The project
Trials & Detainees
Kinyarwandan
French
Burundi peace talks 1999 | JUNE 25th, 2000
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BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
UN EXPERTS SAY BURUNDI PEACE PROCESS MUST NOT IGNORE WOMEN
Arusha, June 25th, 2000 (FH) - Heads of Burundi peace delegations have welcomed advice from a United Nations expert team on how women's rights should be considered within their peace negotiations, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. They have each agreed to nominate two women delegates to attend an upcoming conference on the issue, expected to be held in Arusha in the next three to four weeks.
"I think that one of Burundi's problems is that very few women are involved in politics," Jean Minani, head of the FRODEBU opposition party told a press conference on Saturday. "Perhaps they would be more sensitive to Burundi's problems than us men, and we must encourage them."
Minani was reacting to an address by a high-level expert group from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), who on Friday urged negotiators to integrate women's issues into their hoped-for peace agreement and involve Burundi women as much as possible in its implementation. The team was composed of leading women from South Africa, Uganda and Guatemala, two technical experts from UNIFEM and Eritrea's Attorney General, the only male member.
Jennifer Klot, Senior Governance Advisor at UNIFEM in New York, told Hirondelle that the expert group had been invited by the Facilitation team for the Burundi peace talks, led by former South African president Nelson Mandela. The peace talks have dragged on for two years, with violence continuing on the ground, but the Facilitation says it now hopes to present a draft peace agreement in July.
"The delegations are shouldering a big responsibility to their country," said South Africa's deputy parliamentary speaker Baleka Mbete. "They are defining the destiny of their country and they cannot exclude half the population."
Members of the UNIFEM team and Burundian peace delegates expressed regret that women's issues had been highlighted in this way only towards the end of the negotiating process. Léonard Nyangoma, leader of the Hutu rebel group CNDD, said he wished the UNIFEM group had "come earlier and stayed longer". However, he said he thought the team's advice had served as a "big consciousness-raising exercise" and that it would have an impact on Burundian politicians.
Nyangoma said that Burundi's agricultural workforce was composed, for example, of some 80% women, but that agronomy experts graduating from universities were mostly men. He said education of women must be a priority and that Burundi men would have to accept the presence of women in parliament and other institutions.
"It is a shame," FRODEBU president Minani told the UNIFEM team, "that Burundi women were not here in big numbers to follow your example, ladies", and he promised that "we have capable ladies within our ranks, and there will be women in the transitional government."
Laketch Dirasse, UNIFEM's Central and Horn of Africa director, explained that UNIFEM has been working with women in Burundi since 1994, bringing to the fore women refugees and victims of violence. She said UNIFEM had also been assisting the first group of seven women given observer status at the Burundi peace talks in Arusha.
"You need to understand the nature of conflict," Ugandan MP Winnie Byanyima told Hirondelle. "What I observed about the men here in the negotiations is that the ethnic conflict
has drawn all their energy and they are so focussed on the question of ethnic exclusion, such that they have not had the opportunity to reflect about other forms of exclusion and mechanisms for inclusion. So when we talked to them it was like 'YES, it is a problem, but we have not been addressing it!'
"There was that recognition," she continued. "And it's quite understandable, because it has been a very tense conflict. Once that recognition is there and Burundi women are there to remind them constantly, look, this is possible, I can see that they will be able to take their attention away from just ethnicity and look at exclusion of women, exclusion of disabled people. They must have a lot of disabled people [...] So I see that this was like a wake-up call to them. We couldn't expect them to get into the nitty-gritty of how to include them. But Burundi women will take the process further and further and further.
JC/FH (BU%0625e)
|
24th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
PRO-HUTU PARTIES WANT TO LEAD BURUNDI'S TRANSITION
Arusha, June 24th, 2000 (FH) - Pro-Hutu parties taking part in peace talks for Burundi say the person chosen to lead the transition should come from their ranks, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. At a press conference in Arusha on Saturday, the so-called group of seven (G7) firmly rejected any idea that the transition could be led by Burundi's current Tutsi president Pierre Buyoya.
"There is a rumour running around, saying that President Buyoya is the only person who could lead the transition in Burundi," Liberal Party (PL) president Gaëtan Nikobamye told journalists. "That idea is an aberration, and our response is to say NO!"
The G7 is composed of the leading opposition party FRODEBU, its allies the PL, PP and RPB, and rebel groups CNDD, FROLINA and PALIPEHUTU.
In a statement, the parties said they should assume the leadership of the transition because of their "wide representativeness among the population". Hutus make up some 85% of the population in Burundi, compared with only 14-15% Tutsis.
Nikobamye said it was "imperative for Burundi to change its leader" for three reasons. First, he said, the current régime was pretending to compromise, while at the same time manoeuvring to undermine the peace process. Second, it was maintaining "concentration camps" [regroupment camps for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army], and third, it was refusing to release political prisoners.
"How can Buyoya claim to lead a population that he does not listen to?" said FRODEBU president Jean Minani, adding that "if Buyoya does not meet the expectations of the Burundi people", they should rise up against him, and that "the G7 will be with the people to back this revolt."
Former South African president Nelson Mandela, who is mediating the talks, recently obtained agreement from Buyoya that the regroupment camps should be closed by July 31st, and that the mainly Tutsi army should be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis. Mandela has so far failed, however, to obtain any concessions on the issue of political prisoners.
G7 wants 60% Hutus in army
Mandela suggested that pro-Hutu parties, including the rebels, had agreed to the 50-50 principle on army integration. However, the G7 statement says that the new army should be composed 60% of "the current armed forces of armed movements and parties" and 40% from the current government army.
"Other Burundian citizens wanting to join the army could enter through recruitment," says the G7. "So as to ensure the necessary balance, recruitment should be done on a proportional basis, at commune level for ordinary soldiers and at provincial level for officers and sub-officers."
"The imbalances we want to correct are not only ethnic but also, and especially political," CNDD leader Léonard Nyangoma told the press conference. He made it clear that, according to him, members of the army all belonged to Buyoya's former single party UPRONA. "It was me who once distributed their party cards to them, " said Nyangoma, "and no-one has given them back."
Asked about government arguments that inviting foreign peacekeepers would be a breach of national sovereignty, Nyangoma said that "Burundi's sovereignty has already been violated by those who assassinated the country's democratically elected president in October 1993 and got rid of the democratically elected institutions."
He said Burundi would not be the first country to ask for a foreign force to help implement a peace agreement. "Is Burundi more sovereign than Mozambique or South Africa?" he asked.
Asked whether a peace agreement could be reached in July, as suggested by the facilitation, FRODEBU president Jean Minani said it could. "Each time that we postpone, we increase the suffering of the Burundi people," he told journalists. "The Burundi people will soon reject us if we are not capable of bringing them peace. And I don't think that those who say it's too soon for a peace agreement are acclaimed by the people."
"In July," Minani continued, "if we do not conclude these talks, those who have refused to do so will be exposed to the Burundi people and to the international community."
Heads of the nineteen parties negotiating in Arusha on Saturday ended a one-week session of Committee Five, which is discussing the guarantees necessary for implementation of the hoped-for peace agreement. Committee Three, which is negotiating security questions, is due to meet in Arusha next week. Observers say it is unlikely that the dissident rebel groups CNDD-FDD and FNL will participate at this stage, although Mandela has expressed confidence that they will come in July.
CR/BN/JC/FH (BU%0624e)
JUNE 22nd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
CNDD REBELS SAY THEY WILL NOT QUIT BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
Arusha, June 22nd, 2000 (FH) - Hutu rebel group CNDD has denied reports that it may quit Burundi peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania.
According to a June 20th report by the UN news agency IRIN, CNDD leader Léonard Nyangoma wrote a letter to the Facilitator saying that his organization would not take part in the next round of talks if two of its members were not freed from detention in Tanzania. He said the two were being "illegally held and imprisoned" in Ngara, western Tanzania.
" I think his letter was misinterpreted," Ndarubagiye told Hirondelle news agency. "The letter was asking the mediator and the Tanzanian authorities to obtain the release of the CNDD prisoners [but] he never threatened to quit the negotiating table."
Ndarubagiye said the two people concerned may have been part of a proposed CNDD negotiating team, and that they couldn't participate if they were in prison. "But it is in the hands of the Tanzanian authorities and we are confident that the problem will soon be solved," he added.
The CNDD spokesman declined to say why the two activists had been detained, saying only that "according to our information, they were arrested by mistake". "The CNDD is part of the Arusha peace negotiations and will continue to be," he said.
Ndarubagiye is in Arusha for a session of peace Committee Five. This committee is looking at the guarantees necessary for implementation of an eventual peace deal. It is composed of heads of the nineteen delegations taking part in the Arusha negotiations.
The CNDD spokesman told Hirondelle he believed the negotiations were progressing well. "I can say we have reached the final stage," he said. "I think we can hope to sign a peace agreement in a month or two."
The Facilitation, led by former South African president Nelson Mandela, has said it hopes to present a draft accord in July. Mandela has also expressed confidence that dissident rebel groups CNDD-FDD and FNL will come to the negotiating table next month. They have set as conditions the closure of regroupment camps (for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the Tutsi-led army) and the release of political prisoners.
CNDD-FDD leader Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, who split from the mainstream CNDD, was recently quoted as saying that Burundi would not have peace without the participation of his movement.
But Ndarubagiye said Jean Bosco was just "trumpeting". "I think he takes himself too seriously, " the CNDD spokesman told Hirondelle. "He takes himself for something he isn't. If the nineteen parties negotiating here sign an agreement, I don't think for a moment that Ndayikengurukiye would be an obstacle to peace in Burundi."
However, Ndarubagiye also said that the issue of the regroupment camps and political prisoners could be an obstacle to peace. "I am telling you that if the problem of the political prisoners and the concentration camps is not solved, that could block the signature of a peace agreement," he told Hirondelle, adding that "violence is not only the use of arms but also putting innocent people in prison, like in Burundi. And I can't see how we can sign a peace deal while there is still violence."
Mandela has obtained key agreements from Burundi's Tutsi president Pierre Buyoya that the army should be restructured to include 50% Tutsis and 50% Hutus, and that regroupment camps should be closed by the end of July. However, he has so far failed to obtain any concessions from the government on political prisoners.
BN/JC /FH (BU%0622E)
JUNE 21st 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SAY POLITICAL PRISONER ISSUE MUST BE HANDLED WITH CARE
Bujumbura/Arusha, June 21st, 2000 (FH) - Human rights groups in Burundi have generally welcomed peace mediator Nelson Mandela's moves to obtain the release of politcal prisoners. But they have also expressed concern that his words could be misinterpreted, contributing to the culture of impunity which is at the heart of Burundi's current crisis.
Louis-Marie Nindorera, head of Burundi's human rights league ITEKA, said his organization had suggested to Mandela that he visit a Burundian prison, and was pleased that the Mediator did so during his three-day visit to Burundi last week. "But he should also know," Nindorera told Hirondelle in Bujumbura, " that amongst the crowd of prisoners whom he addressed [in Bujumbura's Mpimba jail on June 12th], there are necessarily people who are really gulity of terrible crimes, but that war brings repression and there are certainly lots of innocent people too."
Nindorera suggested that Mandela, in his push to obtain government concessions on the issue, had failed to draw the distinction between giving hope to the innocent and cautioning the guilty against the use of violence. "We were perplexed by Mandela's speech," Nindorera told Hirondelle, "because we feel that it actually calls into question the goals of the peace process."
Nindorera said ITEKA felt Mandela had left Burundi "giving the impression to the guilty people inside that prison that all they have to do is to get their crimes recognized as part of a political or ideological campaign".
"What we want is that there be a difference between the way conflicts were resolved in the past and the way they are resolved in the future," Nindorera continued, "but that is to be done by the opposite kind of speech from that of Mandela. We would like to believe that he expressed himself badly, we'd like to be kind to him. But we would like him to clarifiy his position on this."
The release of political prisoners is one of the conditions set by dissident Hutu rebels for coming to the negotiating table in Arusha next month. Burundi's Tutsi-led government has recently made big concessions on other key issues, but has so far refused to budge on the prisoner issue.
"Even people who may have killed a president will be described as a political prisoner if they committed that offence in promoting the objectives of their political organization or their community," Mandela told prisoners in Mpimba jail. "If we are serious about bringing peace, all political prisoners must be released, so that they may take part in the search for peace."
But Burundi's government has so far refused to admit that it even has any political prisoners. The Burundian Association for the Defence of Prisoners' Rights (ABDDP) says that this is the first bridge that must be crossed, to get the government to recognize the existence of such prisoners. ABDDP Secretary-General Laurent Gahungu welcomed Mandela's contribution to the campaign.
He told Hirondelle news agency that some 75% of prison inmates were there as a result of the country's conflict, which started with the assassination of the first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye (Hutu) by Tutsi soldiers in October 1993. But he said the question of who should be released was a highly emotional one, and that it must be treated with objectivity if it were not to cause even more problems in Burundi.
Gahungu said the ABDDP is fighting for the rights of all prisoners to a fair trial, without distinction. But, along with other human rights groups in the country, it is also fighting against the culture of impunity.
On the issue of political prisoners, he told Hirondelle: "We recommend that there should be an in-depth study in a well-defined context, so that we can see who exactly is imprisoned for political reasons. [...] It is also a way to ensure that this question is treated in an objective way, because we are well aware that it risks being treated in an emotional way. And once it is treated in an emotional way, we may not obtain the results we want. The ABDDP is suggesting that a commission be set up to study not only criteria but also the circumstances in which individuals were detained."
ABDDP founder Pierre Claver, himself an ex-prisoner, says this could be done quickly, as the association has already collected information from all the country's prisons. "So far as I am concerned, the task should be easy," he told Hirondelle, "because the files are already there, the alleged crimes are listed, you just have to look at them... it's as easy as that. In two or three weeks the work could be finished. I don't see how it should take longer than a month." Gahungu, however, was more cautious, suggesting that nothing should be done without considering "what is realistic and its impact on society".
Clearly, the ball is now in the government's court. After many years of neglecting the issue, both the international community and Burundian civil society are starting to exert pressure for something to be done. "What we need," says ITEKA Secretary-General Nindorera, "is to find the appropriate middle way between certain norms of international law and the need for a kind of reconciliation that will not open Pandora's box and prepare the way for even worse crimes in the future... by those, for example, who may reject the [still to be reached] Arusha peace accords."
JC/FH (BU%0621e)
JUNE 20th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE GUARANTEE COMMITTEE RESUMES WORK
Arusha, June 19th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace negotiators on Tuesday continued talks in Arusha on how to guarantee implementation of a hoped-for peace accord.Heads of the nineteen delegations taking part in peace negotiations are due to continue their discussions for one week., focussing notably on whether international observers will be necessary.
"The government is against this and thinks that it will be able to guarantee implementation of the agreement," said Joseph Karumba, president of the Hutu rebel group Frolina, "But we think the government has failed in its duty to protect the population [...] and that it won't be capable of guaranteeing the accord we are going to sign."
Several delegates told Hirondelle that the Facilitation, led by former South African president Nelson Mandela, has promised a document summarizing the various positions, which should help move the talks forward. This committee, which resumed work Monday, is one of five technical committees set up by the negotiators.
"A peace agreement is still a long way off," said Godefroid Hakizimana, head of the pro-Tutsi PSD party. He told Hirondelle it would be difficult to reconcile the Arusha process with opinions prevailing within Burundi.
"We are not going to sign .an agreement unless it has the support of the population," he continued, "and that is what the Facilitator himself has said. But I also think that the accord will take time if we first have to get a consensus inside Burundi."
