Burundi rebels dismiss sanctions threat
BUJUMBURA, Feb 17 (Reuters) - The last group of rebels still refusing to join efforts to end Burundi's decade-old civil war dismissed as meaningless on Tuesday a threat by regional leaders to impose sanctions against them.
The Forces for National Liberation (FNL), an extremist Hutu rebel movement fighting the Tutsi-dominated government and army, were given a three-month ultimatum in November to enter peace negotiations.
Top officials from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and South Africa gave the ultimatum at a ceasefire signing in Tanzania between the government and the main Hutu rebel group, the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD).
The deadline expired on Monday, but an FNL spokesman dismissed the threat.
"For us, sanctions are meaningless. The FNL is fighting inside Burundi not outside and it does not have support from any regional country," Pasteur Habimana said.
"We don't have (bank) accounts in Africa or in European countries, so I do not see any effect of sanctions," Habimana told Reuters in Bujumbura.
Burundi's government said it was up to other countries to decide what kind of sanctions could be imposed on the FNL.
"Regional heads of state have to ascertain that the FNL did not respect the ultimatum and take appropriate decisions," Foreign Affairs Minister Therence Sinunguruza told a news conference late on Monday.
Sinunguruza said the government remained open to talks with the rebels and that another regional summit should be held to analyse the FNL situation.
"In the meantime, the government will continue to protect its population against FNL attacks," he added.
The FNL ended its negotiations with the country's President Domitien Ndayizeye last week, accusing him of breaking a promise to end hostilities.
The two sides last month held their first talks in more than a decade, but negotiations closed with the Hutu rebels refusing to join a power-sharing government, though both sides had agreed to meet again.
Hopes for peace were lifted in November when the FDD joined a three-year transitional government set up under a 2000 peace accord aimed at ending a war which has killed an estimated 300,000 people.
But clashes have continued in the FNL's stronghold close to the capital.
02/17/04 09:33 ET
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
