BUJUMBURA, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The Burundian government on Saturday condemned the killing of three members of the ruling party youth's league.
"The Burundian government is too saddened by the barbaric killing that happened at Gikoto in Musaga neighborhood and that took the life of three Imbonerakure young men of the ruling party while three other people were injured," said the government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba in a statement.
According to the statement, the attack happened at a time when there is a media campaign "at the service" of some foreign non-governmental organizations that supported the insurrectional movement and coup plotters in 2015.
Nzobonariba said during the insurrectional movement, sympathizers of the government, especially the ruling party's youth league were victims of a "dehumanization" campaign that prepared them to become "legal victims" of massacres that would follow the failed coup plot of May 13, 2015.
In the statement, the east African country also condemned the "cynic behavior" of the France-based France 24 television station that reported that the killing of Imbonerakure was a "deserved" punishment.
"The Burundian government condemns the involvement of foreign media and their hatred in the countr's crisis. If we closely analyze the role of France 24 television channel in destabilizing Burundi since 2013, with the story of a fictional rebel group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), it is a continuation of that medium to destabilize Burundi," Nzobonariba said.
He further added that France 24 television channel played an amplification role in the insurrectional movement of 2015 in Cibitoke, Mutakura, Musaga and Nyakabiga neighborhoods in the country's capital Bujumbura by creating "simulation scenes of violence."
"We urge the France 24 television channel and its reporters to abstain from provocation and to show more responsibility in their reporting," Nzobonariba said.
The Burundian government also called on youths affiliated to political parties to avoid revenge and urged the country's citizens to remain united.
On Wednesday night three members of the ruling party's youth wing Imbonerakure were killed and three others injured in a grenade explosion at Gikoto in Musaga, south of the Burundian capital Bujumbura.
The head of the Imbonerakure youth's league in Musaga, Audifax Ndayizeye, was among the three killed.
Four suspects were arrested right after the attack and the fifth suspect, a Rwandan national, was arrested on Thursday morning.
Burundi plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run his third term.
More than 500 people in Burundi have been killed and over 400,000 people fled to neighboring countries, mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis.
