MISNA
Burundi
10.03.00
It seems that authorities have arrested two of the assailants of Antonio Bargiggia, the consecrated layman killed this morning near Kibimba, around 70km from Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, while travelling in his car from Mutoyi to Bujumbura. The news was referred to the MISNA by humanitarian sources that will remain anonymous. The two arrested gunmen were brought to Bugarama (around 40km from Kibimba), the same area where the volunteer's car was found. Our sources explained that this morning Brother Antonio found a barricade on the road, possibly placed at the last moment. Behind the barricade were the four armed men, some in military uniform. One of them approached the car, put the barrel of his gun on the volunteer's cheek and fired. The other passenger, a Burundian friend of Brother Antonio named Mariko, managed to escape. The gunmen left the body lying face down on the road, removing his sandals and watch and took the car and abandoned it in Bugarama. Aside from being part of the "Friends of the Poor" religious association and being supported by the NGO VISPE (Italian volunteers solidarity emerging countries), in the last three years Brother Antonio was also director of the Buterere II project for the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Burundi. The volunteer had been in Burundi for 20 years. Initially he had lived in Mutoyi, where he had learned the Kirundi official language, while in the last nine years he had moved to Buterere, a poor neighbourhood in northern Bujumbura. (BO)