For those who dont know what "Necklacing" means, it is when a tyre from a motor car is placed around the persons body and they are doused with petrol and set alight and left to burn to death. It is one of the worst ways of dying. This is practiced in South Africa as well by kangaroo courts and vigilantes.

Alleged thieves burned alive in Burundi

February 15 2005 at 04:50PM

Bujumbura - Two suspected motorcycle taxi thieves were burned alive and killed on Tuesday in a busy section of the Burundian capital, witnesses said.

The two men, alleged to have recently stolen a motorbike in Bujumbura, were chased down by dozens of enraged motorcycle taxi drivers who then "necklaced" them the witnesses told reporters.

"We have just finished off these two robbers as an example," one of the drivers who participated said. "These motorbike thieves must stop."

The driver, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said that motorbike robberies had become increasingly common and more frequently deadly for motorcycle taxi operators who have little protection against crime.

"Thieves have already killed several of us and nothing has been done to stop these criminals," he said.

At least nine motorcycle taxi drivers have been killed in the past year while working in Bujumbura, according to an informal survey of operators.

However, Burundi's main human rights advocacy group, Iteka, did not share the drivers' satisfaction with the killings, particularly in a country that is still emerging from a brutal 11-year civil war.

"We condemn these acts of vigilante justice which have been increasing lately and we ask the authorities to put an end to it by arresting and prosecuting the people responsible for what happened this morning," said Joseph Mujiji, an Iteka official.

Two people were killed in similar circumstance by motorcycle taxi drivers on January 21 in Burundi's northern province of Ngozi, according to Iteka, which said at least 11 people have been killed by vigilantes in the past three months. - Sapa-AFP