BURUNDI: UN envoy makes plea to FNL rebels

BUJUMBURA, 4 Mar 2005 (IRIN) - The special representative of the UN Secretary-General to Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, has appealed to the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), the only rebel group that is still fighting, to continue observing a truce as they did on Monday during the constitutional referendum.

Praising the calm prevailing across the country, McAskie also urged Burundi's new national army to take into account the FNL's attitude and to refrain from any act that could endanger civilians.

She was speaking in the capital, Bujumbura, when she opened the 26th session of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord, under which, Burundi's transitional government was set up.

McAskie, who is also the head of the UN Mission in the country, known as ONUB, said she was pleased with Burundians' approval of a new constitution "in discipline, order and peace" during the voting on Monday.

The "exemplary attitude" of Burundians during the referendum "can surely encourage donors to further contribute to the well being of Burundians," she said.

She expressed hope that two key documents on communes and the electoral code, in Burundi's transition, would be adopted in the coming days. The two issues were also on the agenda of the IMC meeting, and the committee members analysed both draft laws.

Despite McAskie's call for peace, three people were killed on Tuesday and property looted in Musaga neighbourhood, south of Bujumbura, in an attack army spokesman, Maj Adolphe Manirakiza, attributed to the FNL.

FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said the FNL had attacked the army in retaliation.

He said the FNL promoted "social dialogue" between all ethnic components in the country in order to achieve power-sharing on political and economic levels.

[ENDS]