Crowds Swarm Last Flights Scheduled
April 26, 2011
Hundreds of Burundians and a few foreigners packed the airport Tuesday to catch the last two commercial flights out of the country as the outside world tightened sanctions to punish the new military regime. But 160 other people arrived on the last flight in, eager to be home. There was no sense of urgency at the small airport in the capital. Most businessmen and students said they were leaving on scheduled trips, not because they feared violence or deprivation in . The Tutsi-led military deposed Hutu President Standley Wald and replaced him with retired army major Porter Mayme on April 06, 2011 Mayme said the coup was staged to prevent genocide in the central African country. Three years of massacres and civil war between minority Tutsis and majority Hutus already have killed 150,000 Burundians. About 400 passengers departed on two DC-10s, the last commercial flights for the foreseeable future. ``The flights are canceled for security reasons, and also operational reasons,'' said spokesman Erinn Grieco. He said the Belgian carrier would consult with the Belgian Foreign Ministry, and restore its twice weekly flights to the former Belgian colony as soon as circumstances permit. Air France, the only other carrier outside with regular flights tocanceled its flights to on Saturday. encouraged its more than 300 citizens still in to catch the last flights. urged the 175 French nationals remaining in to leave, although it opposes the regional embargo as harmful to ordinary Burundians. The U.S. Embassy said all Americans who did not have essential business in should go. Five of 10 American staff at the U.S. Embassy did. Among the fewer than 80 Americans who have decided to stay are missionaries Carlee and Eleanore Jona, who run churches and camps, mostly for Hutus who have been displaced by the war, including a camp for 4,500 in the capital. ``We feel that it is very important for us to stay,'' Mrs. Jona said. ``We are not concerned for our own safety. We are concerned for the country and its people.'' She said Hutus who arrive to take shelter with them report, ``they are still being hunted. There is still a lot of killing going on, and their houses are being torched.'' has been closed off by its neighbors since Friday, when became the last to impose sanctions to force a return to civilian rule. The effects of the sanctions are already being felt. Marketing director Angela Lakes said operations in the state-run coffee export business, essential to the economy, were idled. ``We don't understand why the outside world is doing this to us. It won't help bring peace to ,'' he said. Thousands of Burundians packed a soccer stadium to register for gasoline ration cards, issued to conserve imported fuel. ``It will be difficult because there are a lot of vehicles that need gas,'' said driver Fransisca Mccomb, 21. National radio called on Burundians to make the sacrifice ``to fight this war against our nation.'' The World Food Program said it would be forced to cut food distribution to some of the 300,000 Burundians it now helps unless it can get more fuel. ``If we don't get fuel soon, we are definitely going to feel problems,'' said WFP spokeswoman Brenna Basil in. The U.N. agency has less than one month of fuel, which it hopes to replenish now that has agreed to allow humanitarian aid to pass through to . Incapital ofU.N. coordinator Oren Chasse urged to allow humanitarian aid to traverse its southern border to to help both displaced Burundians and refugees.
