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
Buru
ndi's last active rebel group, the National Liberation Forces
(FNL), announced Wednesday it would immediately stop attacking
government troops and their allies and that it was willing to
consider holding peace talks.
The central African country's power-sharing government immediately
welcomed the move.
The FNL's congress, meeting in Tanzania, "has just decided there
will be an immediate halt to hostilities. We will not attack the
army and the FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy, a former
rebel group now allied to the government) but if they attack us,
will we respond," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP.
"The government salutes this development which is significant,"
said government spokesman Onesime Nduwimana.
The government "can only rejoice and is waiting for the FNL to act
on the decision. As for the government, it is always ready to
negotiate with the FNL whenever they want," he added.
If the FNL "has just stopped hostilities, it means the war will
stop right away," he added.
"Government troops are only defending themselves. If they are not
attacked, they will not attack," he pledged.
More than 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in Burundi
since 1993 when a variety of armed groups drawn from the country's
large Hutu majority, many of which split over subsequent years,
took up arms against the Tutsi-led government.
The FNL spokesman added that the rebel group would consult with the
United Nations, the European Union and the United States to help
facilitate possible peace talks.
"We don't trust the government, but that doesn't mean we are
refusing to talk to it," explained Augustin Ntawogeza, the head of
the FNL's external relations.
"As (President Domitien) Ndayizeye is incapable of stopping the
war, because power has long been in the hands of a (Tutsi) clique,
only the international community can oblige him to stop
hostilities," he said.
"The FNL doesn't want the war, it wants it to stop," he
added.
On March 26, Habimana said FNL leader Rwasa Agathon had made a
"first contact" with South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the
chief mediator in Burundi's peace process and that the telephone
discussion had gone well.
"The issue of negotiations was not brought up", said the
spokesman.
The FNL is estimated to have some 3,000 men under arms.
The rebel group had until recently refused even to meet the current
power-sharing administration, a coalition of 17 parties, both Hutu
and Tutsi, saying it was only worth talking to the Tutsi leaders of
the army who, according to the rebels, wield true power in the
country.
But it changed its tune early this year and met in the Netherlands
with Ndayizeye -- himself a Hutu but whom the FNL has accused of
being a lackey of the Tutsis.
A month later, however, the FNL refused to hold a second meeting
with Ndayizeye, saying he had not held up his end of the deal the
rebels insist was struck in the Netherlands - Sapa-AFP.