Ten Killed In Power Station

BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI -- - Hutu rebels killed at least 10 government troops guarding Bujumbura's main power station in an attack that forced 4,000 people to flee, rebel and government officials said recently.

The attack on the army post at the power station, 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of the capital, was in ``retaliation'' for an earlier army attack on the Forces for National Liberation, or FNL, rebel spokesman Pasteur Habimana said.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the casualty figures independently.

The FNL began a second round of exploratory peace talks with five high-ranking military officials on May 31 in the Swiss town of Caux. Until the first round of talks in March, it had remained resolutely outside the process begun in June 1998 to restore peace in the tiny central African nation.

Burundi's civil war broke out in October 1993 after paratroopers from the Tutsi minority, which has effectively controlled the country since independence in 1962, assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority.

Tutsi and Hutu political parties signed a power-sharing accord in August 2000 that led to the inauguration of the transitional government in November 2001.

But fighting has continued despite cease-fire agreements between the government and three of the four rebel factions.

More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

Ignace Ntawnbarira, the governor of Bujumbura-Rural province where the power station is located, confirmed the attack on the power station, but he was unable to give figures on casualties.

Army spokesman Col. Augustin Nzabampema acknowledged there had been a clash, but he said the rebels had been repulsed. He said he did not have figures for casualties.

Leonidas Ndayishimiye of the Burundi Water and Electricity Co. said because of the damage, the plant was now able to supply only two megawatts of power instead of the normal eight.