Fiche du document numéro 32915

Num
32915
Date
Sunday October 24, 1993
Amj
Fichier
Taille
15283
Pages
2
Titre
Bujumbura [Diplomats saying the alleged coup plotters were all members of the Tutsi ethnic group]
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Mot-clé
Mot-clé
Source
AFP
Fonds d'archives
Type
Dépêche d'agence
Langue
EN
Citation
In another broadcast, the radio quoted diplomats as saying the alleged coup plotters were all members of the Tutsi ethnic group and came from the south of the country.

It said coup-makers numbered 24 and included former chief-of-staff Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Kazatsa and Lieutenant-Colonel Jean Bikomagu, the chief-of-staff under the government overthrown Thursday.

It also named six civilians including Francois Ngeze, the head of the self-styled National Salvation Committee installed by the plotters, and several members of Buyoya's Union For National Progress party.

Communications Minister Jean-Marie Ngendahayo (eds. correct) told Radio France Internationale: "The president of the republic was killed by a commando in a Bujumbura military camp during the morning of October 21 around 10 o'clock.

"He was taken in an armoured car with his wife and children from the presidential palace to the camp. There he was taken aside and shot in cold-blood."

In a later broadcast on Radio Rwanda, monitored in London by the BBC, Ngendahayo said: "We pledge that once we return to normal, we shall do everything to bring these criminals to book."

Meanwhile Ngeze has made two broadcasts on radio and television over the weekend denying that he was involved in the putsch.

Ngeze said he had accepted the committee's chairmanship "to help re-establish peace" and to restore legal authority.

Colonel Bikomagu also went on radio and television to deny he was a plotter, adding that his goal was to restore law, order and democracy.

Bikomagu said the return to power of Ndadaye's government would be conditional on its granting an amnesty to the coup-makers.

At least 12,000 Burundis fearing violence have fled to Tanzania, Tanzanian Prime Minister John Malecela said Sunday. Previously U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' officials said 80,000 Burundis have taken refuge in neighbouring Rwanda.

str/jn/ms

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