Hutu Rebels Kill 17 People in Burundi
By ALOYS NIYOYITA
.c The Associated Press
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) - Hutu rebels killed 17 people, including five soldiers, in attacks northwest of the capital, officials and witnesses said Monday.
The violence was blamed on the National Liberation Forces, or FNL, the only Hutu rebel group that has refused to hold talks with the government to end the 10-year civil war.
Seven civilians were killed when FNL rebels ambushed a minibus traveling near the town of Gihanga, 12 miles northwest of Bujumbura on Monday, said Brig. Gen. Germain Niyoyunguruza, commander of government soldiers in the region.
Late Sunday, the insurgents attacked a house in the center of Gihanga, killing five members of one family and five soldiers in another part of the town, said Jean-Bosco Hatungimana, a local official.
FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana denied that the rebels were involved in the attacks.
Three other Hutu rebel factions have signed cease-fire deals with the transitional government, which includes political parties from the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.
More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict since it broke out in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the central African nation's first democratically elected leader, a Hutu.
Despite being in the minority, Tutsis have effectively controlled Burundi for all but a few months since independence in 1962.
01/12/04 22:59 EST