Mandela took over as Facilitator in February this year, replacing former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere who died in October. The peace talks have dragged on for two years, with violence continuing on the ground.
One of the major obstacles to peace has been the absence from Arusha of dissident rebel groups FDD and FNL, still staging attacks and fighting the mainly Tutsi army. Mandela has expressed confidence that the rebels will join the talks in July.
However, these rebels have said they will only come to Arusha if the government closes regroupment camps (for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army) and releases political prisoners. Mandela recently obtained breakthrough agreements with Burundi's president Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi) that the army should be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis, and that the regroupment camps would be closed by the end of July.
During a visit to Burundi last week, Mandela visited Bujumbura prison, where he described conditions as "unfit for human habitation" and called repeatedly for the political prisoners to be released. However, he left without any visible progress on the issue. The government has denied that there are any political prisoners in Burundi.
CR/AT/JC/FH (BU%0619f)
JUNE 20th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI STATE PROSECUTOR URGES DEBATE ON POLITICAL PRISONERS
Bujumbura/Arusha, June 20th 2000 (FH) - Burundi's State Prosecutor has urged a national debate on the issue of political prisoners, in the wake of Nelson Mandela's visit to the country, during which Mandela called for such prisoners to be released in the name of peace.
Gérard Ngendabanka told Hirondelle in Bujumbura on Saturday that the Tutsi-led government had previously denied the existence of any political prisoners in the country's jails. "But," he said, "Mandela expressed a position which many Burundians here also hold. Many Burundians think that there are political prisoners but do not dare to say so out loud. [...] I think that we need to organise a debate around the subject -- it's a suggestion that I'm going to make --so that everybody adopts the same terms of reference. Otherwise, if there continue to be contradictions on the subject, it is neither to the advantage of the prisoners or anyone else."
On a visit to Bujumbura central prison last week, Burundi peace mediator Mandela described the conditions as "unfit for human habitation" and called on the government to release political prisoners to advance the peace process. "Even people who may have killed a president will be described as a political prisoner if they committed that offence in promoting the objectives of their political organization or their community," Mandela told the prisoners. "If we are serious about bringing peace, all political prisoners must be released so that they may take part in the search for peace."
Mandela's visit to Burundi, from June 12th to 14th, came amid hopes of a peace agreement next month at all-party talks in Arusha, Tanzania. At the end of his visit Mandela expressed confidence that the dissident Hutu rebel groups CNDD-FDD and FNL, blamed for much of the ongoing violence in Burundi, would join the Arusha talks in July. But the rebels have said they will only come if the Tutsi-led government closes all "regroupment camps" (for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army) and releases political prisoners.
Last week, Mandela obtained Burundi president Pierre Buyoya's agreement in South Africa that the regroupment camps would be closed by July 31st, and that the mainly Tutsi army would be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis. However, the government continues to stall on the issue of political prisoners.
"These prisoners that people are talking about were jailed because of the serious crisis that the country has been going through since 1993, after the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye," State Prosecutor Ngendabanka told Hirondelle. He said they could be divided into several categories:
- a relatively small number of mainly ethnic Tutsis, accused and convicted of having killed Ndadaye, a Hutu, "even if public opinion says that the planners have not been arrested", according to Ngendabanka;
- a large number of mainly Hutus, accused, and many convicted, of having massacred Tutsis in the countryside after Ndadaye's death. Many are supporters of Ndadaye's FRODEBU party;
- people accused of supporting the rebellion that took up arms against the Tutsi-led government following Buyoya's 1996 coup. Most are members of Hutu rebel groups such as CNDD, Palipehutu and Frolina;.
- Tutsis accused of planning a rebellion against the Buyoya regime. Most are members of PARENA, the party of ex-president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza.
- Another group of pro-PARENA Tutsis accused of attempts on Buyoya's life. Ngandabanka says 10 are detained. Bagaza has been condemned in absentia.
"These are the people whom the Mediator and a big section of public opinion here -- especially their respective political parties -- consider as political prisoners," Ngendabanka told Hirondelle, "but the government says they are common law prisoners." He added that Burundi's new Penal Code, which came into force at the beginning of this year, includes "political crimes".
During his visit to Burundi, Mandela expressed horror at prison conditions, and also the fact that many prisoners had been held for long periods without charge or trial. Ngendabanka said this was indeed a problem, but that the authorities were trying to do something about it. He said they had launched a programme last year under which more than 1,000 prisoners were released because their files were incomplete, or the charges against them were not serious, or they had been accused unjustly. He stressed, however, that Burundi's judicial system suffers from a chronic lack of means, both in terms of material and human resources.
Burundi's prisons currently hold some 10,000 prisoners, in space built to accommodate one-third that number. Journalists who followed Mandela's visit to Bujumbura central prison were able to witness the chronic overcrowding and appalling sanitary conditions. They were told that the prison feeds its inmates only once a day, although those who have relatives close by may receive food more often. Local human rights organizations stress that the conditions in Bujumbura jail are far from being the worst in Burundi.
Prisoners, most of whom claimed to be held for political reasons, complained that they were languishing in jail while their leaders were negotiating in Arusha. Burundi's State Prosecutor told Hirondelle he was aware of this perception.
Ngendabanka also accepted another criticism often levelled at Burundi's judicial system. "We must admit that, in the wake of the crisis, many mistakes have been made, many arbitrary arrests," he said. He said the judiciary would continue its work, and that it would be up to politicians to decide what measures should be taken as part of the peace process. "I think that there are people who could be amnestied," he told Hirondelle. "Anyone who has committed a crime can be pardoned. But of course, that must take place within the context of the law, and there must be a political agreement between the parties involved in the conflict."
Ngendabanka said he believed a solution could be found rapidly on the issue of political prisoners, "if there is the will". And he stressed that, "not all the issues can be tackled at the same time. There are things that can be done quickly, but there are others that will need more study and that will therefore take more time."
JC/FH (BU%0620e)
JUNE 14th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA LEAVES BURUNDI WITH PRISON ISSUE UNRESOLVED
by Julia Crawford
Bujumbura, June 14th 2000 (FH) - Peace mediator Nelson Mandela on Wedenesday ended a three-day visit to Burundi, marked by efforts to secure the release of political prisoners and to reassure Burundians about the peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania. Burundi President Pierre Buyoya hailed the visit as "a very important step in the peace process" but is still refusing to compromise on the issue of political prisoners.
"For me, it is very important that Mandela, the Facilitator, came to listen to the people of Burundi, to talk to them, to listen to the fears, worries and emotions surrounding the peace process," Buyoya told a joint press conference just before Mandela's departure. "I think it is extremely important for what will come next."
The Facilitation is hoping for a peace agreement next month, and Mandela also expressed confidence that the dissident Hutu rebel groups CNDD-FDD and FNL will join all-party talks in Arusha in July. But the rebels have said they will only come if the Tutsi-led government closes all "regroupment camps" (for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army) and releases political prisoners.
Last week, Mandela obtained Buyoya's agreement in South Africa that the regroupment camps would be closed by July 31st, and that the mainly Tutsi army would be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis. However, the government continues to stall on the issue of political prisoners.
Perhaps the highlight of Mandela's visit was a tour of Bujumbura central prison, where he described conditions as "unfit for human habitation". In all his subsequent addresses and meetings -- with army leaders, the public, religious leaders and the National Assembly -- he expressed his horror and exerted pressure for the prison issue to be tackled.
"I have never seen human beings living under such conditions," Mandela told the National Assembly on Tuesday. "I think that diplomats and other leaders here should go and see the conditions in which political leaders live: former magistrates, doctors, and other opinion makers. They are living under very filthy conditions, unfit for human habitation. [...] I have not recovered from that shock. I will not recover until I see that the leadership here is taking responsibility on their shoulders to release those people from such conditions."
Several times, Mandela praised Buyoya's efforts for peace, notably last week's agreements in Johannesburg, which he asked Burundians to support. And he said discussions on the prison issue would continue. Speaking just before his departure, Mandela told journalists that "My initial reaction was to say I wonder if there are God-fearing people in this country, but of course I know that there are very formidable spiritual leaders in this country and of course even in the government there are people who think about others, and I hope that in due course they will be able to resolve this question [...]. I have put these things to the president, but because of the breakthrough that he has made in these other two respects, I have no doubt that if we give him enough time, he will be able to address this question, because he does not want to have a reputation of somebody who does not care for the welfare of his own people."
Stick and carrot
Since taking over as Burundi peace Facilitator in February this year, Mandela has used "stick and carrot" tactics to force the pace on negotiations. Peace talks in Arusha have dragged on for two years now, with fighting continuing on the ground. Burundi's civil war has claimed at least 200,000 lives since 1993, with many more people displaced or driven into exile in neighbouring countries.
The former South African president used the same approach on this visit to Burundi, first launching a verbal attack, and then appealing to people on moral grounds. This was notably the case in his meeting with the army high command, where he asked them to accept the 50-50 restructuring of the army.
Mandela told the army that Hutu rebels had "some measure of credibility" because of their complaint that the army was mono-ethnic. "But," he said, "if you agree to integration, then you occupy higher moral ground than them. But by delaying committing yourselves, you give them space to continue fighting and killing people. It is up to you to speed up the process of integration."
On arrangements for a transition government, Mandela caused a stir by apparently suggesting that the transition last only six months. However, he was not very clear on the issue. Asked by a Burundian journalist if he meant the transition should last only six months, Mandela replied: "That is a suggestion we are making, but it is for you and the other people of Burundi to decide whether six months is enough, whether they want a time shorter than that, whether they want time longer than that. Remember that we are not independent agents, we are acting on the belief that what we do will be approved by the people of Burundi."
Tutsi dissent
However, it is far from certain that Mandela will manage to rally everyone to the cause, especially the Tutsi minority who fear for their security if the Hutus obtain too much power. A number of groups opposed to the Arusha peace process have held meetings and attempted sit-ins this week, saying Mandela is talking only to "genocidal killers". They say peace cannot be negotiated with people who have "dirty hands".
It is hard to say how representative such groups are. But as Jan Van Eck, Burundi specialist at South Africa's Centre for Conflict Resolution, pointed out in a recent report: "While they have so far engaged in peaceful opposition to the process, there should be no illusion that -- if their opinions are totally ignored by the peace process -- they have both the willingness and the ability to bring the whole process virtually to a halt (by whatever means at their disposal). In the Burundian context, this cannot be taken lightly."
Whereas such groups refused to have anything to do with the previous Facilitator, the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, they nevertheless asked to see Mandela. At a first meeting, they refused to sit down with prominent Hutu leaders, and Mandela asked them to leave. However, he held a brief, separate meeting with them on Wednesday morning and invited them to South Africa to discuss their views. Mandela says they have agreed.
Opposition within the army has been less vocal so far, but clearly there are underlying fears. Even if they can accept the 50-50 principle on army reform, military leaders expressed concerns about guarantees for the Tutsi minority and how the agreement would be implemented. Mandela told them that details would be worked out by a specialist committee in Arusha.
It remains to be seen also whether Mandela can bring the dissident Hutu rebels to the negotiating table and persuade them to stop fighting. This will be vital to the credibility of the whole process.
JC/FH (BU%0614f.doc)
JUNE 14th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA SAYS BURUNDI REBELS WILL JOIN PEACE TALKS NEXT MONTH
Bujumbura, June 14th (FH) - Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela on Wednesday ended a three-day visit to the strife-torn country, saying that dissident Hutu rebels would join peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, in July, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. Mandela also said he was confident that the rebels would then stop fighting.
"I have had several discussions with two rebel groups [...] and they have assured me that they are coming to Arusha in July and they're going to be part of the negotiations," the former South African president told a press conference. "I think that people who take part in the negotiations are already saying that 'we believe in a peaceful method of solving problems', and I'd be surprised if at the same time they launch acts of violence.
"These are matters that I am going to discuss specifically with them," Mandela continued. "But I am convinced of their bona fides and sincerity, and I hope they will cooperate to the full, according to the expectations of the people of Burundi."
The two rebel groups referred to are the dissident Hutu CNDD-FDD and FNL, who have been blamed for much of the ongoing violence in Burundi.
Mandela was responding to remarks by Burundi's president Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi), who thanked Mandela for his visit but also asked him to "help the people of Burundi and us its leaders by doing everything so that those who are perpetrating violence against the population also show their commitment to the peace process. I am not talking about disarmament or even a ceasefire, but I think that the continuation of violence could completely discredit the work that we are doing."
The rebels have said they will only come to the negotiating table if the government closes all regroupment camps -- for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army -- and releases all political prisoners. Another thorny issue is that of how to restructure the mainly Tutsi army.
Mandela last week obtained agreement from Buyoya that the army should be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis, and that regroupment camps would be closed by July 31st. He has used this visit to Burundi to explain these issues to the people, but also to highlight the issue of political prisoners. Mandela said he had not yet obtained agreement on this but that discussions were continuing.
JC/FH (BU%0614e)
JUNE 13th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA STEPS UP PRESSURE FOR BURUNDI TO RELEASE POLITICAL PRISONERS
Bujumbura, June 13th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela on Tuesday continues a three-day visit to the country, in which he is pushing for the release of political prisoners. Mandela is also seeking to win over key players, civil society and the population to the cause of the peace process in Arusha, Tanzania.
After his arrival in the Burundi capital Bujumbura on Monday afternoon, the former South African president held closed door talks with Burundi President Pierre Buyoya, then paid a visit to Bujumbura's central prison. In a speech to prisoners' representatives, he promised to continue discussions with Buyoya on the relese of political prisoners and said he would ask Burundi's parliament for its support on the issue.
"Even people who may have killed a president will be described as a political prisoner if they committed that offence in promoting the objectives of their political organization or their community," Mandela told the prisoners. "If we are serious about bringing peace, all political prisoners must be released so that they may take part in the search for peace."
Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail under South Africa's apartheid regime, evidently holds the issue close to his heart. During his visit to the jail, he silenced a top official of the state penitentiary service, and asked to talk to the prisoners themselves. He questioned them about why they were there, and was horrified to learn that many had been detained for long periods without charge or trial. He also asked them about their food, their conditions, and demanded to be led to the cells, where death row prisoners wept and chanted for him.
Prisoners' representatives told journalists that some are kept more than 200 to the cell, without being allowed out. They are fed once a day by the prison and share one shower and toilet between more than 80 people, according to the prisoners.
Speaking to members of the army high command afterwards, Mandela described the conditions in Bujumbura central prison as "dirty, dilapidated and filthy". "I've never been so ashamed as to see human beings living in those conditions," Mandela said. "Even in the worst conditions in South Africa, no human beings were kept like that. [...] I'm sure every one of them is eaten every day by vermin, because the place is absolutely filthy. [...] It will take me a long time before I can recover."
Mandela also asked senior army officers to support his call for the release of political prisoners. "You can't have peace if you have people like I saw today," he told them. "You're not properly civilized if you don't know how to treat your own people. Even though I am your friend and a friend of President Buyoya, I think it is totally unacceptable. If you continue that system, please don't call yourselves Christians."
The visit comes after a recent breakthrough in the peace process. On Wednesday last week, Mandela announced he had reached two key agreements with President Buyoya which would smooth the path to a peace agreement. After a meeting between the two men in South Africa, Mandela said they had agreed to a restructuring of the mainly Tutsi army, so that it would include 50 percent Hutus and 50 percent Tutsis. They also agreed that all regroupment camps --for mainly Hutu civilians forced from their homes by the army -- would be closed by July 31st. Mandela has called the camps "nothing more than concentration camps". He is due to visit a regroupment camp in Bujumbura Rural province on Tuesday, along with a camp for internally displaced people (mainly Tutsi).
