17 January 2008
Bujumbura — More than a hundred thousand small arms continue to flow into Burundi. This was reported in a study jointly carried out by leading local human rights organizations, Ligue Iteka, and the Small Arms Survey.
In the study, these two organisations indicate that most of these arms come from the Democratic Republic of Congo where fighting continues. These weapons were carried into Burundi by civilians after the government failed to protect them when they were targeted by rebel groups.
The president of the Ligue Iteka, Jean-Marie Kavumbagu, recommends that the commission in charge of disarming civilians should take the results of this study into consideration.
Armed civilians continue to commit violent crimes. Six people were wounded by a grenade blast in Makebuko commune, an area that the President of the Republic recently visited in the course of his seed-planting tour. The victims have been evacuated to the hospitals, but some of them were serious wounded. In Kinama commune of the mayorship of Bujumbura one person was gunned down and brought to the hospital by the police. In a search operation conducted in order to find unregistered people living in this commune two grenades were found.
Some people maintain that it is possible to complete the disarmament process before the end of the peace process. The cordon-search operation that was carried out in Ruyigi province is cited as an example. About thirty guns were seized in Sanzu during the operation.
It should be recalled that the disarmament campaign that was launched by the former President of the Republic in Gishubi in 2005 was blocked by the current ruling party.
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