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Pres
ident Thabo Mbeki and Deputy President Jacob Zuma are expected
to pay a special two-day visit to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to
attend the 22nd Great Lakes Heads of State Summit on Burundi.
The visit will start today and conclude with the summit
tomorrow.
It is expected that the summit will review progress made since the
last meeting on June 5 said the President's office.
It will, among other things, called for a speedy organisation of
Burundi elections as per the Arusha Agreement's timeframes.
Zuma has also been mandated as the facilitator of the peace process
to assist the Barundi parties to reach a post-election power
sharing agreement and also announce action against the
Palipehutu-FNL, the Burundi armed group, which remains outside of
the peace process.
"The Deputy President will present a report to the Summit on the
progress made on the power sharing talks and other interventions
since the last Summit," the Presidency said.
About 29 Burundi opposition political parties have agreed to
implement a refined power-sharing deal and the holding of elections
following long talks in Pretoria. More than 300 000 people have
been killed in ethnic clashes that also devastated Burundi's
economy and infrastructure.
In the latest incident, at least 159 ethnic Banyamulenge Tutsis,
most of them women and children, were massacred at a UN refugee
camp at Gatumba in western Burundi last week Friday.
The refined agreement states that the National Assembly will be
constituted of 60% Hutu Deputies, 40% Tutsi Deputies, and three
deputies from the BaTwa group.
Women are expected to constitute a minimum of 30% of the envisaged
government.
The latest talks in Pretoria that were attended by both President
Mbeki and Deputy President Zuma are supportive of the Arusha Accord
signed four years ago.
The Arusha Declaration stipulated that as part of the efforts to
bring peace in Burundi, the Tutsi leader President Pierre Buyoya
should rule for a period of 18 months and then hand over power to
Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, who in turn will rule for the same
period.
The latter is currently ruling the country still struggling to find
a last political direction in line with the African Union's new
strategic vision of a continent free of conflicts. –
BuaNews.
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