All-party peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, have dragged on for two years now, with fighting continuing on the ground. Restructuring of the army has been one of the major sticking points in the negotiations, while dissident Hutu rebels have said they will not come to the negotiating table until the government closes the regroupment camps and releases political prisoners. Since the meeting between Mandela and Buyoya in South Africa, the Burundi government has closed another regroupment camp, allowing some 45,000 people to return home. It has said that the regroupment camps can be closed as soon as the security situation allows, but has continued to stall on the issue of political prisoners.
Talking to the army
Mandela's meeting with the army high command follows a similar one in April this year. He continued his stick-and-carrot tactics, telling them once again he believed their thinking was "well in advance of many political leaders" and that they were well-trained and intelligent. He asked them to accept the agreement on "integration" [restructuring the army on a 50-50 ethnic basis] and invited questions on how it would be done.
Military leaders told Mandela they could offer support on the principle, but expressed concerns about guarantees for the Tutsi minority and asked for details on technical implementation. Mandela's team said that a 50-50 split was already a concession from Hutu rebels who had been demanding representation in the army on the basis of the country's demographic makeup (85% Hutu and 14-15% Tutsi). They said technical details would be worked out by a specialist negotiating committee in Arusha, but that the principle must first be accepted.
Mandela told the army that Hutu rebels had "some measure of credibility" because of their complaint that the army was mono-ethnic. "But," he said, "if you agree to integration, then you occupy higher moral ground than them. But by delaying committing yourselves, you give them space to continue fighting and killing people. It is up to you to speed up the process of integration."
On Tuesday, Mandela is expected to hold another meeting with army representatives, with church leaders and with the population in Gitega, Burundi's second city. On Wednesday he returns to Bujumbura for meetings with civil society groups, the judiciary, government, parliament and leading political parties.
Protests planned
As Mandela's mediation efforts appear to move the Arusha process forward, many key players in Burundi seem more keen to get involved. But those opposed to the government and to the Arusha talks are also becoming more militant. Trade unions have called strikes and demonstrations in Bujumbura for Tuesday, to protest against government economic policies and what they claim is repression of organized labour.
The planned protests assumed another dimension when a number of anti-government and anti-Arusha groups on Sunday joined the protest call. These groups include the dissident wing of the former single party UPRONA, led by Charles Mukasi. Mukasi told Hirondelle that his call was not directly linked to Mandela's visit, but that there was an indirect link, because the government had deposed an elected union representative, Dr. Pierre Claver Hajayandi. "The government doesn't want him, because he is anti-Arusha," Mukasi said.
Mukasi said any agreement in Arusha would be "a bad document that needs not correcting but tearing up" and that the negotiating process had involved genocidal killers. He said this was "not Mandela's fault" but that he wanted Mandela to realize the process was "dangerous for the whole region". He said his requests to meet the former South African president had so far gone unanswered. Observers suggest that the government may try to nip Tuesday's protests in the bud, especially as it falls during Mandela's visit.
JC/FH (BU%0613e)
JUNE 13th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA SUGGESTS ELECTIONS FOR BURUNDI TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENT
Bujumbura, June 13th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela on Tuesday suggested that there be a six-month interim period between the signing of a peace agreement and the setting up of a transition government in Burundi. He told members of the country's National Assembly that there could be elections during the interim period to decide who will lead the transition government.
"We are looking for leaders during the interim period, after the signing of the agreement in Arusha, after that agreement has been endorsed by the people of Burundi," Mandela said. "There's going to be a space when we are preparing for the transition government, and my own suggestion is that there is a period of six months. We want somebody who is going to act as the leader of this country during that period, and then you'll have the chance when we have elections for the transitional period to decide yourself who the person should be."
Mandela's words were not immediately understood by some of those present, and there was a visible stir as Burundians thought he was talking of a 6-month transition. Former Burundian President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, who is taking part in the peace negotiations, said he had discussed the issue with Mandela, and that was not what he meant.
"I don't think he was talking about a transition as such for a period of six months," Ntibantunganya explained to journalists. "It is rather a period that will be used to set up the mechanisms for the transition. That's the idea he was expressing, and which he has already expressed to other people."
Also in his speech, Mandela urged parliamentarians to support Burundi's current president Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi) in his efforts for peace, and hailed Buyoya's agreement last week that the mainly Tutsi army should be restructured to include 50% Hutus and 50% Tutsis, and that Hutu civilians forced into regroupment camps should all return home by the end of July. He called this "an agreement which puts the president of this country far ahead of each and every one of you in his search for peace".
"You had a leader who projected himself as one who is thinking about the future of his country," Mandela continued, "who is keen to have peace, and we reached those two agreements. We were unable to reach an agreement with regard to the release of the political prisoners as they are defined by the world, not by Burundi [...]. We could not agree on that. But because he had agreed on those two major issues, I thought that was sufficient for our discussion in Johannesburg. And I'm saying to you, President Buyoya is far ahead of the leadership in Arusha and the leadership here in Bujumbura in trying to bring about a compromise in order to have peace in this country."
Mandela said he would continue his discussions with Buyoya on the political prisoners issue, and was confident that progress would be made. "But it is the duty of the leaders here, irrespective of the political parties to which you belong, it is your duty to support the president in so far as he is determined to bring about peace in this country. I would like you to support him. No matter what you say about how he came into power, he is now the president."
The issue of who will lead Burundi's transition to democracy, and how long it will last, is one of the thorny issues that has so far blocked progress at all-party talks in Arusha, Tanzania. Pro-Hutu parties originally wanted a period of only a few months, while pro-Tutsi parties were asking for 5 to 10 years. A recent proposal by the Facilitation was for a 3-year transition period.
Mandela continues his meetings in Burundi on Tuesday with a visit to the country's second city, Gitega, where he is expected to hold talks with civil and religious leaders, and to address the public. He stopped on the way to meet inmates (mainly Hutu) of a regroupment camp, where he told them of the government's promises to close all such camps shortly. He also paid a visit to a camp for mainly Tutsi internally displaced people.
Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison under the former apartheid regime in South Africa, is also continuing his campaign for the release of political prisoners. Addressing the National Assembly, he spoke of his visit to Bujumbura prison on Monday, and his shock at the conditions there.
"I am deeply shocked," he said, "in fact I am wondering whether in Burundi there are God-fearing people who are afraid of doing things which project every Burundian to the world as an agent of the devil. I have never seen human beings living under such conditions. I think that diplomats and other leaders here should go and see the conditions in which political leaders live: former magistrates, doctors, and other opinion makers. They are living under very filthy conditions, unfit for human habitation. [...] I have been to prisons in Africa and elsewhere where there is poverty, but I have never seen a thing of this nature. [...] I have not recovered from that shock. I will not recover until I see that the leadership here is taking responsibility on their shoulders to release those people from such conditions."
JC/FH (BU%0613f)
JUNE 12th 2000
BURUNDI /PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS TO RESUME NEXT MONDAY IN ARUSHA
Arusha, June 12, 2000 (FH) Delegates of Committee Five on Burundi peace talks are expected to meet in Arusha next Monday to resume negotiations towards a possible peace agreement.
Committee Five which deals with the guarantees of the would be peace accord was supposed to meet in Arusha on 12 June this year.
An official of Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, which co-ordinates the talks, told Hirondelle on Monday that the date was rescheduled following the planned visit to Burundi by the facilitator, former South African President Nelson Mandela; over the same period.
The official said that almost all top officials and immediate assistants to the facilitator went to Burundi accompanying the facilitator in the trip, which is considered to be a decisive one in the campaign to draw the government and rebel factions together in the negotiations.
President Mandela, who recently met President Pierre Buyoya in South Africa to discuss the Burundi crisis, managed to convince the military ruler to close regroupment camps and accept an integrated army comprising 50% for Tutsis and Hutus.
President Mandela took over from the former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere as facilitator to the peace talks in January this year following Nyerere's demise in October 1999.
The Burundi negotiations have dragged on for nearly two years, with violence continuing on the ground, but the Facilitation now hopes for an agreement soon. A major obstacle has been the absence of dissident rebels still fighting in Burundi, whom Mandela is now trying to bring into the Arusha process.
NI/CR/AT/MK/FH (BU%0612E)
JUNE 10 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA TO VISIT BURUNDI MONDAY
Arusha, June 10th 2000 (FH) - Former South African president Nelson Mandela will visit Burundi from Monday to Wednesday, as part of his efforts to bring peace to that troubled country.
Mandela is expected to visit a prison and a "regroupment camp", keeping up pressure for the Burundi government to tackle the most pressing human rights issues. The government has forced thousands of mainly Hutu civilians into such camps, saying it was for security reasons, but human rights organizations say the conditions in the camps are appalling. The issue of political prisoners is also holding up all-party peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania.
According to a press release on Friday from the Mandela Foundation, the Burundi peace Facilitator is also expected to "have meetings with religious leaders, the judiciary, the Cabinet, address the National Assembly, address the Defence Force and meet with members of the civil society and women's groups. Mr Mandela will also address a public gathering."
Mandela's office says he has invited President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda "to visit Bujumbura and accompany him to his meetings with the various groups". Museveni is chairman of the regional peace initiative on Burundi.
The visit comes after an apparent breakthrough this week in the peace process. On Wednesday, Mandela announced he had reached two key agreements with Burundian president Pierre Buyoya which would smooth the path to a peace agreement.
After a meeting between the two men in South Africa, Mandela and Buyoya said they had agreed to a restructuring of the mainly Tutsi army, so that it would include 50 percent Hutus and 50 percent Tutsis. They also agreed that regroupment camps would be closed by July 31st. Mandela has called the camps "nothing more than concentration camps".
All-party peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, have dragged on for two years now, with fighting continuing on the ground.
Restructuring of the army has been one of the major sticking points in the negotiations, while dissident Hutu rebels have said they will not come to the negotiating table until the government closes the regroupment camps and releases political prisoners.
Jean Minani, leader of the main opposition party FRODEBU (pro-Hutu) welcomed this week's news but said Buyoya had not gone far enough. He said it was an aberration that people were kept "like animals" in the regroupment camps, and that if Buyoya wanted to, he could close the camps immediately. On restructuring of the army, Minani told Hirondelle that "this is also a step forward", although he said FRODEBU still wanted "percentages in the army that reflect the social composition of Burundi". Hutus make up some 85% of the population, while Tutsis represent only 14-15%.
Minani said he hoped Buyoya would keep his promises, "unlike in the past", and that he was "very disappointed" that the Burundi president had not promised anything on the issue of political prisoners. "This is a very serious concern in Burundi," he continued, "and it is a disgrace that in the 21st century there are so many people languishing in jail just because of their ethnicity or their politics. This question should also have been linked to the issue of the regroupment camps."
JC/DO/FH(BU%0610e)
JUNE 7th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH IN BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
Arusha, June 7th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela said on Wednesday he had reached two key agreements with Burundian president Pierre Buyoya which would smooth the path to a peace agreement in Arusha.
According to news reports from Johannesburg, Mandela and Buyoya said they had agreed to a restructuring of the mainly Tutsi army, so that it would include 50 percent Hutus and 50 percent Tutsis. They also agreed that regroupment camps would be closed by July 31st.
The government has forced thousands of mainly Hutu civilians into such camps, saying it was for security reasons, but human rights organizations say the conditions in the camps are appalling. Mandela has called them "nothing more than concentration camps".
"We agreed with President Buyoya on the integration issue -- that there would be 50 percent Tutsi and 50 percent Hutu in the army,'' Reuters news agency quoted Mandela as saying. "We also agreed that all Hutus in regroupment camps will be released by July 31st.''
Mandela said the agreements cleared the way for the first face-to-face talks between Buyoya and Hutu rebel leaders at all-party peace talks in Arusha scheduled for next month. His statements came after a meeting in South Africa with Buyoya.
The former South African president has said he will visit Burundi from June 12th to 14th to meet armed groups and members of civil society. He is also expected to visit regroupment camps and political prisoners. "As a man who spent 27 years in jail, I can't tolerate to go to a country where so many innocent people are in jail without trial," the former South African president said recently.
Closure of the regroupment camps and release of political prisoners are the conditions set by dissident Hutu rebel groups for joining the Arusha peace talks. These talks in Tanzania have been in progress for two years, with negotiators dragging their feet and fighting continuing on the ground. Mandela took over as Facilitator in February, replacing the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere. He has redoubled his efforts to speed up the process, and the Facilitiation team says it now hopes to present a draft peace agreement in July.
JC/FH (BU%0607e)
MAY 29th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
SECURITY COMMITTEE RESUMES TALKS WITHOUT DISSIDENT REBELS
Arusha, May 29th, 2000 (FH) - The Burundi peace committee on security issues on Monday resumed talks in Arusha, Tanzania, without the hoped-for participation of dissident rebel groups.
Brigadier-General Hashim Mbita, a spokesman for the facilitation team, told Hirondelle that the talks would last one week, but could end earlier.
Facilitator Nelson Mandela of South Africa has been trying to bring the dissident Hutu rebels FDD and FNL into all-party peace talks in Arusha. Observers had hoped that Mandela's separate meetings in Johannesburg last week with government, army and rebel representatives, would prepare the ground for the dissidents' participation.
However, the FNL sent a representative from Europe, while the CNDD-FDD said it sent a delegation only to deliver a message to Mandela from their leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, explaining why he would not participate.
CNDD-FDD spokesman Jérôme Ndiho told Hirondelle from Brussels his organization had decided not to participate because it viewed the meetings as "an extension of Arusha", and that it would not go to Arusha until the Burundi government closes down what he termed "concentration camps" and frees all political prisoners.
News agencies quoted Mandela as saying at a press conference last Tuesday that he had worked out a "landmark agreement" between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-led government, but that rebels had asked for more time to study it and to consult their field commanders. He said he had therefore shifted a heads of state summit on Burundi from June to July.
Facilitators now say they hope that a draft peace agreement can be presented at a plenary session of the Burundi negotiations, to coincide with the July summit.
The Arusha talks have been taking place in five committees dealing with: the nature of the conflict (Committee One); democracy and good governance (Committee Two); peace and security for all (Committee Three); economic reconstruction and return of refugees (Committee Four); and implementation and guarantees needed for a peace agreement (Committee Five).
Committee Three is the least advanced in its work. So far it has delayed discussion of a ceasefire and army reform, in the hope that the dissident rebels can be brought into the process.
AT/JC/FH (BU%0529E)
MAY 25th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
FACILITATION HOPES TO PRESENT DRAFT PEACE AGREEMENT IN JULY
Arusha, May 25th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace facilitator Nelson Mandela's representative said on Thursday he hoped a draft peace agreement could be presented to negotiators at a plenary session in July, which would coincide with a summit on Burundi in Arusha, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
Judge Mark Bomani of the Nyerere Foundation told Hirondelle that Mandela's separate meetings in South Africa this week with Burundian government, army and rebel representatives had been "useful" but declined to give further details. "Of course it was an important meeting, as Mandela said," Bomani continued.
News agencies quoted Mandela as saying at a press conference on Tuesday that he had worked out a "landmark agreement" between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-led government, but that rebels had asked for more time to study it and to consult their field commanders. He said he had therefore shifted a heads of state summit on Burundi from June to July.
The closed-door meetings which ended on Wednesday had been billed as an attempt to get all rebel groups together, and to bring the dissident CNDD-FDD and FNL into all-party talks in Arusha. However, informed sources in South Africa said this was not even on the agenda because the dissidents "either were not here or had no mandate". FNL sent a representative from Europe, while the CNDD-FDD says it sent a delegation only to deliver a message to Mandela from their leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, explaining why he would not participate.
