By Prime Nidikumagengue BBC, Bujumbura

The army in Burundi has returned possessions that undisciplined soldiers looted last week during an operation in a suburb in the north-east of the capital Bujumbura.

The operation also left 10 civilians dead.

The move to return the looted property has been welcomed by locals but it has also been seen as proof that people in that part of the city had good reasons to distrust the army.

Mixed feelings

It has been a long exercise trying to identify one's belongings from a pile where the military had mixed up the objects that were looted from Taba, a location in the district of Kamenge, north-east of the capital, Bujumbura.

But the people were respectful of one another's property and did not take belongings that were not theirs.

Many, still, could not trace their possessions and asked the military authorities to continue the search in every area where they suspected the looters had hidden them.

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by the fighting

The chief of staff of the Burundian army oversaw the ceremony which the army hoped would be a sign that they were acting against those in their ranks who misbehaved.

The head of the battalion to which the misbehaving soldiers belonged, assured the people of Kamenge that investigations were underway to identify the authors of the exactions and all the objects that have been looted.

He said that two soldiers have so far been arrested and detained.

But the feeling among the people of Kamenge was mixed.

Those who retrieved their possessions expressed satisfaction, but those who did not were angry and helpless.

But more generally the people said that this was evidence that government troops could not be trusted.