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Burundian Transitional Govt to Set Up Soon: President
Burundian President Pierre Buyoya said Wednesday that a transitional government with the participation of all the 19 signatories of the peace agreement will be established soon.
Buyoya, who is attending the 37th summit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), told a news conference that a Great Lakes region summit will be held on July 23 in Tanzania's northern town of Arusha to decide the launch of the transition.
He said according to the arrangement by Nelson Mandela, former South African president and Burundian peace facilitator, the three- year transitional government will be divided into two equal parts.
Buyoya explained that he will be the president with a candidate from the Hutu party group as the vice president in the first 18 months and they will change positions in the second period.
He promised to step down when the transitional period is over in order to prepare a free multiparty general election.
"The African continent now has ushered in a multiparty era from the former colonist rule and I will leave the presidency when the transition is over," he added, condemning the unconstitutional changes of government.
Over the Burundian refugees sheltered in Tanzania, Buyoya said that his government, the Tanzanian government, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees are making arrangement for their returning home.
"We welcome them home and this is part of the Arusha Peace Agreement," he said.
Buyoya denied reports that Tanzania supports the Hutu armed rebels on its territory to launch attacks into Burundi.
He disclosed that once the transitional government is set up in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, the international peacekeeping troops will be implemented there to maintain order.
"Defense ministers of South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana who met last week in South Africa have made the decision," he added.
On possibility of the armed rebels' participation in the peace process and transitional government, Buyoya said that his government as well as the transitional government will continue the direct talks with them until they agree to ceasefire.
"We'll listen carefully to their opinion on the peace process, on the transitional government and on other issues," he concluded.
Mandela has invited some 12 heads of state including presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Buyoya of Burundi for the summit in Arusha to push forward the stalled Burundian peace process.
The main obstacles to the implementation of the peace agreement are the lack of a ceasefire agreement between the Tutsi-led government and the armed Hutu rebels, and the lack of a consensus between the 19 signatories on who should lead the transition.
The last regional summit on Burundi in February recommended that the three-year transition be split into two 18-month periods, the first to be led by a Tutsi president and Hutu vice president, with the chosen tandem swapping roles during the second 18-month period.
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 fighting and further more have been internally 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.
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