CNDD-FDD spokesman Jérôme Ndiho told Hirondelle from Brussels his organization had decided not to participate because it viewed the meetings as "an extension of Arusha", and that it would not go to Arusha until the Burundi government closed down what he termed "concentration camps" and freed all political prisoners. Ndiho said this understanding was part of a compromise agreement between Mandela and Ndayikengurukiye.
"We have promised that we will go to Arusha as soon as the concentration camps have been closed and political prisoners released," Ndiho told Hirondelle. "We know that Mandela is making considerable efforts to get the conditions fulfilled, such as going to Burundi and talking to the army. What we hope is that he will manage to get the compromise accepted, and so will open the way for us to go to Arusha."
Ndiho stressed that the CNDD-FDD would continue to meet Mandela outside the context of Arusha and would, if invited, also participate in direct talks with the Burundi government. This, Ndiho said, was in line with the CNDD-FDD's own peace proposals. "So things are not deadlocked," he said, "but we are sticking to our agreement with Mandela."
Facilitator's Representative Judge Mark Bomani confirmed that a meeting of the negotiating committee on security issues (Committee Three) would go ahead in Arusha as scheduled on May 29th. He declined to say whether the dissident rebels might be present.
JC/FH (BU%0525e)
MAY 23rd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI DELEGATES SPLIT OVER FOREIGN HELP IN PEACE MONITORING
Arusha, May 23rd, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace negotiators are still split over how much to involve the international community in monitoring their hoped-for peace agreement, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
A working document adopted last week, and of which Hirondelle has obtained a copy, shows that the negotiating committee on implementation and guarantees ("Committee Five") agrees on certain principles. But the nineteen delegations are split into two, or sometimes three contrasting positions when it comes to the technical details.
The committee agrees that certain internal and external guarantees are vital to the success of any agreement, and that the first guarantee is the quality of the accord itself. To this end, the negotiators say that the peace agreement should be "clear, precise, concrete and unequivocal", avoiding ambiguities or possible conflicts of interpretation. Committee Five is composed of heads of delegations.
They also say that the peace agreement should be comprehensive, taking account of all the problems that have caused the conflict in Burundi. It should, says the text, provide for institutional and legal mechanisms, such as a law on genocide, a reform of the law on political parties, and an electoral law.
Facilitators led by Nelson Mandela had hoped for a peace agreement in June, although this now looks somewhat over-optimistic. After two years of talks, the negotiators have still to agree on such sensitive points as a ceasefire, reform of the Tutsi-led army, electoral and transitional arrangements.
Committee Five says Burundi's transitional institutions will play a key role in guaranteeing the peace agreement and that the transition period should be "sufficiently long that the institutions and organs laid down in the Agreement can be set up correctly and become fully operational".
It also says that "the men and women who will be called to lead the transition should have integrity, determination, patriotism and competence. They should be guided only by the good of the country." But negotiators still have to put a figure on the length of the transition and to name the person who will lead it.
Monitoring committee
They all agree on the necessity for a monitoring committee to oversee implementation of the peace agreement. But, as the working document points out, "differences are apparent on the following points: its structure, its composition and its powers".
Broadly speaking, pro-Hutu parties known as the Group of Seven (G7) want representatitives of an international "guarantor party" on the committee, and want it to have the power of decision-making by consensus. Most of the pro-Tutsi parties want only Burundians on the committee and say it should have consultative powers only.
The monitoring committee is to have various subcommittees, which will reflect its structure. These subcommittees will oversee: defence and security; return and reintegration of refugees; administrative reforms; judicial reforms; electoral questions; and the drawing up of a permanent Constitution.
It is the defence and security committee that will have the most delicate task, and where the most serious difference emerges on structure. The parties agree that this committee will be responsible for "guaranteeing the protection and security" of all legal institutions and their representatives, foreign observers and experts, and of the population.
Its mandate is to include "monitoring and supervising the reforms agreed to integrate elements of armed political parties and movements into the new defence and security forces"; "controlling and supervising demobilisation and disarmament of all forces not destined to be part of the new defence and security forces"; and "searching for arms caches and seizing arms held by civilian populations".
The G7, which includes the majority FRODEBU party and Hutu rebels, wants this committee's tasks to be carried out only by an "international peacekeeping force composed of 8,000 policemen and 12,000 soldiers". In contrast, the current government, National Assembly, UPRONA and PSD parties (pro-Tutsi) want the committee's tasks carried out "partly by the new defence and security forces and partly by a joint technical committee".
Pro-Tutsi opposition party PARENA proposes a third solution, which is to combine both the other options. It suggests that an international force of 1,000 to 2,000 men be integrated into the joint technical committee.
During discussions in Arusha last week, it emerged that pro-Hutu parties regard a large international peacekeeping presence as an indispensable guarantee. Pro-Tutsi parties say they would regard such a presence as an "occupying force".
Agreement also looks difficult on judicial reform. The G7 is demanding guarantees such as the liberation of all political prisoners 15 days before the signing of an agreement, and the closure of all government regroupment camps.
It wants judicial immunity for "all political, military and police crimes predating the signature of the Agreement, up to such a time as judicial reforms are completed", and a speedy deployment of international aid and expertise to the country's judicial sector. Precise dates and figures are laid down. Although the government has apparently not yet made a counter-proposal, it is unlikely to accept such demands.
JC/PHD/FH (BU%0523a)
MAY 22nd, 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA BEGINS TALKS WITH BURUNDI REBELS
Arusha, May 22nd, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace Facilitator Nelson Mandela on Monday held closed-door discussions in South Africa with Burundian rebel groups, including dissidents whom he is trying to bring to the negotiating table, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
Mandela's spokeswoman Zelda le Grange said all five rebel groups had arrived in South Africa. She said Mandela met separately in Johannesburg on Monday with Palipehutu and Frolina, and was due to meet Tuesday with the mainstream CNDD and the two dissident groups, CNDD-FDD and FNL.
There had been some doubt as to whether the CNDD-FDD would attend, following statements last week by the group's leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye. Informed sources said Ndayikengurukiye is not attending in person but has sent a high-level representative.
Burundi's Minister for the Peace Process Ambroise Niyonsaba and senior army officers are also in South Africa for talks with Mandela. The Facilitation is hoping to get all the parties to meet together on Wednesday. Diplomatic sources say the main aim is to get an agreement on a ceasefire to end Burundi's six-year civil war.
All-party talks to end the war have now been going on for two years in Arusha, Tanzania, with violence continuing on the ground. Mandela took over as Facilitator in February from the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere. He and his Facilitation team are hoping to speed up the process, notably by introducing compromise proposals. They had said they hoped for an agreement in June, although this now looks somewhat optimistic.
A major obstacle has been the absence of dissident Hutu rebels still fighting in Burundi, notably the CNDD-FDD and FNL. This week's meeting in Johannesburg is expected to prepare the ground for an Arusha meeting starting May 29th of the negotiating committee on security issues (Committee Three). This committee still has to agree on ceasefire arrangements and the controversial issue of reforming the Tutsi-led army.
JC/FH (BU%0522e)
MAY 20th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE GUARANTEE COMMITTEE TO RECONVENE JUNE 12th
Arusha, May 20th, 2000 (FH) - Heads of Burundi peace delegations on Saturday ended a week of negotiations, saying they had made good progress and would reconvene on June 12th, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. All eyes are now focussed on next week's meeting in South Africa between Facilitator Nelson Mandela, government, army and rebel representatives.
"I think this committee will need at least one more meeting," said Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, who has been chairing this week's meeting of Committee Five. The committee's job is to draw up a list of guarantees needed for the implementation of an eventual peace accord.
Guebuza told Hirondelle that the negotiators had agreed to work on a 15-point document drawn up by the Facilitation on the basis of proposals from the nineteen delegations. He said they had covered 11 of the 15 points, although "that doesn't mean we have agreed".
"But the meeting has given us a good feeling of why there may not be agreement," he continued, "and that makes it possible for the Facilitation to work out another document in the form of a protocol to be submitted to the delegates."
A key area of disagreement is whether or not to ask for the presence of a UN peacekeeping force to oversee implementation of the hoped-for peace agreement. Some parties, especially on the Hutu side, say this is indispensable, while others, especially on the Tutsi side, say they would regard international peacekeepers as an occupying force.
Guebuza said another problem was that certain key issues had still not been resolved by other negotiating committees, and this tended to cloud the debate. It was not clear, he said, whether the issue of a UN force should be resolved by the committee on security issues (Committee Three) or by Committee Five. But he pointed out that Committee Five was the only one comprised of delegation heads and that "if Committee Three doesn't take a decision, somebody must."
Negotiations have dragged on for two years, with violence continuing on the ground. The Facilitation is now trying to force the pace by drawing up a series of compromise proposals based on the negotiations. It had hoped for an agreement in June.
A major obstacle has been the absence of dissident Hutu rebels still fighting in Burundi, whom Mandela is trying to bring into the Arusha process. The Facilitator is due to meet rebel leaders, including the dissidents, in Johannesburg from May 23rd to 25th, along with government and army representatives from Burundi. Some of the delegates concerned have already left Arusha for Johannesburg, while others are due to leave on Sunday.
Next week's meeting is expected to prepare the ground for an Arusha meeting starting May 29th, of Committee Three. This committee still has to agree on ceasefire arrangements and the controversial issue of reforming the Tutsi-led army.
Another key area still to be resolved is that of arrangements for a transition government and electoral system (being handled by Committee Two). Heads of delegations also discussed that issue this week, but a consensus has still not emerged.
JC/FH (BU%0520e)
MAY 19th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE DELEGATES DIVIDED OVER POSSIBLE UN FORCE
Arusha, May 19th, 2000 (FH) - Heads of Burundi peace delegations meeting in Arusha this week remained divided over the question of a possible UN force to oversee implementation of an eventual peace deal, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
During seminars on Thursday by UN peacekeeping experts, two clear tendencies emerged. Some delegates believe that a UN force is indispensable to guarantee, for example, demobilization of armed forces, maintenance of law and order and humanitarian assistance. However, some say they would regard UN peacekeepers as an "occupying force".
A UN expert nevertheless told them that in a case such as Burundi, where various rebel factions are fighting the army in a civil war, a UN force would only be sent if all parties agreed. "We are not going to send a force to be taken hostage by rebels or by the Burundian army," said Christopher Coleman in answer to a question concerning the current situation in Sierra Leone.
The UN expert also said that the UN peacekeeping experience in Rwanda remained a big stain on the UN's past. "We have learned lots of lessons from Rwanda," Coleman said. He also asserted that "overall, the United Nations has had more successes than failures, but even if the failures are few, they tarnish our image".
The Burundian delegates criticized the UN's lack of will to intervene in African conflicts. "Just as we have a black African as UN Secretary-General for the first time, conflicts are spreading in Africa," one delegate remarked. "It's all the more strange in that the UN seems to apply different standards according to which part of the world it is called to intervene in."
The UN expert suggested that the Burundi peace negotiators should work with the UN at every stage that they reached a compromise agreement, so that planning could be done in good time. "It takes the UN system at least four months to deploy an observer mission or a peacekeeping force. If you wait until a peace agreement has been signed for us to start planning, the UN would take time in coming to help you," Coleman said.
The delegates form Committee Five, which is negotiating guarantees needed for the implementation of an eventual peace agreement. This week they have also been discussing outstanding sticking points to a peace agreement.
The talks in Arusha are being led by Facilitator Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who took over from the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere in February. Negotiations have dragged on for two years, with violence continuing on the ground, but the Facilitation now hopes for an agreement in June.
A major obstacle has been the absence of dissident rebels still fighting in Burundi, whom Mandela is trying to bring into the Arusha process. The Facilitator is due to meet rebel leaders, including the dissidents, in Johannesburg from May 23rd to 25th, along with government and army representatives from Burundi. Sources in Arusha say some of the delegation heads will fly directly to Johannesburg this weekend.
Next week's meeting is expected to prepare the ground for an Arusha meeting starting May 29th, of the committee on security issues. Committee Three, on "peace and security for all" still has to agree on ceasefire arrangements and the controversial issue of army reform.
CR/JC/FH (BU%0519e)
MAY 16th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS RESUME IN ARUSHA
Arusha, May 16th, 2000 (FH) - Heads of Burundi peace delegations reconvened Monday in Arusha, to look at guarantees for an eventual peace deal and outstanding sticking points. The delegates form Committee Five, which is looking at implementation and guarantees for an accord. This committee is due to spend the week discussing proposals put forward by the 19 negotiating parties.
A press release from the Facilitation said the proposals related to "internal and external guarantees", taking into account "the quality of the agreement to be reached, sincerity and commitment of the signatories, support of the agreement by the Barundi, transitional institutions to be set, implementation timetable, sustainability of the agreement, and control and monitoring of the implementation of the agreement".
On Monday, negotiators were briefed on electoral and transition processes by a UN consultant. PSD president Godefroid Hakizimana (pro-Tutsi) told Hirondelle that the delegates would be meeting Tuesday afternoon to look at outstanding sticking points to an accord, which include an electoral system and arrangements for the transition to democracy.
The talks in Arusha are being led by Facilitator Nelson Mandela of South Africa, who took over from the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere in February. Negotiations have dragged on for nearly two years, with violence continuing on the ground, but the Facilitation now hopes for an agreement in June.
A major obstacle has been the absence of dissident rebels still fighting in Burundi, whom Mandela is trying to bring into the Arusha process. The Facilitator is due to meet rebel leaders, including the dissidents, in Johannesburg from May 23rd to 25th, along with government and army representatives from Burundi.
Next week's meeting is expected to prepare the ground for an Arusha meeting starting May 29th of the committee on security issues. Committee Three, on "peace and security for all" still has to agree on ceasefire arrangements and the controversial issue of army reform.
CR/JC/FH (BU%0516e)
MAY 9th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
FIVE BURUNDI PARTIES WANT INTERNATIONAL PEACE FORCE
Arusha May 9th, 2000 (FH) - As Burundi peace delegates prepare to reconvene in Arusha next week, five political parties and representatives of Burundian civil society are calling for an international peacekeeping force to guarantee an eventual peace deal.
Representatives of the mainly Hutu parties FRODEBU (main opposition party), PP and RPB, along with the pro-Tutsi parties PARENA and ABASA held a press conference in Bujumbura at the weekend to explain the role of an international force if a peace agreement is reached. All these parties are present at negotiations in Arusha, which are due to resume next week.
"We want to calm people's fears in Burundi, " PP Vice-President Sévérin Ndikumugongo told Hirondelle by telephone from Bujumbura. "We want them to understand that it's not a question of being re-colonized. Such a force would be a good thing, because it would be part of a series of negotiated guarantees for the implementation of the peace accord."
The nineteen delegations taking part in the Arusha talks recently set up a fifth committee to negotiate the necessary guarantees for an eventual accord. This committee ("Committee Five") is due to reconvene in Arusha next Monday. The Facilitation team is led by former South African president Nelson Mandela.
"We don't want Burundians to be afraid of the peace that is just around the corner," Ndikumugongo told Hirondelle news agency.
The press conference was organized by the National Alliance for Change (ANAC), which was set up last December. As well as the five political parties, ANAC also comprises members of civil society, and SOJEDEM, a youth group close to PARENA.
The question of an international peacekeeping force is a controversial one, which has not yet been resolved in Arusha. Pro-Hutu groups have generally tended to support the idea, while pro-Tutsi parties have opposed it.
AT/JC/FH (BU%0509E )
MAY 4th 2000
ICTR/ BURUNDI
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS RESUME MAY 23rd
Arusha, May 4th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace Facilitator Nelson Mandela will meet government, army and rebel groups in Johannesburg from May 23rd to 25th, ahead of the next round of negotiations in Arusha, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports on Thursday.
