Bujumbura — A Chinese man was killed by a gang of robbers before yesterday in the capital of Bujumbura. He was shot dead as he was about to pay his employees. The gang took all his money and fled.

The police have not succeeded in arresting the robbers. There is a surge of robberies in the capital Bujumbura as well as in the whole country. It would be recalled that the incident that gave rise to ethnic suspicion in Kirundo province was the killing of Patrick Nkurunziza carried out by a gang of robbers who stole his money and belongings. This recent surge of criminality recalls the wartime when pubs were frequently attacked by robbers.

The minister of security, Commissioner Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, is a former chief of the Burundian National Police. The police, under his leadership, never disclosed the results of investigations that were very important to the nation.

The population has never been informed about the aim of weapons that were caught in Rumonge early this year when the ruling party was facing one of its gravest crises, the extra-judicial killings of Kinama.

Minister Bunyoni promises that his first task will be to discipline the police, although less is expected from him.

There has been demonstrated hesitancy and lack of willingness by the CNDD-FDD government to initiate an effect mechanism of disarmament of the population. Besides armed robberies, there other things that worries Burundians, particularly the upcoming 2010 presidential elections. Analysts who followed the Burundi 2005 elections very closely have stressed a concern that the party in power might use these weapons to threaten the population in 2010 elections, given that many former demobilized FDD combatants still in possession these weapons.