Burundi to step up war against FNL rebels
BUJUMBURA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Burundi's government pledged to step up fighting against one of the country's two main rebel groups after the guerrillas rejected a proposed ceasefire in peace talks this month. Hutu rebels have been fighting the Tutsi-dominated army in Burundi since 1993 in a war which has killed an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes. The government and the rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) signed a ceasefire at a summit of African leaders on December 3 that provides for a 14-day grace period for the FDD to contact its commanders and pass on details of the agreement. "The ceasefire signed on December 3 does not concern the FNL, so I invite the army to intensify fight against FNL rebels and forbid them to pursue killings of innocent people," President Pierre Buyoya told a meeting of government officials on Wednesday. He was referring to the ethnic Hutu Forces of National Liberation (FNL) guerrilla group, which refused to follow the the FDD in signing a ceasefire. "The FNL must get a particular treatment which can bring them to accept negotiations just in the same way as we did with the FDD of Pierre Nkurunziza before the signing of the ceasefire," he said in remarks heard by reporters. Buyoya said the FDD had changed military tactics since the ceasefire to concentrate on robbing civilians. Three soldiers and four civilians were killed on Wednesday in attacks by Hutu rebels variously from the FDD and FNL in several parts of the country, an army spokesman said. The summit of African leaders gave the FNL a 30-day deadline to agree a ceasefire, saying they expected the group to comply. Preliminary peace talks between a Burundi government delegation and the FNL were due to have started on Wednesday in Cape Town, South Africa, but the FNL said it had declined an invitation to the talks from South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma. "FNL will not respond to Zuma's invitation, but it is ready to go in South Africa for discussions with President (Nelson) Mandela," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said. Mandela, South Africa's first post-apartheid president, brokered a peace plan to set up a new government sharing power between Hutus and Tutsis. "We are asking ourselves if behind these invitations, there is no stratagem of arresting FNL leaders. So we need assurances from President Mandela," he added.
