China November 12 voiced its support for the resumption of the Arusha peace talks and other efforts to promote peace process in Burundi.

The statement came as Shen Guofang, acting permanent representative to the United Nations, took the floor at an open Security Council meeting which was designed to discuss the latest development in Burundi.

"The Chinese delegation supports efforts to re-start of the Arusha peace talks and promote of the peace process, and appreciates the contributions to this end by countries concerned," Shen said.

"Recently, the situation in Burundi is disturbing: conflicts continue to take place, the Arusha peace talks has come to a stalemate, the untimely death of the mediator, Julius Nyrere, further complicated the situation," he said.

Poverty and the lack of security has led to the massive exodus of refugees, and further worsened the humanitarian situation in the country, he said.

The murder of UN personnel in the country has reduced the UN activities inside the country, he said. "We condemn such an act of the killing of the innocent, and hope the Burundian Government to take measures and to enhance the security protection for the international assistance personnel as soon as possible in order to resume the assistance activities and improve the humanitarian situation."

"It is widely concerned that the 1994 tragic Rwanda massacre will re-occur," he said. "The Chinese side believes that even though the situation in Burundi has not reached a point of crisis, the international community, and the UN Security Council in particular, should learn from the lessons in the past, and should give it a full attention before the situation deteriorated to the point of no-return."

"Timely measures should be taken to promote the peace process," he said.

"We are pleased to note that the United Nations, in cooperation with parties concerned, is actively undertaking diplomatic efforts to save the peace process," he said.

"We hope that a new mediator acceptable to all parties can be found as soon as possible so as to continue to lead the Arusha peace talks," he said.

"We also like to reiterate that a negotiated political settlement is the only way to restore peace and reconciliation, any military means can only make the achievements made so far turn into a waste and the Burundian people will suffer again," he said.

"Arusha peace negotiations are at a critical juncture, the various parties in Burundi should cease hostilities and return to the negotiation table and reach an agreement at an early date in the spirit of reconciliation," he said.

"Poverty is the root cause of unrest, the instability of Burundi's political situation is directly associated with the bad economic situation," he said.

A point to be stressed is that the peace and stability in Burundi can not be achieved without the peace and stability in the Great Lakes region in Africa, he added. (Xinhua)