BURUNDI'S new Tutsi military ruler Major Pierre Buyoya met East African leaders yesterday to seek support before a regional summit on the crisis in Burundi, where another ethnic genocide is feared.
Officials said Major Buyoya met the Ugandan president, Mr Yoweri Museveni, in Kampala before heading to Butiama in Tanzania, where he met the internationally backed mediator, Mr Julius Nyerere.
Tanzanian officials said Major Buyoya is also expected to visit Arusha, to meet the Tanzanian president, Mr Benjamin Mkapa, who is hosting a regional summit today to decide on a plan of action after Major Buyoya's coup last week.
Mr Nyerere said he feared the country was in danger of becoming another Rwanda, where up to a million Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered in 1994.
Major Buyoya has not been invited to the regional summit and according to the state run Burundi radio, yesterday's meetings were "to explain the reasons why he took power".
Mr Museveni's media adviser, Mr John Nagenda, said Major Buyoya met the Ugandan president to explain his position, but did not go to Kampala as president of Burundi. "He came here as a leader of a strong faction," Mr Nagenda said.
"Mr Museveni has said everyone who can play a part in bringing peace to Burundi should be given an ear. It is in that spirit that Major Buyoya came here," he added.
Major Buyoya, who says he is more of a democrat than his rivals, has been on a diplomatic offensive since the army deposed of the Hutu President, Mr Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, but mainstream Hutus, have ignored him and rebels continue to fight.
Mr Nagenda said Mr Museveni told a delegation from Major Buyoya last weekend that regional leaders expected Burundi's new rulers to stick to a June 25th agreement that included a request by Mr Ntibantunganya for "security assistance" for Burundi.
The agreement led to planning for troops to be sent from Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, but Major Buyoya rejected any foreign military intervention in Burundi.
The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Secretary General, Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, who will attend the Arusha summit, says Major Buyoya has underestimated the resolve of regional leaders to oust him.
Mr Salim branded the military junta as "totally illegal" and said the 53 member OAU still regarded Mr Ntibantunganya, as the president of Burundi.
Some 150,000 people have died in three years of civil war and massacres between Hutus, who are about 85 per cent of Burundi's population and Tutsis, who dominate the military.
The UN Security Council condemned the actions that led to the coup and urged the restoration of constitutional government. But it failed to condemn the coup itself.
A carefully worded statement read at a brief formal meeting warned against violence and called for national reconciliation.