A SPOKESMAN for Burundi's new military ruler yesterday rejected an Amnesty International report that more than 6,000 people were killed by the army in the three weeks after the July 25th coup.
In a statement, the London based human rights group said human rights in Burundi were deteriorating despite promises by the Tutsi military ruler, Maj Pierre Buyoya, to end killings.
"Amnesty International is either completely misguided or is falling into propaganda. I am positive they are misinformed and that these numbers are outrageous," said Mr Buyoya's spokesman, Mr Jean Luc Ndizeye.
"You cannot have this number of people killed in such a short time in Burundi without there being a civil outcry."
Amnesty said more than 6,000 people were reported to have been killed by the Tutsi dominated army in various parts of Burundi.
It said it had learned that at least 4,050 unarmed civilians were buried after being extra judicially executed between July 27th and August 10th by government forces in Giheta district in the central province of Gitega.
At a news conference before the Amnesty statement, Mr Buyoya said he opposed killings, but that they could not be expected simply to cease overnight after he had taken power.
"Just because there was a change on July 25th, it doesn't mean that all the activities of war or the massacres will stop. We are in the process of putting in place the building blocks so that security can return and massacres can stop," he said.
More than 150,000 people - mainly civilians - have been killed in Burundi since 1993 in massacres and civil war between the Tutsi dominated army and rebels of the Hutu majority.
The UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, in a report to the Security Council this week, recommended that a 50,000 strong force be assembled to intervene if Burundi plunged into genocide, as happened in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994, when up to a million people died.
Amnesty said that expulsions of Rwandan refugees were continuing despite Mr Buyoya's promises to halt them, and that troops were using torture and killings to frighten Rwandans into leaving.
David Sholdice adds: Trocaire the Irish development agency, says it has received a message from bishops in Burundi saying the population there has "developed behaviour patterns which are not human like."
The agency has issued a position paper on the situation in the central African country, which had been subject to sanctions since a coup last month.
The paper calls for an integrated and comprehensive peace plan, to include a ceasefire, an embargo on arms shipments, security assistance and a comprehensive aid package, by the end of next month, such initiatives to be integrated with the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and that a regional summit be held as soon as possible.