We have detected that the browser you are using is no longer supported. As a result, some content may not display correctly.
We suggest that you upgrade to the latest version of any of the following browsers:
close notification
A me
eting on a truce between Burundi's transitional government and
a main Hutu rebel group failed to take place after the government
delegation did not show up, a rebel source said Friday.
"We were told by the mediators that all delegates from the
transitional government will arrive on Sunday," Forces for the
Defence of Democracy (FDD) Secretary General Radjabu Hussein told
AFP on Friday.
But Hussein insisted that he had seen some members of the Burundi
government delegation on Thursday.
He said the FDD team was expected to meet the facilitators later
Friday to be briefed on the programme of the technical commissions'
meetings, set up to work out "the finer ceasefire implementation
details."
Hussein said the commissions were supposed to conclude their
deliberations next week.
They would then present a report to a meeting in Pretoria on
February 8 between the chief mediator, South African Deputy
President Jacob Zuma, Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and
National Committee for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) leader
Pierre Nkurunziza.
Buyoya and Nkurunziza on Monday signed a Memorandum of
Understanding to pave the way for the full implementation of a
ceasefire accord they reached in the northern Tanzanian town of
Arusha on December 3.
Reports from Pretoria said the parties had agreed to urgently set
up a Joint Ceasefire Commission and to provide information to the
mediator to facilitate the deployment of an African Union (AU)
Military Observer Mission.
Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa have agreed to provide troops
for that mission, and Hussein said he was optimistic that more
African countries would join the mission at the AU summit in the
Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, on February 3-4.
Hussein said he was confident the technical commissions will
complete their work before February 8.
"Most of the things are known and clear and we need only two to
three days to conclude the business, but it is the government side
which is delaying the process," Hussein told AFP on Friday.
The UN estimates that the war in Burundi, which was triggered by
the assassination in October 1993 of the first democratically
elected president from the Hutu majority, Melchior Ndadaye, has so
far claimed more than 300,000 lives - Sapa-AFP
Map
