FRODEBU suspends its chairman

Burundi's main Hutu party, FRODEBU, suspended its leader for six months on Sunday because the party had lost recent communal and senatorial elections to the main rebel group, Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD). In a statement issued on Sunday, FRODEBU said 70 of the party's 110 management committee members - among them transition President Domitien Ndayizeye - blamed party Chairman Jean Minani for the electoral losses. The party also accused Minani of corruption. However, Minani refused to accept his suspension; saying he had already sacked those behind the move against him. They included his successor as party secretary-general, Leonce Ngendakumana, Ndayizeye and several other senior FRODEBU officials. FRODEBU spokesman Mutabazi Jean de Dieu confirmed the party in-fighting but declined to comment further. FRODEBU's troubles have surfaced just days before the CNDD-FDD takes over the government at the end of a democratic transition that is supposed to end 12 years of civil war.