Burundi policeman suspected of planning to kill opposition leader
A plain clothes policeman was arrested in Burundi on Saturday after what appeared to be an attempt to assassinate a prominent opposition leader in the central African nation, officials said.
The man was held after being spotted acting suspiciously around a bar where Charles Nditije, a leader of an opposition faction of the Uprona party, was meeting with aides.
"This man was trying to find out where I was and seemed suspicious. The police responsible for my security managed to subdue him after a struggle and found a pistol," Nditije told reporters after the Saturday evening incident.
He said the man had admitted to "being on a mission to assassinate me, without saying who had sent him."
But Nditije said he believed there was "no coincidence" that the incident occurred the day before he was scheduled to hold a party meeting that "the interior ministry wants to prevent at all costs".
"This is shameful for Burundi, because nowadays opponents are imprisoned, exiled or assassinated," he said.
Burundi's deputy police director, General Godefroid Bizimana, confirmed the suspect was a police officer and that he was being held and interrogated. A police source also confirmed the suspect was working in a special protection unit of the force.
Uprona, Burundi's main Tutsi party, pulled out of the governing coalition led by President Pierre Nkurunziza's ruling Hutu-majority CNDD-FDD party earlier this year.
The pull-out upset a delicate power-sharing arrangement between Burundi's majority Hutu and minority Tutsi communities, who are still struggling to reconcile after decades of conflict.
The ruling CNDD-FDD party had been accused of trying to force out Nditije as Uprona party chairman ahead of elections scheduled for 2015, and replace him with a sympathiser.
The party is now officially led by a pro-government figure put in place by the interior ministry, but Nditije has been challenging the change in leadership.
Burundi has been hit by mounting tensions including a rise in political violence ahead of next year's elections, when President Nkurunziza is expected to seek a third term that opponents say is unconstitutional.
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