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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
BURUNDI: Regional body to decide date of ceasefire agreement
BUJUMBURA, 3 August 2006 (IRIN) - Negotiations between the Burundian government and the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) are proceeding smoothly and it will be up to the head of the peace initiative to decide when the ceasefire agreement should be signed, the mediator of the talks has said.
"I am now going to Kampala [capital of Uganda] to meet President Yoweri Museveni and report to him on the peace talks," Charles Nqakula, the mediator, said on Wednesday at the end of a two-day visit to Burundi.
"President Museveni, as chairperson of the regional initiative on Burundi, will decide when to call the regional summit for the signing of a ceasefire deal between the government and the FNL wing," Nqakula added. The FNL wing to which he referred to led by Agathon Rwasa.
During his visit, Nqakula held talks with Burundi’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza, on the cantonment of FNL fighters.
However, the two did not disclose details of when and where sites to host FNL combatants would be installed. The strongholds of the FNL faction holding ceasefire talks with the government in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, are in the provinces of Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza, both near Bujumbura.
Rwasa's FNL is the only rebel group still outside Burundi's government. Several other rebel groups joined the government institutions after signing peace agreements with the transitional government. The country's transitional period ended in August 2005 with the election of Nkurunziza, himself a former rebel leader whose group is now the ruling party.
Apart from frequent attacks by FNL in Bujumbura Rural and Bubanza, the rest of the country has been largely peaceful since the elections after 13 years of civil war, which pitted the minority Tutsi-dominated army against the various rebel groups, headed by the majority Hutus.
Nqakula said: "The negotiations are going smoothly; the delegates are identifying the cantonment and assembly sites aimed at hosting FNL combatants before their integration into the national defence forces."
He said he met Nkurunziza to discuss the progress made in the Dar es Salaam negotiations. He added that the delegates were discussing how the movement of people would be monitored for their security.
Nqakula also said he had twice met delegates from a breakaway FNL faction, one led by Jean Bosco Sindayigaya, who in January announced that his group would lay down its arms. Nqakula described their talks as satisfactory.
On 18 June, Rwasa's FNL and the government reached a temporary peace agreement and set a self-imposed two-week deadline to finalise it and pave the way for formal ceasefire negotiations. However, the ceasefire was delayed, with the FNL maintaining that the army should be disbanded before FNL fighters are integrated into a new army. The government has remained adamant on this point, saying the composition of the army was based on an August 2000 agreement when the transition programme to democratic rule was established. This agreement allowed for a 50-50 Hutu-Tutsi composition of the army.
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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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