Tanzanian Facilitator's Representative Judge Mark Bomani said that talks will resume in Arusha on May 29th, with the last meeting of the committee dealing with security issues (Committee Three).
Judge Bomani said that five rebel groups would be present in Johannesburg: FDD, FNL, Palipehutu, CNDD and Frolina. The first two are dissident groups which Mandela hopes to bring into the peace process.
Mandela is expected to meet first the rebel groups and then the government side. Bomani said he would then meet all the parties together.
Bomani said that FDD and FNL were expected to take part in the next round of talks in Arusha, if they think it necessary. "Their interest is to talk about a ceasefire and integration [of rebel groups into the army]," he explained. "If those issues can be solved in Johannesburg, it may be agreed that they don't have to be there."
The issue of a ceasefire and army reform has been a major stumbling block to the negotiations, which have lasted nearly two years. Mandela and the Facilitation team are now hoping for a peace agreement by June, to end Burundi's six-year civil war.
JC/FH (BU%0504e)
MAY 3rd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA TO MEET BURUNDI REBELS THIS MONTH
Arusha, May 3rd, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace talks Facilitator Nelson Mandela is to meet rebel groups in South Africa in the last week of May.
Facilitator's Representative Judge Mark Bomani of Tanzania told Hirondelle on Wednesday that leaders of all the rebel groups had agreed to the meeting, including the CNDD-FDD and FNL whom Mandela is trying to bring into the Arusha negotiations.
Bomani also said that Mandela's recent visit to Burundi went well. "The visit of the Facilitator to Burundi was a success and we hope it will contribute to the current peace process," he told Hirondelle.
Mandela paid a brief visit to Burundi on April 28th to hold discussions on peace with the army. The question of army reform and integration of Hutu rebel groups into the mainly Tutsi army is one of the main obstacles to a peace agreement.
Negotiations in Arusha have been taking place in four committees, but the absence of dissident rebels has held up the work of Committee Three, which is handling security issues. Committee One (discussing the nature of the conflict) and Committee Four (economic reconstruction and return of refugees) have finished their work, except for a few outstanding issues.
Committee Two, which is handling future governmental and electoral arrangements, has also failed to reach agreement so far. However, as the last round of talks ended on April 20th, South African chairman Nicholas Haysom expressed optimism that an overall agreement could be reached by June. He said Committee Two had had good discussions and would submit its proposals within two weeks.
After nearly two years of talks, the Facilitation is now trying to speed the process up. Mandela gave the nineteen negotiating delegations until April 20th to make final proposals before the Facilitation presents a draft peace agreement. The former South African president took over as Facilitator in February, replacing the late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
Judge Bomani of the Nyerere Foundation told Hirondelle on Wednesday that the Facilitation had now received comments and suggestions from all delegations on a draft document submitted in March. This was in fact a voluminous summary of the work done at that stage by the four committees.
"The Facilitation team is now working on comments from individual parties and groups taking part in the negotiations," Bomani said by telephone from Dar es Salaam. He also said that the newly created Committee Five would meet again in Arusha on May 15th "for at least one week". This committee is looking at the guarantees that would be needed for implementation of an eventual peace agreement.
JC/FH (BU%0503e)
APRIL 10th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE COMMITTEE RECONVENES
Arusha, April 10th, 2000 (FH) - Burundian peace delegates on Monday resumed negotiations in Arusha, Tanzania, on the country's future system of government, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. Talks in negotiating Committee Two are set to last until the end of the week.
Chairman Nicholas Haysom of South Africa said he hoped the committee would be able to complete its work by the end of this round. However, it still has to reach a consensus on thorny issues such as arrangements for a transitional government and the future electoral system.
This committee, on Democracy and Good Governance, is the second of four committees which have been negotiating in Arusha for nearly two years. A fifth committee has recently been set up to look at guarantees for the implementation of an eventual peace accord.
Committee One, on the Nature of the Conflict, and Committee Four, on Economic Reconstruction and Return of Refugees, are not expected to meet again. They have finished their work, except for a few issues which will be dealt with by heads of delegations.
Committee Three, dealing with Peace and Security for All, still has to agree a ceasefire in the country's six-year civil war, and arrangements for reform of the country's Tutsi-led army. New Facilitator Nelson Mandela has promised to bring dissident Hutu rebels to the negotiating table for the next round of talks, scheduled to take place later this month. The new Committee Five, comprising heads of delegations, is due to return to Arusha next Monday.
Mandela recently reiterated his view that the talks were "on the verge of a breakthrough", despite their apparent slowness. He has given the nineteen negotiating delegations until April 20th to make final proposals before the Facilitation presents a draft peace agreement.
Speaking in London, Mandela also called on Burundian President Pierre Buyoya to admit that Burundi has political prisoners. The UN news agency IRIN quoted Mandela as saying: "The existence of prisoners of conscience in Burundi is common knowledge ... Unless President Buyoya acknowledges that fact, he can have no credibility within the international community."
Hutu rebels are calling for the release of political prisoners and the dismantling of regroupment camps as a condition for joining the negotiations. The government has forced hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutu civilians into camps, saying it is for security reasons.
JC/FH (BU%0410e)
APRIL 2nd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE DELEGATES SAY LAST NEGOTIATING ROUND WAS POSITIVE
Arusha, April 2nd, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace delegates say the latest round of negotiations that ended last week in Arusha was generally a good one.
"This round was a good one because it was supported by several African heads of state and foreign personalities and because it saw the start of work of the last Commission, the commission on guarantees [for an eventual peace accord]," former president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza (Tutsi) told Hirondelle on Friday.
Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, the Hutu ex-president who was ousted by current president Pierre Buyoya in a 1996 coup, was more expansive. He had strong praise for the new peace Facilitator, Nelson Mandela of South Africa.
"I have always called it the magic of our Facilitators," Ntibantunganya said. "The first magic was that of Mwalimu [the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere] who, despite the sometimes murderous differences between Burundians, [...] managed to guide us, to bring us to the negotiating table and make us talk. [...] The magic of Mandela that we have today [...] is to put the Burundians not with their backs to the wall but face to face with the truth. And I think that we are gradually emerging from a certain torpor. [...] I think it is starting to produce results."
CNDD rebel leader Léonard Nyangoma (Hutu) said the four days of talks were "a big success". Like many other delegates, he stressed the importance of Monday's plenary session, in which eminent African heads of state gave "advice" to the Burundians. This was the second time that Mandela has kicked off a negotiating session in this way.
"We particularly appreciated the speech of President Obasanjo [of Nigeria], who spoke about the military running a country, " Nyangoma told Hirondelle. "The conclusion for him was that it was a total failure, they could not bring democracy, they couldn't run the country properly. So it's a sort of message to the military régime in Bujumbura, to Buyoya, whom he is asking to step down quickly and hand power back to the people."
New committee "wastes time"
Nyangoma said, however, that the first session of the new Committee Five, dealing with guarantees for the implementation of a hoped-for peace settlement, was difficult. And Professor André Nkundikije, leader of the pro-Tutsi AV-Intwari party, agreed.
"It's true that in comparison to other sessions, this session was not very productive," Nkundikije told Hirondelle, "because we had to examine a very difficult problem, that is, how to guarantee the agreements. [...] We wasted a lot of time trying to decide who should chair the sessions in the absence of Mandela. President Mandela had designated Mr. Bomani [of Tanzania] to be chairman of Committee Five. Some of the parties contested that nomination. [...] and we spent most of the time discussing this question."
"But," continued Nkundikije, "at least we made a start." Some of the hardline pro-Tutsi parties object to Judge Mark Bomani chairing the new and vital Committee Five because he is Tanzanian. They say Tanzania is not neutral in the Burundi conflict.
Perhaps the most concrete development was that Mandela has promised to bring the dissident Hutu rebel groups CNDD-FDD and FNL to the negotiating table for the next round of negotiations, which the Facilitation still hopes will be possible in April. This is despite a number of obstacles that still have to be overcome, such as rebel preconditions and a longstanding leadership struggle between the heads of the mainstream CNDD, present at the talks, and the breakaway CNDD-FDD.
Hirondelle asked CNDD leader Nyangoma how he felt about the CNDD-FDD, led by Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, coming into the negotiations. "It's true," he said, "that some people have left our CNDD movement and its armed wing FDD, that's notably the case of Jean-Bosco. But if it is to bring peace, to speed up this process of negotiation, we are not against Jean-Bosco or others joining, so long as we respect the general rules of these negotiations."
Asked how the procedural problem might be solved, Nyangoma replied: "I think you should put the question to the Facilitator. [...] If he has invited them, I think he will do everything to make sure the rules are respected. [...] Yes, I trust him, certainly. He is a tireless fighter for freedom and democracy, but he is also a man of his word."
Discussions with the military
Mandela also announced that he would shortly be going to Burundi, to meet with members of the army. Reform of the mainly Tutsi armed forces is one of the thorniest issues on the negotiating table.
Asked whether he thought the military were ready for peace, former president Bagaza (ousted from power in Buyoya's first coup) told Hirondelle he believed that "the military have never posed problems on these issues, it is rather the politicians. If we reach a peace agreement, the soldiers could only be delighted." But he said Mandela's move to go and see them was a "good step".
Asked how the problem among the politicians might be solved, Bagaza suggested that "every Burundian who has some authority, political or social power should get involved and cooperate much more. [...] Even if we sign a peace accord, if the Burundians do not manage to chase away the demons of division, the crisis will resurface."
Mandela has suggested that current president Buyoya and the two former presidents participating in the negotiations, Bagaza and Ntibantunganya, have a special leadership role to play in this respect. Hirondelle asked Bagaza if he had held discussions with Buyoya. "No, not yet," he replied. "I think we will discuss with each other when we go to sign [a peace agreement]".
Ntibantunganya said he appreciated Buyoya's presence at last week's negotiating session. "And I hope," he continued, "that in the coming days his presence will be more frequent. He is leader of a political group in Burundi, he has a certain influence on certain delegations and political parties here. And at this last stage, this crucial time [...], it's necessary that all the important leaders be together, and Buyoya is one of the important leaders of this country. He must come, so that we can seek together the historic compromise that Burundi needs."
Along with army reform, probably the thorniest issue still to be resolved is who will lead the transition government in Burundi. In his speech to the plenary session last Tuesday, Mandela warned the delegates not to think of their own personal interests, but to put their country first.
"You must know," he said, "that after we have reached the agreement here, the real challenge to all of us is going to arise and the challenge is to agree on who is going to lead the transitional government, what is the period of the transitional government. In fact there is a feeling that most of you, the way you behave, you are thinking. Am I going to be in this transitional government?. There is that feeling, but I am confident that you are the type of leadership that has the capacity to rise to expectations and that those perceptions are not necessarily accurate.
"I am convinced that you are not going to disappoint me," Mandela continued, "because this problem in Burundi can never be solved without you. But in order to solve it, we must speak with one voice. We must forget the past and think of the present, and the future of our children in Burundi."
JC/FH (BU%0402e)
APRIL 1st 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS TO RECONVENE THIS MONTH
Arusha, April 1st, 2000 (FH) - As the latest round of Burundi peace talks wound up on Friday, Facilitator's Representative Mark Bomani of Tanzania said negotiations would resume later in April.
Bomani said Committe Two, dealing with Democracy and Good Governance, would convene again on April 10th, while the new Committee Five would meet on April 17th. That committee has just been set up, at the initiative of Facilitator Nelson Mandela, to establish the guarantees necessary for an eventual peace deal.
The Facilitation hopes that Committee Three, on Peace and Security for All, will also meet again this month, but it needs time to complete negotiations on bringing in dissident Hutu rebels. "Committee Three will be meeting on a day to be decided after the armed groups have had their consultations," Bomani told journalists. "We hope this meeting will be in April too."
Bomani said the Facilitation hoped that the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), and the National Forces for Liberation (FNL) would be able to attend the proposed round of talks for Committee Three. The absence of the rebels has held up discussions on a ceasefire and reform of Burundi's mainly Tutsi army.
In a speech to Burundian negotiators last week, Mandela said his meetings with the FDD and FNL leaders had been positive, and that the rebels had promised to join the negotiations without preconditions. A spokesman for the FDD subsequently said the preconditions had not been lifted. These are that the Burundi government should release political prisoners and dismantle regroupment camps. However, the spokesman expressed confidence that Mandela could pressure the government to fulfil these conditions.
JC/FH (BU%0401e.doc)
MARCH 29th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
REBELS MAINTAIN PRECONDITIONS FOR JOINING TALKS
Arusha, March 29th, 2000 (FH) - A spokesman for the dissident Hutu rebel group CNDD-FDD has said that the rebels maintain their preconditions for joining Burundi peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, despite assurances to the contrary by the new Facilitator Nelson Mandela.
" There are two conditions," FDD spokesman Jérome Ndiho said by telephone from Belgium on Wednesday, and went on to specify: "The government must dismantle the Nazi-like concentration camps [...] and free political prisoners."
Burundi's Tutsi-led government has forced an estimated 300,000 mainly Hutu civilians into displacement camps, saying this is for security reasons. Conditions in the camps are reported to be extremely difficult.
Ndiho said that FDD leader Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye had made these demands clear when he met Mandela recently in Johannesburg, and that Mandela had promised to do his best to ensure that the rebel demands are met. "We have confidence that he will do it," the FDD spokesman added.
Mandela told negotiators on Tuesday that dissident Hutu rebel groups had agreed to join the peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, without pre-conditions. He said he had been very impressed by FDD leader Ndayikengurukiye and FNL leader Kabura Cossana during his meetings with them.
"They came to me with [..] difficult conditions which would make a meeting very difficult," Mandela said. "When I said to them 'this is not the way leaders who want unity, who want peace behave, you must withdraw these conditions' [...], they immediately withdrew those conditions and they are coming here in April as people who are committed to peace."
It would appear that the preconditions exist nonetheless. All the same, Mandela has already been exerting pressure for the conditions to be met.
Seated next to Burundian President Pierre Buyoya on Tuesday, he said that innocent people "are languishing in jail simply because they do not agree with the head of state. Others have been thrown in regroupment camps, and the United Nations has expressed its opinion that those regroupment camps are not fit for any human beings to live in. [...] That is a situation which is totally unacceptable."
Speaking afterwards, Buyoya reaffirmed the government's position that closing the displacement camps was an internal matter and depended on the security situation. Nevertheless, the Burundian authorities on Wednesday said they had already closed 23 camps, allowing some 70,000 people to return home, and that they planned to continue the closures.
The issue of political prisoners could, however, be thornier. "When the President [Mandela] talks about regroupment camps, that is something which can nevertheless be solved relatively easily, because it depends only on the security situation," Buyoya said in Arusha on Tuesday. "But the question of political prisoners, we need to determine who is a political prisoner and who is not. That is not something which any government can do from one day to the next."
Mandela announced that the rebels would be present when the next round of talks starts on April 25th. Their presence must be accepted by all 19 delegations already present at the talks.
Under moral pressure from Mandela and the Facilitation, the delegates on Tuesday tacitly approved a declaration in which they "commend the dedication and determination of the Facilitator, President Mandela and his team who are facilitating these negotiations, specifically: by making the process as inclusive as possible by bringing in the armed groups".
"They approved the principle, but now they have to look at how to bring them in," a source close to the facilitation told Hirondelle. In the past, a major obstacle has been the leadership struggle between the heads of mainstream CNDD, already involved in the talks, and dissident leader Ndayikengurukiye of the breakaway CNDD-FDD.
