DATE=7/20/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=MANDELA / BURUNDI (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264618
BYLINE=KATY SALMON
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Former South African President Nelson
Mandela is mediating another round of Burundi
peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania. As the talks
enter their second and final day, Katy Salmon
reports on the progress in negotiations to end
years of ethnic violence in Burundi.
TEXT: Nelson Mandela says there are two crucial
issues which need to be resolved before an
agreement can be reached to end Burundi's bloody
seven year civil war.
Nineteen Burundian delegations and six African
heads of state have been discussing Mr. Mandela's
draft peace proposal. The elderly anti-apartheid
campaigner says he is confident the accord will
be signed next month.
The key points of disagreement are over who
should lead a transitional government before
elections and whether there should be a cease-
fire before or after the signing of the peace
accord.
Mr. Mandela has injected new life into the peace
talks since he took over as mediator last
December. The former South African president says
it is for the Burundians themselves to decide on
these issues and then report back to him.
The latest round of violence in Burundi has
claimed more than 200-thousand lives and uprooted
over one million people. It 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.
Mr. Mandela has already scored a major success in
bringing the leader of Burundi's main rebel
group, the C-N-D-D, to the negotiating table for
the first time. He says this is an indication of
their commitment to peace. However, there is
disappointment that another rebel group, the F-N-
L, has not turned up at the talks.
Under Mr. Mandela's peace plan, the Tutsi
minority would hand over power to a
democratically elected government in three years
time. There would be safeguards to protect the
minority Tutsi, including a new upper house of
parliament, split 50-50 along ethnic lines, and
an ethnically balanced army.
Burundian President Pierre Buyoya is under heavy
pressure from Mr. Mandela and other African
leaders to compromise. Mr. Buyoya is insisting
that he lead any transitional government. But
Hutu parties say they will not accept a
government led by the former army officer or any
of his cabinet. (Signed)
NEB/KS/GE/PW
20-Jul-2000 08:19 AM EDT (20-Jul-2000 1219 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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