Burundian denies assassination role

KIGALI, Rwanda — Pierre Buyoya, Burundi’s former president, on Sunday dismissed as politically motivated an arrest warrant issued against him that alleges participation in the assassination of his country’s first democratically elected leader.

On Friday, Burundi’s attorney general issued 17 international arrest warrants for Buyoya and former senior military and civilian officials suspected of involvement in the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993.

Attorney General Sylvestre Nyandwi said the suspects were involved in the planning and killing of Ndadaye. His death sparked a civil war between the East African nation’s two dominant ethnic groups, the Hutu and Tutsi, in which an estimated 300,000 people died.

Buyoya, a Tutsi who came to power in 1987 with the help of Burundi’s army, ruled Burundi from 1987 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2005 and has repeatedly denied any role in the killing.

“Everything they are saying is political manipulation,” Buyoya said in a statement issued Sunday. He said the arrest warrant against him is an attempt to divert attention from Burundi’s ongoing crisis that the current leadership has failed to resolve.

He said in his statement that Burundi’s courts have already convicted the officers who played a role in the killing of Ndadaye.

Burundi remains in political turmoil over current President Pierre Nkurunziza’s election to a third term, which many criticize as illegal.