S.Africa force won't help fight off Burundi attack
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African peacekeepers in Burundi will not step in to fight off rebel attacks on the capital, officials said Monday after a weeklong rebel offensive that left more than 200 people dead.
South Africa has had troops in Burundi's capital Bujumbura since 2000 helping protect former rebels under a peace plan, and has begun to oversee a disarmament program as part of an African peace force since a shaky cease-fire signed in December.
"We are not looking to change the mandate for the South African force at all. We think it is the task of the Burundi army to protect the civilians," a South African government official told Reuters in Johannesburg.
Hutu rebels have attacked the lakeside capital from surrounding hills over the past week, forcing thousands from their homes. Among the dead were child rebel fighters aged 11 to 15 who died in fighting with the Tutsi-dominated army Sunday.
The city was quiet Monday.
South Africa's deputy President Jacob Zuma, who has taken a lead in years of South African brokered peace efforts begun by Nelson Mandela, was due to leave later Monday for central Africa, visiting Uganda and Rwanda before arriving in Bujumbura Wednesday.
Zuma's office said he would consult with South African forces in Burundi and assess the security situation there.
With more troops from Mozambique and Ethiopia due in the coming weeks, the African Union peace force in Burundi will reach 3,000 troops -- part of the continent's renewed efforts to promote peace in a region fraught with ethnic tensions.
More than 300,000 Burundians, mostly civilians, have been killed since the war began in 1993.
A transition peace plan has seen the Tutsi president hand power over to a Hutu, but two Hutu rebel groups have continued fighting -- the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), which reneged on the cease-fire it signed in December, and the smaller National Liberation Forces (FNL).
07/14/03 13:05 ET
