Deputy President Jacob Zuma says the Palipehutu National Liberation Forces’ (FNL) recent attacks on Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, will not derail the implementation of the Cease-fire Agreement signed in December 2002. Speaking in Pretoria after attending a Regional Consultative meeting on Burundi in Tanzania over the weekend, the Deputy President said FNL would not be a deciding factor for peace and asked the rebel group to come for negotiations. “I have always said that FNL which is outside, because of its size and because of the area they operate, cannot be a deciding factor whether the peace process goes forward or not. They are only operating in one area of the country,” said the Deputy President. Zuma, the facilitator of Burundi peace process said FNL would be pursued to get into the process of discussions and if that failed other measures would have to be taken.

“It means we have to take very specific measures, which I think everybody feels time has come to do so. But we just feel its important to talk to them to see if they are serious about wanting to talk,” said Zuma. The Tanzania meeting was convened by the Regional Chairperson of the Great Lakes Regional Initiative on Burundi, Yoweri Museveni, and attended by Zuma, and signatories of the Ceasefire Agreement. Domitien Ndayizeye President of the Transitional Government of Burundi (TGB), and the Legal Representative of the CNDD-FDD Pierre Nkurunziza, also attended.

The meeting condemned the FNL attacks in Bujumbura and urged the Palipehutu-FNL to refrain from violence.

All parties called on the FNL to enter into negotiations with the Transitional Government of Burundi, with a view to concluding a ceasefire agreement without delay.

Zuma said that the Dar Es Salaam meeting was to iron out all the outstanding issues between the TGB and the CNDD-FDD on power sharing and process of cantonment to finalise the cease-fire agreement. But the issue of FNL was not the centre of discussions at the meeting, said Zuma. On the issue of the deployment of the African Union (AU) African Mission Force to Burundi, Zuma said the lack of resources were hampering the full deployment of the 3 200 troops from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique. “They (troops) are coming, the problem is resources but the commitment is there. There’s the first problem we identified but we have said that the resources are a problem”. – BuaNews.