Burundi ex-Rebel Dismisses Refugee Massacre Allegation

A Burundi ex-rebel chief who returned from the bush in a bid to re-enter politics dismissed Thursday allegations he ordered the massacre of refugees nine years ago.

Refugees in Burundi from Democratic Republic of Congo have lodged a complaint against Agathon Rwasa for his alleged role in a 2004 refugee camp massacre of some 160 Congolese Tutsis in Gatumba, to the west of the Burundi capital Bujumbura.

Rwasa, who re-emerged from the bush earlier this month, rejected the complaint as "set-up" to keep him out of politics.

The refugees accuse Rwasa, leader of the ex-rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) and his then spokesman Pasteur Habimana of having ordered "genocide" and "looting" in Gatumba camp on August 13, 2004.

The complaint, signed by the chiefs of the Congolese Tutsi community in Burundi, was filed on August 13 with Burundi's chief prosecutor.

Both the chiefs and the prosecutor's office refused to talk to Agence France Presse, but in support of their complaint the chiefs cited radio interviews by Habimana the day after the massacre "claiming responsibility for the crime".

Several sources at the time said that Congolese and Rwandan Hutu rebels were alongside the FNL attackers.

But Rwasa denied any involvement in the Gatumba massacre and said the complaint would be better directed at the person who claimed responsibility for the attack.

Habimana, now an arch-rival of his former boss, also denied any involvement, claiming he had been "impersonated" in the radio interviews back in 2004.

The FNL, which under Rwasa became a highly disciplined group notorious for singing hymns as they carried out their attacks, signed a peace accord in 2006 with the Burundi authorities, and Rwasa returned to Bujumbura.

He went back to the bush in 2010 after pulling his party out of elections held in June of that year in protest at fraud.