A journalist for a private Burundi radio station was beaten up overnight by members of the ruling party's youth wing militia, the head of the station told AFP Wednesday.
The incident took place in Bubanza province, said Eric Manirakiza, the head of African Public Radio (RPA), a station the authorities often accuse of having links to the opposition.
"Our reporter in Bubanza, Eloge Niyonzima, was attacked by around 10 Imbonerakure [name of the ruling party youth wing] who beat him with clubs and left him with wounds to the head and the back," Manirakiza said.
The ruling party youth wing numbers several thousand supporters, spread out across the tiny central African country. Increasingly they carry out patrols at night and get involved in police operations.
Medical officials in Bubanza, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the capital Bujumbura, said Niyonzima required several stitches on his head.
Local officials, ruling party officials and the police all declined to comment Wednesday evening.
"This incident provides proof of what civil society groups and the media have been saying for a long time: that there is a government militia in this country," Manirakiza said, calling for the group to be dismantled.
The incident comes at a time when relations between Burundi's ruling party and its independent media are particularly strained following the sentencing of Hassan Ruvakuki, the Swahili service correspondent for French radio station RFI, to life in prison for "terrorism".
Source: AFP
