8 March 2008
Bujumbura — The inhabitants of Rangi have paralysed the activities in the commune and province of Ruyigi.
All commercial and administrative activities ceased as the demonstrators have blocked the traffic. The demonstrators carried the body of a businessman of Rangi that armed robbers killed on Wednesday 5 March at night. Today, the demonstrators took the body of Léonidas Nzeyimana from the morgue of the hospital of Ruyigi. Instead of proceeding to the burial the relatives and the family of the deceased one went to expose the body in front of the office of the governor of Ruyigi. The demonstrators demanded the police to hand the presumed robbers to the inhabitants of Rangi for a people's justice.
Despite the presence of the interior minister, Mr Jean Kamana, the demonstrators have refused to go to bury the corpse of Léonidas Nzeyimana before the police allow them to render their own justice on the persons of five presumed robbers that the police caught on Wednesday. The listings that the presumed robbers carried are the cause of this demonstration. According to the listings, the presumed robbers planned to kill more than 40 people in Muyinga.
Yesterday, the family and relatives of the late Léonidas Nzeyimana exposed his body in the crossroads where the roads linking Ruyigi to Cankuzo and Gitega meet with the same claims. The administration and the police succeeded to convince the demonstrators to transport the body to the nearby morgue in order to preserve the honours of the deceased and the respect of morals of the Burundian society with regard to the dead.
This demonstration looks as a strong signal to the government that people can proceed with their own justice if the police and the judiciary continue to perpetuate impunity in a country that is struggling to recover peace after decades of civil conflicts.
Since the death of the ICF agent, Ms Agnès Bury, the province of Ruyigi has not fully recovered peace. Ambushes and armed robberies targeting businessmen and households have rather increased in this province. Regional and ethnic suspicions that erupted in the wake of the killing of the French aid worker have heightened the tensions. Currently, the investigations over the killing of Ms Agnès Bury which have embittered the situation are close to an end. In the meantime, according to sources the investigations that the French Embassy carried out have shown that the sole person who remains in prison in connection with the killing of Agnès Bury was on telephone communication at the time the French aid worker was shot dead.
Since the killing of the Chinese citizen in the city of Bujumbura last year, processions and demonstrations before burials have increased to call upon the conscience of the authorities of the country over the escalating violence that citizens are faced with. Despite protests, investigations to catch those bearing responsibility have been left unfinished.
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