DATE=7/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MANDELA / BURUNDI (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264575
BYLINE=KATY SALMON
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Former South African President Nelson Mandela
is opening another round of Burundi peace talks. Katy
Salmon in Nairobi reports Mr. Mandela is meeting in
Arusha, Tanzania with leaders of several African
nations to discuss ways to end years of ethnic
violence in Burundi.
TEXT: The African leaders are discussing Mr.
Mandela's draft peace proposal for Burundi. The 100-
page document is designed to bring an end to the
bloodshed which has already claimed 200-thousand lives
in the central African country.
Mr. Mandela has injected new life into the peace talks
since he took over as mediator last December. His
biggest achievement so far is bringing the leader of
Burundi's main rebel group to the negotiating table
for the first time.
Other rebels have taken part in the talks, but not
the main group which is responsible for most of the
fighting against Burundi's army.
The latest violence in Burundi began in 1993 when
troops from the country's ethnic Tutsi minority
murdered the country's first democratically elected
president, an ethnic Hutu.
Hutu are a majority in Burundi, but Tutsi have
dominated the government, the army, and the economy
since independence from Belgium in 1962.
The violence has uprooted more than one-million of
Burundi's six-million people. Some are refugees.
Others have been forced into so-called "regroupment"
camps inside the country.
A Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday called
the camps "squalid." It said people are living in
makeshift shelters, often without water. Mainly-Hutu
families are prevented from cultivating their fields
and are forced to depend on international food
donations.
Burundi's military government promised Mr. Mandela
that it would close the camps. But Human Rights Watch
says that promise has not yet been fulfilled.
Mr. Mandela is attempting to deal with the key issues
which divide Burundi's two ethnic groups, including
the composition of the army and who should lead a
transition period before elections are held.
Mr. Mandela originally hoped his peace deal would be
signed at this summit. He has now delayed it until
late August, although many observers believe that too
is overly optimistic.
/// OPT /// There are 19 Burundian political parties
and interest groups involved in the talks. They are
still divided on fundamental issues and few are
showing much sign of compromise.
For example, Mr. Mandela is calling for an amnesty for
Hutu "political prisoners," but the Tutsi-dominated
government says Tutsis will never be safe if what it
calls the "genocidal killers" are freed. /// END OPT
///
A cease-fire also has yet to be accepted. Rebels want
the government to share power. The army says it wants
Hutu rebel attacks against civilians to end before it
signs anything. (SIGNED)
NEB/KS/JWH/KBK
19-Jul-2000 09:21 AM EDT (19-Jul-2000 1321 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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