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A re
gional peace meeting on Burundi in Tanzania achieved its goal
of getting the rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) to
recommit to a failed seven-month-old ceasefire, South African
Deputy President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.
Despite regularly trading accusations of violating the ceasefire,
signed on December 2, the Burundi government and the FDD agreed on
Sunday to give the truce another chance at talks in the Tanzanian
economic capital.
Burundi's second rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL),
stayed away from the talks, after launching earlier this month the
fiercest assault on the capital since the start of the decade-long
civil war.
But Zuma, a mediator in the civil war pitting Hutu rebels against
the Tutsi-dominated army, stressed that Sunday's meeting had not
aimed to tackle the FNL attacks.
"The FDD have not come full force into the peace process that they
signed on December 2.
That is what our meeting was about. We wanted to get the FDD to
participate in the process and implement the agreement they
signed," Zuma said.
"The FNL attacks were not doing any good to the peace
process.
We need to defend that process and the people of Burundi.
However the context of the Dar es Salaam meeting was to discuss the
FDD participation and not the FNL".
"The FNL cannot be a deciding factor in whether or not the peace
process goes forward in Burundi," Zuma added.
The talks, which included Burundi President Domitien Ndayizeye and
FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza, were brokered by the Ugandan and
Tanzanian presidents Yoweri Museveni and Benjamin Mkapa and
mediated by South Africa's Zuma.
Also present were United Nations and African Union
representatives.
The FNL's latest five-day assault on the capital Bujumbura,
launched on July 7, left some 300 combatants and dozens of
civilians dead, with reports of civilian women and children being
massacred.
The fierce assault on the capital had prompted calls for the
mandate of African peacekeepers in the central African country to
be extended - a question left untouched during Sunday's
talks.
The Hutu-led FNL has refused to take part in the so-called Regional
Consultations on Burundi and has called for former South African
president Nelson Mandela to mediate, accusing his compatriot Zuma
of bias.
More than 300 000 people, mostly civilians, have so far died in the
war. – Sapa-AFP.
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