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Depu
ty President Jacob Zuma will travel to New York, United States
of America this evening, 3 December 2002, to solicit support from
the United Nations for the Burundi peace process.
The Deputy President will tomorrow, 4 December 2002, meet United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations
Security Council, to brief them on the Burundi peace process. He
will return to South Africa from New York on Friday, 6
December.
Deputy President Zuma returned from Arusha, Tanzania at 6am today,
3 December 2002, after successfully brokering a cease-fire
agreement between the National Council for the Defence of
Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy movement and the
Transitional Government of Burundi.
The cease-fire agreement was signed at 12.30 am in Arusha,
Tanzania, this morning, after gruelling marathon talks which began
on Sunday, 1 December, and ended shortly before midnight last
night.
The Deputy President had been facilitating talks between the two
parties since the year 2000 at different intervals.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by President Yoweri Museveni of
Uganda, who is the chairperson of the Great Lakes Regional
Initiative on Burundi, and Deputy President Zuma as
Facilitator.
The two parties will immediately suspend hostilities as phase one
of the agreement, and the comprehensive agreement comes into effect
on the 30th of December 2002 to allow the CNDD-FDD and the
government to prepare for the implementation.
According to some of the terms of the agreement, the CNDD-FDD will
be transformed into a political party, and will take part in the
power sharing arrangements in Burundian transitional institutions
and the structures of the state including the army and the security
forces - The Presidency.