Burundi rebels snub planned South African visit
BUJUMBURA, July 30 (Reuters) - South Africa said on Wednesday that its deputy president would go to Burundi to try and get rebels involved in a stuttering peace process, but the rebels said they did not want to meet him.
Hutu rebels have been fighting the Tutsi-led army in Burundi for a decade and the war has killed around 300,000 people.
The biggest rebel faction, the FDD (Forces for the Defence of Democracy), has signed a ceasefire and says it is committed to the peace process. But another main group, the FNL (National Liberation Forces), has never joined the peace process.
"The Deputy President (Jacob Zuma) will be travelling to Burundi in the next few days for a meeting with the FNL, to see how they could be included in the transitional government," South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told reporters in Pretoria.
But an FNL spokesman in Burundi said the group viewed the existing peace process as a failure and would not consider coming on board.
"If Zuma comes to Burundi intending to meet FNL leaders, we won't meet him because we don't trust him," Pasteur Habimana told Reuters by telephone. "We will consider his visit tourism."
Analysts say the Burundi peace process is in disarray. The FDD says it wants peace but has often violated the ceasefire it signed last December, while earlier this month the FNL launched its biggest attack on the capital Bujumbura in years.
The small central African country is more than half way through a three-year peace plan intended to steer it away from ethnic conflict.
A power-sharing government is in place, but rebels say that Tutsis still dominate the army. With no effective ceasefire, the political advances mean little to the civilians who have suffered most from the war.
Lekota said Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye would meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala on Wednesday to discuss how to include the FNL in the peace process.
07/30/03 10:23 ET
