Tutsi-led coup installs former president amid threat of war

Gunfire and grenades yesterday sounded around Bujumbura, capital of the central African state of Burundi, in the wake of a military coup. The country has been teetering on the brink of chaos since the President went into hiding and the government began to disintegrate this week.

Now that the Tutsi-led army has installed a new regime, the spectre of ethnic conflict looms ever larger over Burundi.

Amid growing panic yesterday afternoon, the Defence Minister, Firmin Sinzoyiheba, announced that the army was installing former President Pierre Buyoya in the office of President.

The streets were all but deserted as armoured personnel carriers and troop transporters raced about the city. All roads into Bujumbura were sealed off and inhabitants were ordered to go indoors. The television and radio station was occupied by the military, while outgoing telephone communications were blocked.

A member of the Hutu community, returning on the last flight into the capital, said: "I'm going back to my death."

Belgium, the former colonial power, has put paratroopers on standby to evacuate the hundreds of Belgian citizens living in the capital.

Earlier in the day the United Nations, which has been stressing the urgency of foreign intervention in the Burundian crisis, ordered all non-essential UN personnel to leave the stricken country.

The Defence Minister came on the radio to say that the decision had been taken because of the grave unrest countrywide.

"In consideration of the fact that President Ntibantunganya has effectively resigned, in consideration of the genocide prevailing in the country and given that no solution has been found among the politicians," said the Defence Minister, "the army has decided to introduce the new measures."

The parliament and all political parties have been dissolved. Demonstrations and strikes have been made illegal. The airport and borders have been closed. The capital is now subject to a curfew from 7pm to 5am. No time limit has been put on these strictures.

"Those who break the law," said the Defence Minister, "will be punished very severely."

Mr Buyoya is a member of the Tutsi minority. He was President of Burundi from 1987 until 1993, when he lost the country's first multi-party elections to Melchior Ndadaye from the Hutu majority. In October 1993, within months of the largely Hutu Frodebu party winning the poll, Burundi's first freely elected Hutu president was assassinated. The Tutsi-led military coup was a failure, but more than 50,000 people were slaughtered in the fighting which followed. Since then Burundi has been sunk in a mire of ethnic conflict which threatens to engulf the country in genocide and civil war similar to that which caused the death of up to 1 million people in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994.

Hundreds of people are being killed every month in ethnic fighting, some by Hutu rebels, others by Tutsi extremists. Following last weekend's massacre at Bugendena in central Burundi, another massacre of Tutsis by Hutu rebels has been reported at Rumonge, 40 miles south of the capital. The number of casualties is unknown.

Repeated calls by the UN for a peace-keeping force to be deployed in Burundi have gone unanswered by the international community.

A regional security initiative, agreed by the country's leaders at a summit in Tanzania last month, was stalled by the government that has just been overthrown.

President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya has not yet emerged from the US ambassador's residence, where he sought sanctuary with his wife on Tuesday evening. The Hutu President fled to the diplomat's villa along with his wife. Mr Ntibantunganya was nearly lynched on Tuesday afternoon at the funeral of 350 members of the minority Tutsi community massacred by Hutu extremists last weekend.

There were rumours that the President was about to seek asylum in neighbouring Tanzania. But a US embassy spokesperson confirmed yesterday that Mr Ntibantunganya was still in the capital and would remain in the ambassador's residence for the time being. The US has repeatedly warned the Tutsi-dominated army that it will not tolerate a coup in Burundi, and will not recognise any regime installed by force.

Before the coup, Hutu ministers in the doomed government sought sanctuary in European embassies in the capital. The Speaker of Parliament, Leonce Nyendakumana, and the Foreign Minister, Venerand Bakevyumusaya, are understood to be in the German embassy. The Minister of Finance, Salvator Toyi, is in hiding at the residence of the European Commission's head of delegation.

The Belgian embassy has received Mrs Ndadaye, widow of the assassinated president. The president of the Frodebu party, Jean Minani, has fled to Kenya.

President Ntibantunganya had told his American host that he wished to remain in office, and in the last few days he has been pleading with the military not to intervene.

However, by yesterday, as he failed to come out of hiding, his position had clearly become untenable.