"On 12 November, the chairman of the regional initiative for peace in
Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, gave the warring sides in Burundi
another two weeks to reach a ceasefire agreement with the transitional
government in Bujumbura. A previous deadline of 30 days expired on 7
November."
Main Rebel Group Fails to Show for Ceasefire Talks
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 20, 2002
Posted to the web November 20, 2002
Bujumbura
A new round of ceasefire talks to end Burundi's nine-year old civil war
failed to get underway on Tuesday, as rebels of the Conseil national pour la
defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD)
said they did not get the invitation to attend.
"We have not received the invitation. And even if we would receive it today,
it would take days for us to report to Dar es Salaam," Gelase Ndabirabe,
spokesman of the CNDD-FDD, told IRIN.
He said the CNDD-FDD had asked the South Africans facilitating the talks to
send the invitation "at least two weeks before" the start of the meeting.
"The invitation must also clearly state whether we are going to discuss or to
negotiate because if it was to discuss we would not go," Gelase said.
However, the Burundi government's chief negotiator at the talks, Ambroise
Niyonsaba, told IRIN that a member of the South African facilitation present
in Dar es Salaam - the Tanzanian venue of the talks - told him that they had
sent the invitation to the CNDD-FDD.
"We are waiting for clarification, and if there is no chance to meet the
other side, we will return to Bujumbura," Niyonsaba added.
Before leaving for Dar es Salaam on Sunday, he had told IRIN that his team
hoped that a ceasefire agreement would be reached before 25 November, when
regional heads of state are due to meet again on the Burundi situation.
On 12 November, the chairman of the regional initiative for peace in Burundi,
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, gave the warring sides in Burundi another
two weeks to reach a ceasefire agreement with the transitional government in
Bujumbura. A previous deadline of 30 days expired on 7 November.
