Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Thu 11 Nov 2002More guns than roses in Burundi's brutal, apparently unwinnable war, and little hope of a breakthroughThe air may be filled with talk of peace negotiations, but fighting has intensified and the transitional government looks fragile, Declan Walsh reports from BujumburaThe red roses sprout in neat rows on a picturesque hillside above the city. From there, the scented stems are shipped to Amsterdam, where they are sold to European romantics as tokens of love. Little do they know that the place they come from is one of violent hate.