However, CNDD spokesman Jean Marie-Sindayigaya was quoted on Wednesday as saying that his party no longer had any objections to FDD participation. " We are not worried about them coming," he said. "When we started CNDD we were together and we agree on the main issues."
The latest developments could augure well for rebel participation. However, the delegates meeting in Arusha have still not discussed the ways and means of including them, and the question of preconditions still stands.
JC/FH (BU%0329f)
MARCH 29th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI DELEGATES SAY PEACE TEXT IS NOTHING NEW
Arusha, March 29th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace delegates on Wednesday received the draft peace proposals promised by the Facilitation, but stressed there was nothing new in the 200-page document.
"We thought we were being asked to study compromise proposals on the different fundamental questions that we have already discussed," said Godefroid Hakizimana, president of the pro-Tutsi PSD party. "But unfortunately, the Facilitation has given us a compilation of documents that we already had. We don't regard this as a draft agreement but as a compilation of the different positions stated by the different delegations negotiating here."
Jean-Marie Sindayagaya, spokesman for the Hutu rebel CNDD reacted in a similar way. "This draft is nothing new compared with the documents that were distributed at the end of February, that is, it's a compilation [...] of the work we've already done."
New Facilitator Nelson Mandela on Tuesday told the delegates that they had three weeks to analyse the document and propose comments and amendments. He said the Facilitation would then retain some, but not all, and would be responsible for the final draft, giving the impression that work was winding up.
But Hakizimana said there was still a lot of work to be done. "I asked today, as president of the PSD, that we should establish a calendar, with clearly defined deadlines, so as not to mislead national and international opinion."
"There are still some issues that have not really been properly discussed," said Sindayagaya, "and important issues on which there is not sufficient consensus for the necessary drafts to be drawn up."
The document is a summary of work done by the four Burundian negotiating committees in nearly two years of negotiations. While they have agreed on points of principle in many areas, they still disagree on key issues such as army reform, the future electoral system and arrangements for a transitional government.
Some compromise proposals have been incorporated into the document, for example on the future shape of the army and institutional arrangements. However, they are followed by a string of amendments already proposed by the various parties.
JC/FH (BU%0329e)
MARCH 28th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA SAYS REBELS WILL JOIN PEACE TALKS IN APRIL
Arusha, March 28th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace Facilitator Nelson Mandela told negotiators on Tuesday that dissident Hutu rebel groups had agreed to join the peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, without pre-conditions.
The former South African president said he had been very impressed with dissident rebel leaders whom he met recently in South Africa. "They came to me with [..] difficult conditions which would make a meeting very difficult," he said. "But when I said to them this is not the way leaders who want unity, who want peace behave, you must withdraw these conditions [...], they did not give me the problem which I have experienced here of being rigid, being stubborn and thinking of themselves. They immediately withdrew those conditions and they are coming here in April as people who are committed to peace."
Mandela was referring to his meetings with Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the CNDD-FDD and Kabura Cossana of the FNL. He told the nineteen delegations taking part in the Arusha process that they must agree to admit the rebels.
"Now I have invited the rebel leaders to join these discussions and none of those amongst you who really want peace will object to their presence." Any new participant must be approved by all the delegations already taking part. This includes the mainstream CNDD, of which CNDD-FDD is a breakaway group.
Mandela said he had also been impressed by Burundi's Defence Minister and five senior army officers whom he met in Johannesburg. He said of both the rebels and the army representatives that "Not only do they support the Arusha process, but they are in favour of an early resolution of the conflict."
The Facilitator even suggested that the dissident rebels and mainly Tutsi army might be more serious about peace than the negotiators in Arusha. " I am sorry to say this," he told them, "but in very important respects the Minister of Defence and the senior military officers appeared far ahead of the thinking of political parties here. They stand head and shoulders above all of you here put together, because of what they said to me. The same with the rebel groups."
Mandela announced that he would shortly be going to Burundi, "specifically to see the army and to brief them on what is happening here. [...] I am confident that I will be welcomed by the army because they are one of the forces that is very sensitive to the crisis. They want to be a professional army, with nothing to do with politics and we must release them from any involvement in politics. Let them condition themselves to defend the sovereignty and the independence of Burundi and to help the police whenever there is a crisis inside the country. That is the duty of the army and I'm going there to discuss with them."
Reform of the army is one of the key sticking points in the negotiations, along with arrangements for a transition government and who will lead it.
Human rights abuses
Mandela spoke out strongly against human rights abuses by the Tutsi-led government. He spoke from a podium, seated next to Burundi's Tutsi president Pierre Buyoya, who seized power in a bloodless coup in July 1996.
The Facilitator said innocent people "are languishing in jail simply because they do not agree with the head of state. Others have been thrown in regroupment camps, and the united nations has expressed its opinion that those regroupment camps are not fit for any human beings to live in. There are political parties that are critical of the government, as well as the media, which are not allowed to operate. That is a situation which is totally unacceptable."
Mandela then appealed to Buyoya: I hope that my president here will consider this matter very seriously because on the eve of a breakthrough, all of us should be in the forefront in trying to normalize the situation and I have confidence in him that he is going to have the courage, the strength of character to bite the bullet."
The dissident rebels have demanded that the government release political prisoners and close all the regroupment camps. Burundi's government has forced hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutu civilians into these camps in the name of improving security. It has said it will close some, but only when the situation allows. So far, the closures are going at a snail's pace.
Speaking to the press afterwards, Buyoya said he had spoken at length with Mandela about these questions. "My reaction is very clear," he said. "First of all, President Mandela should consider the Burundi government and myself as an important ally to complete this peace process and that we are going to assume our responsibilities as a government. And everyone has recognized that at this stage of the peace process the government has a responsibility which other parties do not have."
"Whatever we can do to support the peace process we will do. Whatever we cannot do, we will tell him why. When pressed on the issue of the camps, he reiterated that the question of closing the regroupment camps was an internal matter.
"When the President talks about regroupment camps, that is something which can nevertheless be solved relatively easily, because it depends only on the security situation. But the question of political prisoners, we need to determine who is a political prisoner and who is not. That is not something which any government can do from one day to the next."
Despite his criticism of Buyoya's policies, Mandela nevertheless urged the Burundians to respect their president, along with the two former presidents who are also involved in the peace process. "You must understand that you have a certain type of behaviour towards somebody who holds the position of President," he said.
Mandela then turned to Buyoya and continued: " I am not interested in how he came into power, he is the President of Burundi and we can't ignore him. But he must take certain steps to correct many things which are wrong there and I have made that clear in my confidential discussions with him. He must do so, but as long as he is the President he must be respected."
JC/FH (BU%0328f)
MARCH 28th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA FORCES THE PACE ON BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
Arusha, March 28th, 2000 (FH) - New Burundi peace Facilitator Nelson Mandela on Tuesday submitted a draft peace accord to negotiators, saying they had three weeks to respond and that responsibility for the final proposal would lie with the Facilitation.
On the draft peace accord, Mandela appealed to the negotiating parties to put away their differences and approve an agreement quickly. "Now I know," he told them, "that you don't seem to appreciate the principle of collective leadership, the principle of teamwork. Each individual leader wants to have the last word. No national issue can be settled if you think as individuals, not thinking of the masses of the people who are living under extremely difficult conditions in Burundi. [...]
"I want you therefore to leave this plenary determined that you are now going to sink your differences as individuals," he continued, "that you are going to stop thinking of your personal interests, you are going to think of the people of Burundi, specifically that you are going to support my proposal [...]."
The proposals are based on points already agreed by four negotiating committees in two years of talks. However, they include compromise proposals on the major sticking points, such as arrangements for a transition government and the reform of Burundi's mainly Tutsi army.
"You must study these draft compromise proposals and make your comments," Mandela told the negotiators. "But after making your comments, we will decide which comments to accept. There will be many we will not be able to accept. You must now, after that, leave this matter entirely to the facilitation team. Then what they come up with we must all accept."
The former South African president said he had received the support of regional and African presidents for this change in methodology. "Yesterday I met with all the presidents that visited us, together with President Buyoya [of Burundi]," Mandela continued. "Those presidents spoke with one voice and said that the only way of finalizing this matter is now to leave the matter to the facilitation team. All of them, and they are very experienced people."
The presidents of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya attended Monday's reopening of the talks, along with president Sam Nujoma of Namibia and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Ghadafy also sent a high-level envoy.
Speaking to the press after Tuesday's plenary session, Burundi's president Buyoya said he thought this negotiating session had so far been very positive. "All the foreign heads of state came to encourage the Burundians.," Buyoya said. " The facilitator himself has shown his firm commitment to ensuring that this process is accelerated and genuinely all-inclusive."
JC/FH (BU%0328e)
MARCH 27th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS RESUME WITH MESSAGE FROM OBASANJO
Arusha, March 27th, 2000 (FH) - Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday told Burundian peace delegates gathered in Arusha that democracy was the only path to peace and that it must involve the military's exit from politics, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
"When the military says it is handing over power," he said, "the decision must be not only unequivocal by the leadership and within the military, but must also be seen by the general population as total commitment."
Obasanjo was addressing the delegates at the invitation of former South African president Nelson Mandela, the new Facilitator for the Burundi peace process. Other heads of state, including President Sam Nujoma of Namibia, are due to address the meeting later in the day.
As at the start of the previous round of talks, Mandela has drawn a show of support for the fumbling peace process from an impressive line-up of heads of state. Libya's Colonel Muammar Ghadafy sent a message via his Minister for African Unity, who urged the delegates to conclude a peace agreement quickly, in a spirit of compromise.
Burundi's president Pierre Buyoya is attending, as are the heads of state of Tanzania and Uganda. Kenya's president Daniel arap Moi has sent his foreign minister and may also attend himself.
The civil war in Burundi has been raging since October 1993, when Tutsi soldiers assassinated the first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye, a member of the Hutu majority. Current peace talks in Arusha have been in progress for nearly two years, with little concrete progress and continuing violence on the ground.
Mandela has convened the heads of the eighteen Burundian delegations taking part in the talks, hoping to thrash out some of the main sticking points. These include arrangements for a transition government, a future electoral system, and reform of Burundi's mainly Tutsi army.
Obasanjo suggested that Burundi could learn from some of the lessons of his country, Nigeria, which last year returned to democracy after 29 years of military rule.
"To put it bluntly," he said, "the longer the military are in power so long will the society lose its vital habit of thinking creatively and democratically and solving its problems accordingly. And come the day the military have to leave power, as they invariably must, the society will begin from scratch to imbibe democracy."
Obasanjo said the military in Nigeria failed dismally to solve the country's social and economic problems, "and one should not be surprised at this," he continued. "As I always say, economic problems do not obey military orders."
The Nigerian president said the process of building democracy after military rule was inevitably difficult, as shown by the recent inter-ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria. But he said there was no alternative, if there was to be peace.
"Peace is the foundation of all development and progress [...]," he said. "There is no substitute for peace. And any sacrifice is worth making for peace."
JC/FH (BU%0327e)
MARCH 21st 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS TO RESUME, AS REBELS SAY THEY'LL JOIN
Arusha, March 21st, 2000 (FH) - As Burundi peace facilitator Nelson Mandela met in South Africa with dissident rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, dates were announced for the resumption of peace talks in Arusha.
The Facilitator's Representative, Judge Mark Bomani of Tanzania, told independent news agency Hirondelle that Mandela would be in Arusha from March 27th to 31st for the resumption of negotiations, and was then expected to visit other regional capitals.
Bomani said Mandela's meeting on Monday with Ndayikengurukiye "should certainly advance the course of the negotiations". Mandela has made it a priority to bring in dissident rebels, but failed to do so before the last round of talks, which ended inconclusively on March 4th.
After his meeting in Johannesburg with Mandela, Ndayikengurukiye told a press conference that his CNDD-FDD group would take part in future negotiations, but that it would continue fighting if the Arusha talks failed.
He said CNDD-FDD was demanding the release of political prisoners, and the dismantling of all government regroupment camps. The Tutsi-led authorities have forced hundreds of thousands of mainly Hutus into these camps, saying it is for security reasons.
Mandela was expected to meet with other Burundian armed groups this week in Johannesburg. Last week he met there with Burundi's Defence Minister Colonel Cyrille Ndayirukiye and four senior army officers.
The former South African president will be back in Arusha next week, for talks with the heads of Burundian peace delegations. Bomani said it would be "too soon" for CNDD-FDD to take part, as they needed time to study peace proposals, but that "they may be there subsequently".
Burundi's President Pierre Buyoya, former presidents Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and Jean-Baptiste Bagaza and the Speaker of Burundi's National Assembly have also been invited to next week's meetings.
The Nyerere Foundation, which organizes the negotiations in Arusha, says the first meeting on March 27th to 28th is to "try to thrash out outstanding issues". These include reform of the mainly Tutsi army, arrangements for a transition government, a future electoral system and the issue of amnesty.
From March 28th to 29th, the new committee on implementation and guarantees (CommitteeV) will hold a "planning and strategy meeting". This committee, meant to ensure the implementation of an eventual peace deal, is chaired by Mandela. Its members are heads of the eighteen negotiating delegations.
JC/DO/ FH (BU%0321e)
MARCH 4th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE SESSION CLOSES AMID ROW OVER FIFTH COMMITTEE
Arusha, March 4th, 2000 (FH) - The latest round of Burundi peace talks closed on Saturday, with almost the entire agenda being taken up by a row over the composition of a fifth committee, to guarantee the implementation of an eventual peace agreement, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
"The dates for future activities of the various committees will be announced in due course," said the Facilitator's representative Judge Mark Bomani of Tanzania in his closing speech to a plenary session. "It may be necessary to review our work methods so as to complete these negotiations at an early date."
The talks have been taking place in four committees, dealing with the nature of the Burundi conflict (Committee I), democracy and good governance (Committee II), peace and security for all (Committee III) and economic reconstruction and the return of refugees (Committee IV).
Speaking to Hirondelle afterwards, Bomani said that the only Committee which was sure to have another session was Committee III. The next step will be a meeting in April of heads of delegations to "seriously re-examine the methodology and the progress we've made," Bomani said.
He told the plenary session there would also be a meeting of the new fifth committee, to be convened by new Facilitator Nelson Mandela at an early date, probably in April.
Saturday's plenary session ran out of time before it could discuss the progress made at this two-week negotiating round. Almost the entire morning was spent discussing the composition of the new fifth committee.
While delegates agreed that it should be headed by Mandela himself, a majority rejected the facilitation's suggestion that Bomani should be its vice-chairman, insisting that the four chairs of the current committees should instead form the vice-chairmanship. The main Hutu opposition party FRODEBU and some other Hutu groups supported the facilitation's suggestion.
"The vice-chairman should be someone from outside the region," said Mathias Hitimana of the Tutsi royalist PRP party. "He should be from a country that has nothing to do with the Burundi conflict. We know that Tanzania is implicated, for example it gave a lot of support to the sanctions. I would propose that the Vice-President be from Europe, America or an Asian country."
Bomani said the remarks were unjustified and also an insult. He pointed out that he had been working with the late former mediator Julius Nyerere of Tanzania for four years to try to bring peace to Burundi and that it was therefore illogical to bring up the issue of impartiality now. Judge Joseph Warioba, also of the Nyerere Foundation and a member of the facilitation, begged the participants not to make the discussion personal, but to look at the most efficient way of setting up the vital fifth committee.
After about two and half hours of debate, the plenary session finally decided that Mandela would head the fifth committee and be assisted by a committee comprising Bomani, the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the other four committees. Mandela is to work out with this bureau who will replace him if he cannot be present.
