GREAT LAKES: Stick to peace accord, regional leaders tell Burundi

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

DAR ES SALAAM, 7 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - Leaders from Africa's Great Lakes region directed Burundi on Saturday to begin the country's electoral process immediately so that polls could be held by 31 October, as stipulated in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord of August 2000.

The leaders gave the directive at end of their summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. They rejected a Burundian government proposal to extend the three-year political transitional period by one year.

A Tutsi president led the country during the first 18 months of this transitional period. A Hutu president has been heading the second half.

During the Saturday summit, the leaders said the elections must proceed at once in a manner that "ensures expeditious implementation of the electoral process, through undertaking simultaneous implementation of activities."

Meeting under the auspices of a regional initiative to restore peace in Burundi, presided over by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the regional leaders also imposed immediate "restrictions" on the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL). This is a dissident Hutu movement led by Agathon Rwasa that is the only group yet to sign a ceasefire agreement with the government. Three other former dissident groups have signed ceasefire agreements and are participating in the transitional government.

The restrictions on the FNL are intended to ensure that it no longer constitutes a threat to security, the leaders said in a joint communiqué issued at the end of the summit.

The summit also mandated the African Union's newly formed Peace and Security Council to recommend further punitive actions against the FNL, which is considered the last obstacle to peace, if in three months it still remains outside the peace process.

The leaders called upon all AU member states and the rest of the international community to adopt the same stance as the region in order to support Bujumbura "to deal decisively with the security problem posed by the PALIPEHUTU-FNL".

In response to the concern expressed by Burundi's transitional leaders and other political parties, the leaders undertook to mobilise resources to support processes of cantonment and integration of former combatants.

The summit's declarations, hailed by several Burundian political actors as a bold move to keep the country's peace process on track, were endorsed by presidents Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Paul Kagame of Rwanda as well as Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma - in his capacity as facilitator in the Burundi peace process.

Kenya, represented by Internal Security Minister Chris Murungaru, and Mozambique, represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Leonardo Simao, also endorsed the declaration.

Political party leaders Baptiste Manwangari and Jean Minani, respectively of UPRONA and FRODEBU attended the meeting. Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the Conseil national pour la defense de la démocratie-Forces pour la defense de la démocratie, formerly Burundi's largest rebel movement, was also present.

Burundi's civil war began in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, a leader of the largely Hutu party, the Front pour la democratie au Burundi, or FRODEBU. Since then, Hutu rebel groups have taken up arms against the predominantly Tutsi-led government and army, resulting in the deaths of at least 300,000 lives over the last 11 years.

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