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| Saturday, November 10, 2001, updated at 12:06(GMT+8) |
Chirac, Mandela Call for Delivering Aid to Burundi |
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French President Jacques Chirac and former South African president Nelson Mandela Friday called on donor nations and organizations to deliver aid funds to Burundi, the war-torn African nation where a new power-sharing government was sworn in earlier November.
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French President Jacques Chirac and former South African president Nelson Mandela Friday called on donor nations and organizations to deliver aid funds to Burundi, the war-torn African nation where a new power-sharing government was sworn in earlier November.
Chirac and Mandela, in a telephone conversation, agreed that "the decisions about financial aid for Burundi, which were taken at the international donors' conference, should be carried out," announced Catherine Colonna, spokeswoman of the French presidential palace.
A total of 37 donor nations and organizations agreed to grant about 440 million U.S. dollars in humanitarian and development aid to Burundi at a conference in Paris last December.
Chirac "fully supports the procedure proposed by Mr. Mandela (mediator in the Burundian peace process)," said Colonna, adding that Chirac talked about the Burundi issue Tuesday in New York when he met with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
A new government was installed in Burundi on November 1 with power shared between Hutus and Tutsis, thus bringing hope for an end of the brutal eight-year ethnic war that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, mostly civilians.
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