AFRICA/BURUNDI - PEACE PROSPECTS AFTER TEN YEARS OF WAR

Bujumbura (Agenzia Fides)- “This is perhaps the most serious effort to restore peace in Burundi” a local Church source in Bujumbura, who remains unnamed for security reasons, told Fides Service, referring to peace agreements signed by the government and the main rebel group Forces for the Defence of Democracy. (FDD), in Pretoria 8 October 2003 (see Fides). “Both government and rebels appear committed to respecting the agreement ” the source tells Fides. “Results are already apparent. There is less fighting. Although unfortunately the second main rebel group, FNL National Force of Liberation refused to sign the pact and continues to fight”.
“The FNL is also very difficult to contact because its men live in hiding in the jungle and rarely meet anyone outside the organisation. In fact although the names of the group leaders are known their faces are not. This means that mediators meeting the leaders would not be sure if they were speaking to the right people. For the FLN the conflict is between Hutu and Tutsi and they refuse to talk to anyone except officers of the Tutsi dominated army. But the situation is more complex, especially since the formation of the national unity government comprising members of the main political parties and representatives of all the different ethnic groups in Burundi. Although the army still has a Tutsi hard core, military chiefs have agreed to balance the army’s ethnic component. The Pretoria agreement gives the FDD 40% of army officer posts and 35% of police officer posts.”
“The FNL has asked the local Catholic Church, Archbishop Evariste Ngoyagoye of Bujumbura and Archbishop Simon Ntamwana of Gitega to mediate talks with the government. After putting the matter to their respective archdiocesan Catholic community and receiving positive replies, the Archbishops accepted to act as mediators between the FLN and the government”. However there remains the logistic problem of how to bring the government representatives and rebels together and where, in a place deemed ‘safe’ by both sides,” Fides’ sources say.
To monitor the peace pack 3,000 African peacekeepers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique are deploying in Burundi. “Although fighting between the FDD and the army has stopped, or has been at least considerably reduced, the situation of insecurity remains because of widespread banditry which is really getting out of control. Because of the war there are too many weapons in too many hands. Rebels who refuse the lay down their arms, poorly paid soldiers anxious to make a bit more money continue to harass civilians and to prevent the return of peace” Fides source concludes. (L.M.) (Fides Service 21/10/2003, lines 40 words 521)