
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 27, 1993                   TAG: 9311270026
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NAIROBI, KENYA                                LENGTH: Short

BURUNDI FEARS MORE VIOLENCE, DELAYS BURIAL

Burundi has postponed the burial of its first democratically elected president, fearing it could worsen ethnic violence that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Revenge killings between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups have plagued the central African nation since President Melchior Ndadaye was killed in an attempted coup Oct. 21.

Burial for Ndadaye, the nation's first Hutu leader, was put off until Dec. 6.

"It has turned into a civil war," Deputy Foreign Minister Leonce Ndarubagiye said Friday. "Today, if the Hutu die, the Tutsi also die. It's not a good thing, but it's a reality." Ndarubagiye, a Hutu, said soldiers killed his own father and more than two dozen relatives in three separate attacks on his home village this month.

The current bloodletting is the fourth time since independence from Belgium in 1962 that Burundi has been convulsed by ethnic slaughter. More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been killed in previous massacres - usually Hutus killed by the Tutsi-dominated military.

Relief officials estimate tens of thousands of people have been killed since the two groups turned on each other again last month. More than 700,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries to escape the carnage, with more arriving every day.

by CNB