The United Nations has suspended talks with Burundian Hutu rebels who claimed responsibility for the massacre of at least 160 Congolese Tutsi refugees at a U.N.-run camp, a spokeswoman for the organization said Tuesday. The U.N. had been brokering peace talks between Burundi's government and the National Liberation Forces — the last rebel group still fighting in the country's 11-year-old civil war, said Isabelle Abric. "The negotiations have been suspended because they are claiming responsibility for the attack" in which Congolese Tutsi refugees were shot, hacked, stabbed and burned to death, Abric told The Associated Press. "It seems they are not willing to contribute to the peace process."
| I'd call bumping off 180 civilians not contributing to the peace process... |
Conflicts between Hutus, who comprise a majority in Burundi and Rwanda, and Tutsis, a minority in those two countries and the eastern Congo, have wracked this corner of Africa for more than a decade, spawning a civil war in Burundi, the 1994 Rwandan genocide and a five-year war in Congo. The fighting in Congo mostly ended in 2003, but former rebels and government loyalists continue to clash in the east. The massacre threatens to jeopardize efforts to restore peace in Congo, warned Congolese Vice President Azarias Ruberwa, a former rebel leader who attended the funeral along with Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye. "This is a real genocide," said Ruberwa, who is a Tutsi. The victims "were killed simply because of the fact that they were Congolese Tutsis." The rebel National Liberation Forces said its fighters staged the attack, claiming Burundian soldiers and Congolese Tutsi militiamen were hiding at the camp.
| "Yeah! They wuz disguised as wimmin an' children!" |
Burundian officials and witnesses said the Burundian rebels were accompanied by Hutu extremists based in Congo. "If these groups are not disarmed — if all efforts are not devoted to disarm these groups, including through the foreign powers or interests that tend to control them — the region will not be at peace," said Felix Nkundabagenzi of the Peace and Security Information and Research Group, a think tank in Brussels, Belgium.
| Thank you for today's Statement of the Obvious™... |
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