 |
Burundian Peace Monitoring Body to Meet to Boost Transition Process
The Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) for the Burundi peace accord will meet next Wednesday in Arusha, northern Tanzania, to discuss, among other things, the possibility of moving the IMC to Burundi.
Sources from Arusha said Tuesday that the meeting would also look at changes to the implementation timetable for last August's peace accord, whether previous IMC decisions were being implemented, and the "consequences of the decisions of the last regional summit".
At a summit in Arusha on July 23, heads of state of the Great Lakes region backed a proposal from Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela which decided that Burundi's current Tutsi President Pierre Buyoya will lead the first 18 months of the transition with Domitien Ndayizeye from the main opposition party FRODEBU (pro- Hutu) as his vice-president.
During the second phase of the three-year transition, which is to start on November 1 this year, Ndayizeye will take power as president aided by a Tutsi vice-president except for Buyoya.
The Burundian peace accord was signed by 19 negotiating parties almost one year ago, however, implementation has so far been blocked by the lack of a ceasefire between the government and two main Hutu rebel groups, CNDD-FDD and FNL, and the lack of consensus on the transition leadership.
The mediation by Mandela is continuing contacts with the rebel groups who have not been part of the Arusha process to try to get a ceasefire although the 83-year-old former South African president has been found with prostate cancer.
As part of the transition leadership arrangement, Buyoya pledged before the heads of state to respect a list of conditions aimed at ensuring that he implements the peace accord.
These include offering protection to all political leaders returning from exile, and inviting an international peacekeeping force to oversee implementation of the peace agreement.
Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa have agreed to contribute troops, while Belgium has promised logistical support, but an international force is unlikely to go to Burundi before there is a ceasefire agreement.
The 29-member IMC is composed of representatives of the 19 Burundian signatories to the peace accord, six members of Burundian civil society and one representative each from the UN, the Organization of African Unity, the Great Lakes region and the donor community.
It is chaired by Ethiopian diplomat Berhanu Dinka, who is representative of the U.N. Secretary General to the Great Lakes region.
In This Section
|