Burundi police unearth arms cache ahead of polls

BUJUMBURA, July 22, 2010 - Police in Burundi said Thursday they had unearthed an arms trafficking ring after a shootout with gang members in the capital Bujumbura.

Regional police commander David Nikiza said two people arrested after the gunfight on Wednesday led them to a depot near Lake Tanganyika in the east of the country where they found guns, grenades, army uniforms and several utensils.

"These criminals said they were going to supply a rebel group led by a Tutsi man called Bosco who operates from the Rukoko marsh," Nikiza said.

The Rukoko marsh near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo was a rear base of Burundi's National Liberation Forces (FNL) rebels who signed a peace deal and joined the government last year.

"Security forces are at the moment trying to verify if all this is true," Nikiza added.

The FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, who was seen as a key challenger to President Pierre Nkurunziza in a marathon electoral process that kicked off in May, went into hiding last month, sparking fears of renewed violence in the war-scarred central African nation.

The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections, on the grounds that there was massive fraud in the opening local council polls.

On Friday, Burundians will vote in legislative elections, the last major step in the series of polls that have been marred by vote-rigging allegations, violence and arrests.