News Analysis: Concessions needed to bring final peace to Burundi www.chinaview.cn 2003-09-17 23:09
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- It is the third time that regional leaders from South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania participated in the peace talks of the tiny central African country Burundi, but like the previous ones, the just ended talks plunged in impasse.
It is quite clear that if peace is possibly to resume in Burundi, both the transitional authority and the anti-government military group National Council for Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD)need to make concessions.
Journalists were told again and again before the talks that it would be the final talks, and no more negotiations would be attended by regional leaders.
However, judging from the demand of the CNDD-FDD, nobody would expect any encouraging results.
During the peace talks from Sept. 14 to 16, the CNDD-FDD required to get some high positions in the transitional government,including the parliamentary speaker, the minister of internal security and provincial governors. In the military, the rebel group asked to share 40 percent in the soldier formation.
The Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed in Arusha on Aug.28, 2000, ordered that the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi share 50 percent respectively in the future Burundian military.
Surely, such demand is not to be allowed by other military groups which had also signed the ceasefire agreement with the transitional government.
"Allowing CNDD-FDD to enjoy 40 percent out of 50 percent allocated for armed groups will merely create havoc and add more suffering to innocent Burundians," said some other rebel military group leaders.
To the Burundi transitional government, if such lion's share was accepted, other rebel military groups would surely be dissatisfied, and the fragile domestic peace would collapse again.
In an official statement sent to the chairman of the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative, Ugandan President Yoweri Musevenistressed that they would never support the CNDD-FDD's order under the leadership of Pierre Nkurunziza.
But no one can ignore the CNDD-FDD for it is considered as the strongest and largest military group in all rebel units.
Tanzanian Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Jakaya Kikwete said on Tuesday that the CNDD-FDD cannot be ignored because it was a group which commanded large influence within Burundi.
Experts believed that the CNDD-FDD's order is to ensure political and military rights, position and influence in the government and army.
Because the civil war between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi has lasted nearly 10 years since 1993, both sides distrusted each other even after signing the ceasefire agreement and resorted to military groups and top governmental positions to protect themselves.
Since the country got independence in 1962, the ethnic Tutsi, which only accounts for 14 percent of the total population, has controlled the government and military, and the majority Hutu has no way to influence the politics, economy and military in the country.
It is reported that during the war time, more than 300,000 people died in the country, most of whom are civilians, and more than half a million left their home to other countries to avoid the fighting.
Due to efforts by regional leaders from Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa, the situation in Burundi gradually stepped into peace, with no more major fighting.
The Burundi transitional government was set up on Nov. 1, 2001.
Under the Arusha agreement, a Tutsi president took power for two years to 2003, and then a Hutu president will take over the presidency until the general election.
Incumbent President Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, was highly expected to influence Pierre Nkurunziza, Hutu leader of the CNDD-FDD, under current circumstances.
CNDD-FDD spokesman Major Gerase Daniel Ndabirabe said in Dar esSalaam on Tuesday that his group was still negotiating with the transitional government and other military groups.
Analysts said Burundi will not see the final peace until the transitional government and the CNDD-FDD make real concessions. Enditem
