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Burundi rebels shell capital, kill at least three
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BUJUMBURA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Burundian Hutu rebels fired mortars and grenades at the capital Bujumbura on Sunday night, killing at least three people, army and rebel officials said. The attack by the Forces for National Liberation's (FNL) rebels on the northern and eastern suburbs of Bujumbura came after government troops shot dead four people while scouring an FNL stronghold for rebel fighters on Sunday. "The FNL rebels infiltrated the northern suburb of Kamenge and threw grenades. Three people were killed including a young girl," army spokesman Augustin Nzabampema told Reuters. However, residents in Kamenge and the eastern suburb of Kiriri said they saw five dead. Nzabampena said two houses had been burned and the residence of China's ambassador to Burundi hit by the shelling. The FNL has denounced a deal between the government and another rebel faction aimed at ending the country's 10 year civil war which has killed 300,000 people. Last week it warned that fresh fighting could break out near Bujumbura at any time. The decade long war has seen rebels from the Hutu majority fighting to end the traditional political and military dominance of minority Tutsis. The main Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), is set to join the government and start taking up army posts in the next three weeks under a peace deal signed in Pretoria earlier this month. "There's been a powerful deployment of army troops and FDD in Bujumbura Rural (an FNL stronghold) for a week. The FDD has agreed with the army that they are going to chase us," said FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana. "Since we don't have any other means of expression we took the option of bombarding the capital. It's our only way of being heard," he said. Analysts say with FDD and the army joining forces, chances of defeating FNL, the second biggest rebel group, have risen. Leaders from countries including South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania are expected in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam on Friday to endorse the latest phase of the deal to end the war.
