Rebels in Burundi executed four farmers at the weekend and wounded two others in a marsh near the capital, a local government official told AFP on Sunday.
"A rebel group surrounded peasants who were sowing rice near Rukoko [about 20 kilometers northeast of Bujumbura] on Saturday and opened fire, wounding two people. They then took six men and a woman with them to Rukoko, where they had come from," said the official.
"We found the bodies of the four executed men, the two others are missing. The woman was found a little later. She had been molested.
The marshes of Rukoko, which lie along the Rusize River, the natural border between Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a haven for Hutu rebel groups launching incursions into Burundi.
Hutu rebels in Burundi have been fighting a Tutsi-minority regime and army since 1993, in a war that has claimed more than 200,000 lives.
The rebels have not been party to years of negotiations aimed at delivering a more equitable distribution of power between the country's Hutus and Tutsis -- BUJUMBURA (AFP)
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