BURUNDI: Transition extended by four months, polls due by 19 August

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

ENTEBBE, 25 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Leaders from Africa's Great Lakes region decided on Friday that Burundi would complete a series of elections by 19 August and that its new government would take over one week later.

"We have agreed that all elections should be held not later than 19 August and the swearing-in of a new government will take place on the 26th of August," said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is the chairman of the regional peace initiative aimed at getting the central African nation out of 12 years of civil war.

Museveni and other members of the initiative, which included five heads of state, made their decision at an emergency summit in the Ugandan town of Entebbe, 34 km south of the capital, Kampala.

In a joint communiqué issued after the meeting, the leaders said that the summit "endorsed a further extension of the transitional period up to 26 August 2005 in line with the approved elections calendar".

Friday's extension was the second and will enable the holding of general elections.

The election calendar was presented to the summit by the chairman of Burundi's Independent Electoral Commission, Paul Ngarambe, and details an election cycle that overshot the initial 22 April deadline.

Burundi's transitional government was set up following the signing of an accord in August 2000 on the country's peace and reconciliation. The transitional period was initially for a three-year term and was to have ended in October 2004. However, the regional leaders extended its mandate to 22 April to facilitate the holding of a constitutional referendum as well as general elections.

Officials at Friday's meeting said the transitional government expressed a strong commitment "to strictly adhere" to the new electoral calendar, which they said was very "rigid".

Burundi officials "have been citing the absence of the necessary electoral laws, but since these laws are now in place, we do not see another reason why the elections should not be held", a diplomat who requested anonymity told IRIN.

The summit also endorsed Tanzania's efforts to bring Burundi's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), to hold talks with the transitional government in a bid to end the country's civil war.

"The summit endorsed the pending meeting between Tanzanian President [Benjamin] Mkapa and Agathon Rwasa, leader of the FNL, and commended [Mkapa's] efforts to bring FNL on board the peace process," the communiqué added.

The regional leaders did not lift a decision they made in 2004 to label the FNL a terrorist organisation.

"Tanzania was mandated to continue to talk to the FNL but sanctions against the FNL remain and the terrorist label remains," a diplomat involved in the talks said.

Although a new constitution - which balances power between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis - was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum held on 28 February, Burundi’s attempts at scheduling elections have been marked by bickering over the enactment of laws relating to the elections and by animosity between President Domitien Ndayizeye's FRODEBU party and Burundi's main ex-rebel group, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), which is led by Pierre Nkurunziza.

On Thursday, the CNDD-FDD called for Ndayizeye's ouster in a petition the party presented to the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, claiming that Ndayizeye was an obstacle to peace and should not be allowed to remain in power.

Zuma presented the petition to the regional summit, and the leaders in their communiqué "noted operational concerns" raised by the CNDD-FDD and urged Zuma to engage both parties to resolve the matter.

In a statement that was read out during the summit, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Burundi's fractious factions to rally around the new electoral timetable in order to bring a final end to the war, which has claimed at least 300,000 lives.

"Thanks to your courageous efforts, the peace process in this country is approaching what we hope will be its final stages, despite recurring delays," Annan said in the statement read by the head of the UN Mission in Burundi, Carolyn McAskie.

"I call on Burundi's leaders to take that last stage towards meeting the aspirations of the Burundian people who want nothing less than a democratically elected government committed to peace, stability and development," Annan said.

[ENDS]