" But the larger wings of both groups refuse to sign while Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the head of the regional group overseeing the peace process."
Rebels Launch Attack in Burundi By ALOYS NIYOYITA .c The Associated Press BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) - Burundi's largest rebel faction launched a mortar attack on the capital from the surrounding hills on Friday, causing thousands of residents to flee their homes in the northern part of the city. The attack on Bujumbura came two weeks after the collapse of talks in neighboring Tanzania aimed at ending the 9-year civil war in the small central African nation. Army spokesman Col. Augustin Nzabampema said a number of civilians had been wounded, but he didn't have any figures. Several army barracks are located in the neighborhoods that came under attack. Residents in Kinama and Kamenge neighborhoods reached by telephone said the mortar attack began at 9 a.m. and lasted for more than two hours. They said army helicopters were attacking rebel positions in the hills. All commercial activities stopped, and schools were closed. Gelase Ndabirabe, spokesman for the larger wing of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, or FDD, said his group would pursue the attacking government troops ``right up to their barracks.'' He said the attack on Bujumbura was a continuation of the fighting that began Monday in Bubanza province north of the capital. Combat there caused at least 40,000 people to flee their homes in rural areas. Residents said they saw many wounded people being carried to first aid centers in Kinama and Kamenge, but no one was able to give an accurate toll of the numbers of dead or wounded. Bujumbura, located at the northern end of Lake Tanganyika, has come under periodic attack by rebels from the Hutu majority, who took to the hills in October 1993 after paratroopers from the minority Tutsi army assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu. Since then, at least 200,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed. Peace talks among Tutsi and Hutu political groups led to the establishment of a three-year transitional government last November. But the rebels were not included in the talks, and no cease-fire was signed. The two smaller branches of the two rebel groups - the FDD and the Forces of National Liberation, or FNL, have since signed cease-fire agreements. But the larger wings of both groups refuse to sign while Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the head of the regional group overseeing the peace process. Another round of talks was to have begun on Nov. 19 but failed to get off the ground.
