Burundians Monday commemorated the 19th anniversary of the assassination of Burundi's first democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye, killed on Oct. 21, 1993, urging justice for the late president.

At the national level, ceremonies took place in the Burundian capital Bujumbura and were enhanced by Burundian top leaders including President Pierre Nkurunziza, his deputies, members of the Burundian government, diplomats accredited in Burundi and the family of the late president.

Ceremonies were marked by a church service at Regina Mundi Cathedral and then the laying of flowers at the tomb of the late president erected at the Palace on the Boulevard du 1er Novembre where he lived before being killed.

The vice-chairman of the Front pour la Democratie au Burundi (Sahwanya-FRODEBU) to which the Burundian late president belonged said that circumstances on the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye are not yet clear.

"The trial was set in a court right after his (Ndadaye's) assassination, but until now circumstances under his killing are not yet known," Sahwanya-FRODEBU's Vice-Chairman Frederic Bamvuginyumvira told Xinhua after his party laid flowers on the tomb of the late president.

Bamvuginyumvira said that the case is taking "too long", adding that nothing seems to be done to know the planners of the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye.

"In 1999, the judgment in Ndadaye's assassination case was issued but only small people accused to have killed him were condemned. The planners of the assassination of Ndadaye are still unknown," said Bamvuginyumvira.

The Burundian government however said the trial in the killing of the late president will be processed in the context of transitional justice mechanisms due to be set up before the end of 2012.

"The trial on the assassination of late Burundian President Melchior Ndadaye will be analyzed in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to be set up before the end of this year," Burundian Government Secretary General and Government Spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba told Xinhua.

Nzobonariba said, "His (Ndadaye's) assassination falls in the category of human catastrophes that took place in Burundi since the independence (1962) up to December 2008."

However, the Sahwanya-FRODEBU official has said, "Analyzing the trial of the assassination of Ndadaye in the TRC is unfair because planners of the assassination of Ndadaye are known. The government should just arrest them."

Burundian first democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye was killed on Oct. 21, 1993 along with some of his close collaborators from his party - the Sahwanya-FRODEBU - three months after the party's victory in the presidential and legislative elections held in June 1993.