Burundi's Buyoya heads for talks as fighting rages
BUJUMBURA, March 1 (Reuters) - A Burundi rebel group said it had killed many government troops on Saturday after two days of heavy fighting in the war-torn central African country.
The Forces for National Liberation (FNL), which has refused to sign any peace accords, said it had killed the soldiers in the Kanyosha commune, southeast of the capital, Bujumbura.
"Early Saturday morning... the government army reinforced its strength at Gisovu locality in Kanyosha commune... We killed the whole military position at Gisovu and seized all their guns," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told Reuters.
Government officials could not be reached for comment.
Burundi's civil war has killed about 300,000 people mostly civilians, and fighting has raged despite attempts at ceasefires and a three-year transitional plan to share power between majority Hutus and minority Tutsis.
President Pierre Buyoya was due to arrive on Saturday in Tanzania for talks with the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), Burundi's biggest rebel group, which along with factions has been fighting the Tutsi-led government since 1993.
Habimana, of the FNL, said the fighting in the Gisovu area was continuing: "The populations of Gisovu locality and those of the neighbouring localities fled. Even now, at this time I speak to you, fighting continues, the army is bombarding."
He said the rebels were attacked by the army on Thursday and Friday in the Rukoko forest, northwest of Bujumbura.
"The fighting was violent and lasted many hours, many soldiers were killed, we lost two combatants and five others were injured," he said.
The FDD said on Saturday their leader, Pierre Nkurunziza, would not attend the talks in Tanzania, which start on Sunday, because he had been notified late.
Nkurunziza said last month he would suspend all direct contact with Buyoya accusing his government of not respecting a truce signed between the two warring parties in December. His fighters also stand accused of violating the truce many times.
The talks aim to start work on setting up a joint ceasefire commission to monitor a truce between the army and the FDD and set up two food supply points for FDD fighters.
Under a peace accord signed in August 2000, Buyoya is scheduled to hand over power to his Hutu Deputy, Vice President Domitien Ndayizeye after eighteen months in office.
On Friday, Buyoya asked parliament to debate whether he should hand over power on May 1, as planned, raising fears among the main Hutu political party he intended to cling to power.
(With reporting by Fumbukia Ng'wanakilala in Dar es Salaam)
03/01/03 12:13 ET