Ousted former Burundian president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya (FRODEBU) told Hirondelle he believed the insistence on a four-member vice-presidency excluding Bomani was an attempt to paralyze the fifth committee. He said this committee would, among other things, be instrumental in ensuring that there was an international force to oversee the integration of Hutu rebel forces into the mainly Tutsi army, and that this idea had always been highly contested by some parties.
The negotiators have not yet reached agreement on any of the key points, such as army reform, the setting up of a transitional government and a future electoral system. However, after 20 months of talks, the facilitation has now put compromise proposals on the table. The proposal before Committee III is for a complete integration of armed Hutu rebels into the army, which should be drawn from all elements of Burundi society.
JC/FH (BU%0304e)
MARCH 3rd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE COMMITTEES SAY THEY HAVE MADE PROGRESS
Arusha, March 3rd, 2000 (FH) - As Burundi peace committees neared the end of this negotiating round, delegates and observers were generally hopeful that a global peace agreement can be reached within two or three months, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. However, the big questionmark still hanging over the proceedings is whether dissident rebels can be brought into the process.
The talks are currently taking place in four committees, dealing with the nature of the Burundi conflict (Committee I), democracy and good governance (Committee II), peace and security for all (Committee III) and economic reconstruction and the return of refugees (Committee IV). This negotiating round is due to close officially on Saturday morning, with no more committee talks scheduled or funded as yet.
"I would say the committees probably could finish their work within another session," Julian Hottinger, Swiss vice-chairman of Committee II told Hirondelle, "but you know it all depends. We could come across a problem on the electoral system, for example, and we could be stuck at a certain moment. So you really can't judge on time. It's more of a feeling than anything else [...] and this is the feeling that we are starting to get, that we do see the end of the agenda coming up slowly but surely."
"This has been a good session," Burundi's Minister for the Peace Process Ambroise Niyonsaba said. "For the first time, the committees have been working on the basis of proposed drafts. This is an important step. Before, there were discussions, but they were not really given a form as such."
New facilitator Nelson Mandela said in his opening speech on February 21st that delegates felt the time was ripe for the facilitation to present compromise proposals. This has been done, notably in Committees II and III, where the issues are most controversial. However, these drafts have not been made public and Niyonsaba stressed that "it has to be understood they are not decisions but proposals".
Jean Minani, exiled leader of the main opposition party FRODEBU (pro-Hutu), nevertheless expressed disappointment that there had not been more concrete progress. "We had baptized this the last session, at least for the committees," he told Hirondelle, "but now we realize that our hopes have not been fulfilled and that we haven't made the progress we would have liked. Nevertheless, we can say that in the first and fourth committees, things have gone very well, and they can end their sessions today. There are of course a few points outstanding, but which we can try to work out at a higher level."
Minani said that for the other two committees "there has not been much progress", but that he hoped consensus on key points could still be found before the closure of the session. He said the facilitation's move to present draft documents was positive.
"I would have said I was very disappointed if it hadn't been for these drafts," Minani told Hirondelle. "There has been progress nonetheless...it's small, but it's there. Today we have a working document which is accepted by everybody and which everyone is working on.".
In fact, compromise agreements have still to be found on most of the key points, such as the setting up of a transition government; a future electoral system, army reform and amnesty for past crimes. In Committee II, dealing with institutional and electoral questions, vice-chairman Hottinger says there is agreement on many of the principles, but not yet on the technical details.
For example, the eighteen parties present are asking for a transition period ranging from six months to seven years. The facilitation is proposing three years as a possible compromise, but negotiations are still under way.
Committee III is now looking at the crucial issue of army reform and integration of Hutu rebel forces into the mainly Tutsi army. This is perhaps the most sensitive issue of all and even the principle is contested by some pro-Tutsi groups.
"The government has already said it could imagine the possibility of some members of armed groups in the army," Minister Niyonsaba told Hirondelle. But he said it was too soon to start talking about what proportions should be drawn from which communities (Hutu, Tutsi etc.), especially since dissident rebels had not yet been brought to the negotiating table. "I think it would be premature when these gentlemen are not there," Niyonsaba told Hirondelle.
Facilitation spokesman Hashim Mbita said earlier this week that Committee III would not be able to tackle the last points on its agenda, a cessation of hostilities and ceasefire agreement, at all until the rebels were brought in. Mandela has said that persuading them to the negotiating table is a priority. But, despite ongoing contacts, he has still not managed to meet their leaders.
"As you know, there's one very important point that has not yet been settled, and that is to bring the armed groups into the negotiating fold," said Committee IV chairman Georg Lennkh of Austria. "I think the state of play is that they have been invited insistently and now it will rather be them who would be hard pressed to explain why they haven't come, because in fact they have been given a reassurance that we will try to take in their interests. I think a decision on which way we will go will happen in the next few weeks.
"As for the rest, I think the issues can be settled if there is the will to do it. I think our committee has shown really that there is a great willingness on all sides to compromise, to come to viable solutions and to say let's try and do this together."
JC/FH (BU%0303e)
MARCH 3rd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE WORK
Arusha, March 3rd, 2000 (FH) -The following is a summary, compiled Friday afternoon by the independent news agency Hirondelle, of the state of Burundi peace negotiations in four committees.
* Committee One: The Nature of the Conflict
This committee has finished its negotiations, with a document awaited shortly.
It discussed the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods of Burundi history, the question of genocide and mechanisms to prevent it.
According to delegates, the negotiators have simply agreed to disagree on some points, notably with regard to the post-colonial period.
Both Burundi's majority Hutu and minority Tutsi communities claim to have been victims of genocide since 1965.
The negotiators have agreed to ask for an international committee of inquiry into genocide and crimes against humanity in Burundi, and a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They rejected a suggestion from new mediator Nelson Mandela that it might not be necessary to have both. It is still unclear if they have agreed which period the international inquiry should cover. Pro-Hutu parties were asking that the inquiry should start in 1965 while pro-Tutsi parties wanted it to cover from 1993 only. It was in 1993 that the killing of the country's first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye (Hutu) by Tutsi soldiers sparked a backlash against the Tutsi community.
The question of amnesty for past atrocities has been left in suspense, and is now expected to be taken up at the level of delegation heads.
* Committee Two: Democracy and Good Governance
This committee has not yet made much concrete headway on key points, such as the setting up of a transition government, future institutions and electoral system.
The facilitation has put forward a proposed draft, of which Hirondelle has obtained a copy.
This has been accepted as a working document, but its proposals do not represent any kind of decision on the key points as yet.
Facilitators say the proposals nevertheless represent what they consider to be a possible compromise, taking into account the positions of all the parties:
Some of its suggestions are as follows:
- 3-year transition government of national unity, including representatives of the different political parties in the proportions agreed in Arusha, and a transitional parliament. President and Vice-President to be designated by the Arusha peace talks.
- transitional parliament to approve a final Constitution within two years (two-thirds majority required). Constitution to be submitted to a popular referendum (70% "yes" vote required). New Constitution to come into force at the end of the transition.
- creation of an all-party commission to propose reforms of the justice and administrative systems
- measures to correct "ethnic imbalances" in the judicial system, including intensive training and better promotion prospects for lawyers. Foreign assistance may be sought.
- creation of an independent electoral committee to oversee local, national parliamentary and presidential elections
- electoral lists to be multi-ethnic. Only 7 out of 10 candidates on a party list to be of the same ethnic group, and at least one to be a woman.
- President to be elected either by direct suffrage (two rounds of voting if no absolute majority is obtained in the first round) or by a two-thirds majority of the elected parliament.
- Anyone who has served as President during the transition period to be ineligible for the presidential elections.
Committee Three: Peace and Security for All
This committee has agreed only on the principle of peace and security for all. It is currently negotiating the second item of its agenda, on army reform and integration of Hutu rebel forces into the mainly Tutsi army.
Once again, the facilitation has put forward a proposed compromise draft, of which Hirondelle has obtained a copy. Some of the main points are as follows:
- the army to be composed of all elements of Burundi society, regardless of ethnicity, sex, or social standing. To include current members, members of armed Hutu rebel groups and other citizens wishing to join.
- members of the current army or rebel groups found guilty of genocide or war crimes to be excluded.
- army and rebel groups to be placed under the authoritiy of the transitional government.
- a joint committee to be set up to oversee the reform of the national defence forces. Current army and rebel groups to be represented, along with external military advisors.
- creation of a mechanism or body to handle questions of demobilization and socio-professional reintegration of demobilized fighters
Facilitatators say the last points on the committee's agenda, that is, cessation of hostilities and a permanent ceasefire agreement, cannot be tackled until dissident Hutu rebels have been brought to the negotiating table. It is still not certain that they will come, despite the efforts of Nelson Mandela.
Committee Four: Economic Reconstruction and Return of Refugees
This committee has also finished its work. Some issues still remain to be ironed out at a higher level, notably the question of returning refugees' rights to reclaim land, and questions of ompensation for loss of property.
The committee's recommendations include creation of a national commission for the rehabilitation of returned refugees. Committee chairman Georg Lennkh told Hirondelle: "Everyone realizes this is a major problem. More than one million people will have to return to their homes once the war is over and for a country of 6 million people, this is a major operation."
The committee recommends creation of an interministerial group which would draft within six weeks an emergency reconstruction plan to be submitted to donors, and then a longer term development plan.
Development proposals include measures to encourage Burundians to leave the land and seek alternative opportunities in the towns. This could help remedy both ethnic imbalances and Burundi's shortage of agricultural land.
JC/FH (BU%0303f)
MARCH 1st 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE NEGOTIATORS BALK AT FINAL HURDLES
Arusha, March 1st, 2000 (FH) - Burundi peace delegates on Wednesday continued talks aimed at producing draft documents by Easter to form the basis of a peace agreement, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. But with time pressing and the negotiations now focussing on the main sticking points, the task of the facilitation team is as difficult as ever.
The talks are currently taking place in four committees, dealing with the nature of the Burundi conflict (Committee I), democracy and good governance (Committee II), peace and security for all (Committee III) and economic reconstruction and the return of refugees (Committee IV). This session of talks is due to wind up at the end of the week, with no more committee talks scheduled or funded as yet.
Speaking at the re-opening of the talks on January 21st, new mediator Nelson Mandela told the eighteen Burundian parties present that they needed a sense of urgency and that funds were not unlimited. Mandela returned to South Africa last Wednesday, leaving his facilitation team to continue their work.
"We are very optimistic that Committees I and IV will be able to have draft documents for final consideration," said Hashim Mbita of the Nyerere Foundation, who is also spokesman for the facilitation. However, he said that Committee II would probably need more time. "There is a likelihood it won't complete its work at this session," he told a press conference.
This committee is dealing with some of the most controversial issues such as the setting up of a transition governement, Burundi's future institutions and electoral system. All these issues involve the country's majority Hutu and minority Tutsi agreeing to share power in such a way that their communities are reassured.
As for Committee III, Mbita said it was still discussing the second item on its agenda, dealing with the future shape of the armed forces, demobilization and integration of Hutu rebels into the army. At present the army is mainly Tutsi. Mbita said the third and fourth points on the agenda, dealing with cessation of hostilities and a permanent ceasefire could not be tackled until dissident rebels had been brought into the talks.
"They will have to meet before Easter, once the Facilitator has met with rebel leaders and senior army commanders from Burundi," Mbita said. He said Committee II would probably need another meeting before Easter too, but that "we'll know the exact position by Friday or Saturday".
Mandela, who was named as mediator in December to suceed the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, has made bringing the rebels into the talks a priority. Mbita said the Facilitator was currently in contact with them and hoped to meet rebel leaders "as soon as possible".
However, a meeting between Mandela and rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the CNDD-FDD expected to take place in South Africa weeks ago has not yet taken place. Mbita admitted that organizing such a meeting was "extremely difficult" but said the facilitation remained optimistic.
He said Mandela was also planning to go to Burundi shortly, where he would meet the Minister of Defence and senior army officers. Mandela has expressed the desire to go to Burundi, and spoken of the need to prepare the Burundi people for the signing of a peace agreement.
Facilitation troubles
Observers say the facilitation's attempts to impose a tighter timetable, and to submit compromise proposals on the main sticking points should move the talks forward. However, the negotiating atmosphere on Wednesday appeared to have taken a turn for the worse, not only because of the delicacy of the issues at stake.
The majority of pro-Tutsi parties last week objected to Mandela's words when he publicly pointed the finger at the country's Tutsi minority. "There is no doubt," Mandela told the Burundi delegates and senior representatives of the international community, "that one of the critical factors is that a minority of 14 to 15 percent in a population of 6 million monopolizes political power, economic power and the military. As long as you have that situation, you can never have peace and stability. And the leaders must bite the bullet and address this question."
Eight pro-Tutsi parties threatened to walk out of the talks if the facilitation's compromise proposals were in the same vein as Mandela's statements. Although they have not done so, one delegate (Hutu) told Hirondelle that Mandela's words had been like "a cold shower" and that the facilitation was tending to "ethnicize" the debate.
To make matters worse, the facilitation has submitted to Committee III a proposal on the armed forces drawn up by mainly anti-government forces during consultations in Dar es Salaam. The proposal was signed by the main Hutu opposition party FRODEBU, the Hutu rebel movement CNDD, the pro-Tutsi PARENA party of former president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza and one member of the National Assembly.
A member of the facilitation team said that such a document was meant as a "kind of road map" for the negotiatiors, but admitted that the approach had not been welcomed by the other parties.
Facilitation spokesman Mbita denied that any compromise proposals were already on the table. But the chairman of one committee said he had already submitted several. "We thought this would make things easier," he told Hirondelle, "but they can't agree on anything at all."
JC/FH (BU%0301e)
FEBRUARY 23rd 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
TUTSI PARTIES HIT OUT AT MANDELA
Arusha, February 23rd, 2000 (FH) - Eight pro-Tutsi parties taking part in peace talks for Burundi on Wednesday accused new mediator Nelson Mandela of taking sides and trying to give their negotiations an unwarranted ethnic bias, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports.
The eight parties, including the former single party UPRONA, were reacting to part of Mandela's opening speech on Monday in which he pointed the finger at Burundi's Tutsi minority. Tutsis make up some 14 to 15% of the population, compared with 80% Hutus.
"There is no doubt," Mandela told the Burundi delegates and senior representatives of the international community, "that one of the critical factors is that a minority of 14 to 15 percent in a population of 6 million monopolizes political power, economic power and the military. As long as you have that situation, you can never have peace and stability. And the leaders must bite the bullet and address this question."
It was not until Mandela had left Arusha on Wednesday that the eight parties issued their declaration to the local and international press. In their statement, they said that Mandela's comments "do not correspond with the social and historical reality of Burundi" and that "this thesis is dangerous in so much as it runs the risk of justifying the continuation of the genocide against the Tutsis."
They said that Mandela's statements threatened the peace process and that if compromise proposals promised by the facilitation team were based on "this thesis", they would pull out of the negotiations. UPRONA's Libère Bararunyeretse said the eight parties had issued the declaration "so that the real situation in Burundi be elucidated and cease to be so badly deformed".
The statement also says that "this thesis is likely to seriously compromise the rest of the negotiations, because it panders to the extremist tendances among the Hutu parties to the talks, who already see themselves as the winners of the negotiations."
The declaration was signed by UPRONA, AV-INTWARI, PRP, RADDES (which has just been readmitted to the talks), ANADDE, PSD, PIT and INKINZO. Observers who were present could nevertheless be forgiven for finding the Tutsi delegates somewhat inconsistent. "We are going to continue the negotiations in a positive spirit, to bring them to a conclusion," Bararunyeretse also told the press, saying that the new mediator had merely been "badly advised".
