Burundi rebels threaten fresh attack on capital
BUJUMBURA, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Burundian rebels threatened on Saturday to launch a fresh attack on the capital in 20 days time unless the police release dozens of their fellow ethnic Hutus arrested in the past few days.
The National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebel group, which launched one of the fiercest attacks on the city for years last month, accused police of harassing members of the ethnic Hutu majority living in the lakeside capital Bujumbura.
"Every day the police carry off people of Hutu ethnicity arguing that they do not possess identity cards. We are shocked to hear that they are jailed and tortured," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told Reuters.
"This is serious, we are not joking," he said. "If nothing is done within 20 days, we will take action," he said.
Hutu rebels have been fighting the government of the tiny central African country for a decade to try to end the political dominance of the Tutsi minority in a war that has killed an estimated 300,000 people, mainly civilians.
Police said they had arrested 64 people on Friday, most of whom were from a rural area outside the capital regarded as an FNL stronghold. The detainees were not carrying the identity cards they are obliged to carry by law, police said.
"Past experience has shown us that the FNL first infiltrates the capital before launching an attack against the southern suburbs of Bujumbura, so we must pay much attention to avoid another surprise," police commander Simon Ndekatubane told Reuters.
The biggest Hutu rebel faction, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), has signed a ceasefire with the government, but the truce has been routinely violated. The FNL has never joined the peace process, which is backed by neighbouring countries and South Africa.
08/16/03 11:20 ET
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
