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Burundian Parties to Pick Transitional President in Paris
All 19 Burundian parties are scheduled to meet in Paris next Wednesday to try to pick a president for the transitional period, the most thorny issue in implementing the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement.
Local newspapers Wednesday quoted a senior facilitation official as saying that Facilitator Nelson Mandela, retired South African President, expects them to resolve the issue in Paris.
Judge Mark Bomani, top aid to Mandela, also said in Dar Es Salaam Tuesday, December 5, that direct talks between Burundian government and the armed rebels are underway on suspension of hostilities and a cease-fire.
But he did not mention the place where the direct talks were being held, adding that such talks did not involve other signatories who signed the peace agreement in Arusha, northern Tanzania in August.
Leaders of the Great Lakes region have warned that the Burundian government and the rebels would risk imposition of sanctions if they do not declare a cease-fire.
The latest round of Burundian peace talks concluded on November 30, but the 19 signatories to the agreement failed to reach agreement on the president of the transitional government.
They have chosen six candidates, from both the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic, to contend for the only presidency in the transitional government as required by the peace agreement.
They are current president Buyoya; former president Jean-Baptiste Bagaza of the pro-Tutsi PARENA party; Domitien Ndayizeye of the pro-Hutu FRODEBU.
The rest are Terence Nsanze of the pro-Tutsi ABASA; Epitace Bayaganakandi, a former Interior Minister and military man who has the support of six small, anti-Buyoya Tutsi parties, and Albert Mbonerane of the CNDD.
Under Mandela's mediation, the donor countries have agreed to hold a conference in Paris next week to explore ways to assist Burundi in its reconstruction.
Meanwhile, the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), launched on November 27 in Arusha, has postponed its first meeting to next January, Bomani said.
"The IMC is expected to appoint its executive council before it starts to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement," he said, adding that Mandela has appointed Professor Nicholas Hayson as his permanent observer in the IMC.
Burundi has been wracked by civil war since 1993 when the first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi troops.
More than 200,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the fightings and a further 1.2 million have been displaced.
The peace talks were initiated by former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere in June 1998 and have been beefed up by Nelson Mandela since he succeeded Nyerere as the facilitator in December 1999 following the latter's death of leukemia.
Reports from Burundi said that fighting has been intensifying between government forces and the rebels in many parts of the country even after the signing of the peace and reconciliation agreement.
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