Mathias Hitimana of the Tutsi royalist PRP, the only one to speak out earlier against Mandela's words, even went most of the way towards thanking the mediator for raising the ethnic question directly. "The Tutsis are afraid of the Hutus and the Hutus are afraid of the Tutsis," he said. "In some way, Mandela was speaking the truth, but there are some truths that are better not said. Mandela said things we do not like." Hitimana said that "it is not yet the moment to despair" of Mandela as mediator, and that "he has been misled by those who briefed him".
"We are not going to stand this nonsense," one of the South African team was overheard as saying during the proceedings, and later: "Mandela is not a small boy. He cannot be misled. That's where the insult lies."
Nevertheless, South African facilitators and advisors to Mandela are said to have been worried about the developments, even before the press conference of the eight parties. Some feel that even if Mandela spoke the truth, it was inappropriate for a mediator, and that the Burundi peace talks are doomed to failure if he cannot keep all the parties on board.
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FEBRUARY 21st 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA TELLS BURUNDI'S TUTSIS THEY MUST RELINQUISH SOME POWER
Arusha, February 21st, 2000 (FH) - New Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela stressed on Monday that Burundian negotiators needed a sense of urgency, and that they must all be prepared to compromise, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. He said that the country's Tutsi minority had monopolized political, military and economic power and that this situation could not continue.
"As long as you have that situation," said the former South African president, "there can never be peace and stability. And the leaders must bite the bullet and address this question."
Mandela was speaking to the eighteen Burundian delegations taking part in the Arusha peace negotiations, and an impressive line-up of heads of state and international envoys who had come at his invitation. Dissident rebels who are still fighting in Burundi were not present, but sources close to Mandela say contacts are continuing to see how to bring them into these talks.
Host President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and other speakers lent their weight to Mandela's calls for a speedy end to the conflict in Burundi. The talks have been in progress for more than 18 months, with negotiators dragging their feet.
Despite the length of the negotiations, solutions have still to be found on the most thorny issues, notably the future electoral system and institutions of government, reform of the mainly Tutsi army and how to deal with the atrocities of the past.
Mandela said that the Burundian delegations could not ignore the question of who should be granted amnesty. He said that genocide, crimes against humanity and coups d'état should not be granted amnesty.
On the sticking points in general, Mandela said he had met with a significant number of delegations who agreed that the facilitation should put forward a compromise proposal for discussion. He sounded a note of cautious optimism, saying he had been encouraged by his meetings so far with the Burundian peace negotiators.
"What was encouraging [...] was their acceptance that the funds we have are not unlimited," Mandela said. "Therefore there is an absolute necessity to take decisions in this session. [...] Many of them feel that the time has come to close this process by having an agreement which will draw wide support.
FEBRUARY 18th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
AT LEAST FIVE HEADS OF STATE TO ATTEND RESUMPTION OF BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
Arusha, February 18th 2000 (FH) - At least five heads of state are to attend Monday's re-opening of the Burundi peace talks under new mediator Nelson Mandela, the independent news agency Hirondelle reported on Friday.
Organizers say Mandela has invited some fifteen heads of state, in his bid to raise the profile of the talks and get a peace agreement quickly. In his début speech as mediator in January, Mandela launched invitations to US President Bill Clinton and French President Jacques Chirac, among others. The former South African president said that he alone could not bring peace to Burundi and that the international community should work together.
France is sending its Overseas Development Minister Charles Josselin, Britain is sending its Minister for Africa Peter Hain and US President Clinton will send a videotaped message to the participants. The US envoy to the Great Lakes region, Howard Wolpe, will be in Arusha, Tanzania for the talks.
Hashim Mbita, a spokesman for the facilitation team of the Nyerere Foundation, said heads of state who had already confirmed their presence were Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, Tanzania's Benjamin Mkapa, Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Mozambique's Joachim Chissano and President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi. Organization of African Unity Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim will also attend.
Mbita said the talks would last for two weeks, including a summit on Monday, February 21st, and a three-day plenary session. The Burundian peace negotiators are then expected to resume their work in four committees.
Eighteen Burundian delegations are taking part, representing the country's government, parliament, political parties and Hutu rebel groups. However, dissident rebel groups still engaged in fighting with Burundi's Tutsi-led army have so far been excluded.
Speaking in Arusha in January, Mandela said that one of his priorities would be to bring these groups in, to ensure that any peace agreement would be respected. One of the main rebel leaders, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the CNDD-FDD, has already agreed to meet Mandela.
The Mandela effect
The peace talks have been in progress for more than 18 months, with participants dragging their feet and violence continuing on the ground. They made some progress under the mediation of the late former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, but major issues remain to be resolved. These include reform of the mainly Tutsi army, the setting up of a transition government and mechanisms to deal with past atrocities.
Nyerere's death from leukemia in October brought the already troubled talks to a grinding halt. At the beginning of December, regional leaders chose Mandela to replace him and Mandela paid a one-day visit to Arusha in January, to meet heads of the Burundian delegations and donor representatives.
Mandela was very well received by the Burundian delegations, some of whom had previously expressed reservations about his neutrality in the Burundian conflict. They gave him a standing ovation after his address, which lasted more than an hour and a half.
There are high hopes that Mandela can revive the talks, but it will not necessarily be easy. A report this month from South Africa's Centre for Conflict Resolution says that his nomination as mediator has given the peace process a " major and much-needed new lease on life".
Author Jan Van Eck, a long-time advisor to the Burundian peace process, says Mandela's appointment has created real hope amongst Burundian parties that "the process can be adapted to accommodate the aspirations of all sides in the conflict. As a result, the chances of the Burundian belligerents making further progress in trying to reach a compromise agreement have been increased significantly. At the same time, however, serious note needs to be taken of the extremely negative internal and regional environment within which the Burundian parties are trying to negotiate an agreement."
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JANUARY 24th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
RADDES PARTY WANTS TO REJOIN BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
Arusha, January 24th, 2000 (FH) - Burundi's hardline Tutsi RADDES party has asked to rejoin the Arusha peace talks, a spokesman for the facilitation team said last week.
Hashim Mbita of Tanzania's Nyerere Foundation said RADDES (Rassemblement pour la démocratie et le développement économique et social - Rally for Democracy and Economic and Social Development) had made an official request. But he said this would be submitted to the next plenary session of the negotiations, scheduled for February.
The negotiations are attended by eighteen delegations, including the Burundi government and parliament, political parties and three Hutu rebel groups. The current participants are required to approve any new participant.
RADDES was present at the Arusha talks when they were relaunched in June 1998, but refused to sign a document on participation. It then stayed away, but made a series of declarations, notably accusing former facilitator Julius Nyerere of partiality in the Burundi peace process.
Nyerere died of leukemia in October. On December 1st, regional leaders chose former South African president Nelson Mandela to succeed him as the new facilitator for the Burundi negotiations.
In a speech in Arusha on January 16th, Mandela stressed that small parties should not be marginalized in the negotiations. But he also warned against divisive elements, saying that parties should resolve their internal differences before coming to the negotiating table.
Mandela's attempts to inject new impetus into the talks come as the situation on the ground in Burundi has deteriorated. UN officials say more than 30,000 refugees have streamed into Tanzania in the last month, fleeing fighting between the Tutsi-led security forces and Hutu rebels.
Human rights organizations say more than 200,000 people have died in Burundi's civil war, which broke out after Tutsi troops murdered the first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye (Hutu) in October 1993.
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JANUARY 17th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
BURUNDI PEACE DELEGATES URGE MANDELA TO HELP THEM FIND PEACE
Arusha, January 17th, 2000 (FH) - Heads of Burundian peace delegations on Sunday welcomed former South African president Nelson Mandela as new facilitator to the negotiations in Arusha, Tanzania, pledging their commitment to reaching an agreement.
"We express the fervent hope that, in the early months of 2000 we will be able to name you, along with your illustrious predecessor Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the fathers of rediscovered peace in Burundi," Burundi's Minister for the Peace Process Ambroise Niyonsaba told Mandela. "We will do everything to facilitate your task."
"We assure Your Excellency of our total commitment to work harder to achieve as soon as possible the Peace Agreement," said Gaetan Nikobamye of the Liberal Party (PL). He was speaking on behalf of seven mainly Hutu groups known as the "G7", which includes Burundi's biggest opposition party FRODEBU and CNDD rebels.
"The first meeting between you and us is tantamount to a real milestone in the Peace Forum," said Ambassador Terence Nsanze of the ABASA party, in a statement from seven mainly Tutsi opposition parties.
The Burundian negotiators were responding to a lengthy address by Mandela, in which he laid out priorities for the talks, put forward suggestions and berated them for their lack of urgency. The negotiations in Arusha have been in progress for some eighteen months, with negotiators dragging their heels and a recent escalation of violence on the ground.
Mandela's address came during his first visit to Arusha as Burundi peace facilitator. He succeeds the former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere who died of leukemia in October.
"His speech is an important step in our negotiations," former President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya told Hirondelle. "I have before me a man who seems to be Burundian and to read what is in our hearts."
All was not peace and harmony, however. Tutsi opposition parties urged Mandela to "revisit both the methodology and the substance" of the negotiations, saying that up to now they had been "far from a paragon of democracy".
They accused Nyerere, whose facilitation team is still working with Mandela, of favoritisim and of "arbitrary division of the Parties to the negotiations into two categories". In particular, they condemned a meeting of the government and bigger political parties (the "G6") in Dar es Salaam as a "divisive undertaking" and a "blatant and deliberate deviation from the Arusha Peace Negotiations."
"In our view you are the only centre stage of the Burundi peace Negotiations," Ambassador Nsanze told Mandela. "We therefore expect the members of the existent Facilitation Group to abstain from embarking on substantive decisions without prior consultations between you and all the parties to this peace process."
Both Tutsi opposition parties and the government mentioned specifically that all armed groups should be included in the peace process, a priority that has been set by Mandela. "We suggest to the facilitation that it identify these groups and their leaders and bring them into the peace process by an appropriate method, so that no one have a pretext to hold the Burundi people hostage," said Minister Niyonsaba.
But the G7 (mainly Hutu) group accused what it called the "military regime in Bujumbura" of "arbitrary arrests and detentions in inhumane conditions, disappearances and political assassinations, distribution of arms to a chosen part of the population and confinement of more than one million people in concentration camps".
Both the G7 and the Tutsi opposition parties accused the Tutsi-led regime of systematically harrassing the opposition, restricting the activities of political parties and censoring the press.
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JANUARY 16th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA SAYS BURUNDI PEACE TALKS MUST INCLUDE ARMED GROUPS
Arusha, January 16th, 2000 (FH) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Sunday made his début as Burundi peace facilitator, saying that all armed groups must be brought into the Arusha negotiations.
"The question of the armed groups not present at these negotiations must be addressed urgently," Mandela told Burundi peace delegates gathered in Arusha. "Their absence from this process has been, in my view, one of its major weaknesses." He stressed that an agreement would not be worth the paper it was written on if some of the major combatants did not respect it.
Bringing in the dissident rebel factions, he said, was also the goal of regional leaders who chose him on December 1st to replace late former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere as facilitator. Nyerere died of leukemia in October.
The current peace talks for Burundi have been in progress for some 18 months, with negotiators dragging their feet. In recent months, violence on the ground between the Tutsi-led security forces and Hutu rebels has increased, claiming an ever rising number of civilian victims.
Mandela was in Arusha for a hectic, one-day visit, before flying to New York to address the UN Security Council on the Burundi peace process. He had a working lunch with the facilitation team, put in place by Nyerere, then gave a lengthy, moving address to heads of the eighteen Burundi peace delegations.
"It seems to me the important thing that must happen is that the government must put on the table a proposal which is sufficiently attractive to the armed groups, to convince them that the solution is not military but political. That's what the government should do," he said.
Responding to this afterwards, Burundi's Minister for the Peace Process Ambroise Niyonsaba said that his government agreed. "But we would like the facilitator to do everything he can to find out exactly who these groups are, who their leaders are and what they want, so that we can make a proposal with all the necessary information."
Bringing in dissident Hutu armed groups who are still staging attacks in Burundi is also a priority of the donor community. Asked whether this might be possible, one diplomat expressed the view that Mandela, with his background and experience, might be able to do it if anyone can.
Mandela also stressed the need to involve the people of Burundi in the peace process. He cited the example of Rwanda, where the 1994 genocide followed hard on the heels of the 1993 Arusha peace agreement. "The negotiations for Rwanda did nothing to prepare the population for the agreement., with the tragic consequences that we know," he said.
The former South African president also expressed his desire to go to Burundi and meet with President Pierre Buyoya.
While declining to set a deadline for the conclusion of a peace deal, Mandela was stern in his demand for negotiators to be honest with each other, to recognize the need for compromise and to conclude quickly. He reminded them of Nyerere's words last July, when Nyerere accused them of wasting "time, money and hope".
"That a man like that said this, is an indictment against you," Mandela told them. "And that people are dying every day in your country is an indictment against you."
Mandela also held a brief meeting behind closed doors with special envoys and representatives of donor countries supporting the Arusha peace process for Burundi. The donor community has spent nearly $10 million over four years to try to bring a negotiated end to Burundi's civil war.
Diplomats told Hirondelle that the meeting had been "very positive". Donors say the process will need between $2.5 and $3 million to see it through, with the expectation of an agreement by April. There is some $1 million already available. "I don't envisage problems finding the rest," said the representative of a major donor, "especially after Mandela's speech today."
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JANUARY 13th 2000
BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
MANDELA TO MEET BURUNDI WARRING FACTIONS ON SUNDAY
Arusha, January 13th, 2000 (FH) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela will pay his first visit to Arusha, Tanzania, on Sunday as mediator in peace talks for Burundi, the independent news agency Hirondelle reports. "This is going to be Mandela's first familiarization trip," said Hashim Mbita, spokesman for the facilitation team.
Mandela will meet facilitators from the Nyerere Foundation and heads of the eighteen Burundi delegations taking part in the Arusha talks. Brigadier-General Mbita, spokesman for the Nyerere Foundation which has been organizing the talks, said Mandela would also meet with special envoys and representatives of donor countries. These include the European Union, the United States, Britain and Japan.
Mandela is expected to arrive in Arusha on Sunday morning, and to wrap up the discussions before the end of the day. He then goes on to New York, where he is due to attend a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the Great Lakes region.
East and southern African leaders meeting in Arusha on December 1st chose Mandela to lead the troubled Burundi peace talks, following the death of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere in October. Under Nyerere, the negotiations had been going on for more than a year.
Mandela has said he wants to keep the existing facilitation team and keep Arusha as the venue for the talks. He is, however, urging that they should be concluded quickly. "The negotiators should work even harder to bring the ongoing peace negotiations to a successful conclusion at a very early date in the New Year," Mandela said in a statement in December.
However, the talks are in serious need of new momentum, and the situation on the ground in Burundi has worsened in recent months. Clashes between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi army have increased, especially in the east and around the capital Bujumbura, with a rising number of civilian victims and displaced people.
Human rights group Amnesty International accused the army of massacring 43 civilians just south of Bujumbura on New Year's Eve, although the government claimed the victims were rebels. The number of refugees fleeing to Tanzania is also on the rise. UN officials say at least 30,000 refugees from Burundi have crossed into Tanzania in the last month.
Tutsi President Pierre Buyoya this week announced a major cabinet reshuffle, including replacement of his defence and finance ministers, amid mounting internal criticism of his economic policies. But analysts say he cannot go back on recent price hikes. Nineteen trade unions are also reported to be threatening strike action.
Human rights groups say at least 200,000 people have been killed in Burundi's civil war since the country's first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye (Hutu) was killed by members of the Tutsi army in October 1993.
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