DATE=2/6/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI TALKS L-O
NUMBER=2-258867
BYLINE=TODD PITMAN
DATELINE=BUJUMBURA
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Burundi President Pierre Buyoya is consulting
with former South African President Nelson Mandela,
the mediator of the Burundi crisis. Reporter Todd
Pitman has more on the story from Bujumbura.
TEXT: Officials say President Buyoya flew (Sunday) to
Capetown at the invitation of Mr. Mandela. A new
round of peace talks is due to begin February 21st in
the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.
President Buyoya said, before departing, that he would
appeal to Mr. Mandela to work for a cessation of
hostilities and invite the former South African
president to visit Burundi.
More than 200-thousand people, mostly civilians, have
been killed since 1993 in the central African nation
during a war pitting Hutu rebels against the country's
Tutsi-dominated army.
Opposition politicians say Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye
(Pron: n-dye-kingeroo-key-ay), who heads the main
armed rebel movement, the C-N-D-D-F-D-D, was also in
Capetown and it is likely the two would meet during
the visit. The rebel group has been excluded from the
peace talks, but was invited by Mr. Mandela to
participate in the next round.
Peace talks between the warring parties have done
little to stop fighting on the ground since they
started in June 1998. Mr. Mandela took over as
mediator from Tanzania's late founding President
Julius Nyerere, who died in October.
Politicians in Burundi say the two most controversial
issues at the peace talks are the proposed integration
of rebels into the army, and a proposal to grant
amnesty to those who have committed crimes during the
war. (SIGNED)
NEB/TP/RAE
06-Feb-2000 10:42 AM EDT (06-Feb-2000 1542 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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