by some 30 soldiers to overthrow Buyoya was easily quelled by the army.