Burundi police raid opposition spokesman's home

BUJUMBURA, Aug 22 (Reuters) Police in Burundi raided the home of a senior opposition politician today who had accused the central African country's government of being behind a string of grenade attacks at the weekend.

The police gave no details of their interest in Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesman of the main Hutu opposition party FRODEBU, but vowed to arrest him if he had subverted state security.

''We executed the order of the public prosecutor who sent us to search his house,'' said police spokesman Pierre Chanelle Ntarabaganyi said. ''We will arrest him in case we find anything that could compromise state security.'' Burundi is struggling to emerge from more than a decade of civil war that killed 300,000 people.

Witnesses said scores of officers surrounded the opposition official's house in the capital Bujumbura early today, then forced their way inside after failing to find him at home.

Cimpaye had accused the government of being behind grenade attacks on Sunday that were aimed at properties belonging to five politicians opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Three people were wounded in the blasts but none of the apparent targets, who included a member of the ruling CNDD-FDD party and the deputy chairman of FRODEBU, were hurt.

Four of the apparent targets were among 69 members of parliament and senators who called on Nkurunziza last week to form a new national unity government after his CNDD-FDD party lost its majority in parliament last month.

Later today, the European Union expressed concern about Burundi's recent woes.

''We are very concerned about the renewed violence, but we would like also to express our deep concern about the current political crisis,'' said the EU special envoy to Africa's Great Lakes region, Roeland Van de Geer.

''We would like to underline the need for the government and political parties to resolve this crisis as soon as possible,'' he told a news conference.

The EU is a major donor of development aid to Burundi.

REUTERS CS BST0104