Bujumbura — The police roundups that the Security minister has proposed in a bid to fight the growing violence have started to bother the inhabitants of some quarters of the city of Bujumbura.

Today, the police conducted searches in the quarter of Gitega in Kinama commune where they caught around 150 litres of a prohibited locally brewed spirit known as Kanyanga. The population react favourably to these searches. Locals were indignant that the police incorporated demobilised CNDD-FDD combatants in to their search who were recently in conflict with the FNL combatants in Kinama.

The security situation has improved over the last week in the northern quarters of Bujumbura where the police prescience has been stepped up. To date, police searches in the city of Bujumbura seem to be fruitless. Insecurity has spread to the south of Bujumbura where three persons died on last Sunday. The police, who did not intervene in time to rescue the victims, have not identified the murderers.

Opposition parties criticize the way the government is handling security. Recently, the leader of FRODEBU, Hon Ngendakumana, said that the CNDD-FDD-led government has failed to insure security.