Key peace meeting in Pretoria on Thursday

Despite failure of the Burundi government to table two draft bills before the committee monitoring the implementation of the Arusha peace deal, considered crucial to that process, all outstanding issues will be settled at a regional summit of the Great Lakes to be held on Thursday in Pretoria, South Africa, news organisations reported. "Everything will be settled in Pretoria," Berhanu Dinka, chairman of the Implementation Monitoring Committee on the Burundi peace process, told reporters on Sunday, in Arusha, Tanzania. One of the key bills that the committee was to have reviewed at its Arusha meeting was on amnesty for persons accused of political crimes. The other is on genocide and crimes against humanity. The committee reported on Monday that the bills, vital for the implementation of the 28 August 2000 peace accord, had not been reviewed by the Burundi government. Other unresolved issues are the establishment of a special protection force that will guard state establishments and returning political exiles, mostly Hutu. The unit is supposed to be in place before the installation of the three-year transitional government on 1 November which, Dinka said, would occur as scheduled. Thursday's summit is to be attended by Burundi President Pierre Buyoya, who will be representing the Group of 10 pro-Tutsi parties, and vice-president designate Domitien Ndayizeye, who will represent the Group of 7 pro-Hutu parties. Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who recently received Buyoya and the leader of the rebel Forces pour la Defence de la Democratie, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, will also attend.