Decision on transitional leadership “fixed”, Mandela says

Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela, announcing that Burundian President Pierre Buyoya will lead the first 18 months of the country’s transition, has said the decision is “fixed”. Mandela, who made the announcement in Pretoria, South Africa on Tuesday, also said that the candidate of the G-7 Hutu parties, Domitien Ndayizeye, would serve as vice-president. The next 18 months of the three-year transition will be led by a Hutu president and a Tutsi vice-president. “This is a fixed decision”, Mandela said, according to the South African news agency SAPA. “There is nothing tentative about this resolution...They [negotiating sides] have firmly decided that President Buyoya should lead the first 18 months and that the vice-president will be Domitien Ndayizeye.” He added there was no set timeframe for the introduction of the transitional government, but the parties involved would begin thrashing out the details at a regional summit in Arusha, Tanzania on 23 July. Buyoya has already agreed to a list of conditions attached to his appointment, Mandela said. The conditions are: · He [Buyoya] must implement all the provisions of a peace agreement signed in Arusha in August 2000. · He must include representatives of all the [19] signatory parties in the transitional government. · He must invite the international community and the region to provide troops and peacekeepers who will go to Burundi to strengthen security and protect the various political leaders, especially those returning from exile. · He must carry out reform of the Tutsi-dominated army, integrating armed groups and Hutus into it as soon as possible. · He must cooperate fully with the UNHCR on the return of refugees and resettlement of the internally displaced persons. · He must offer full protection to all political leaders, especially those returning from exile · He must not engage - and his government must not engage - in acts of victimisation of political opponents. · He must release all political prisoners on the recommendation of an ad hoc commission which will be looking into the question of political prisoners. · He must cooperate fully with an implementation monitoring committee established under the Arusha agreement. · He must promptly vacate office at the end of the 18-month, counted from the date of assumption of office. · He must make these commitments before a regional summit in Arusha on 23 July, after which these commitments and decisions of the summit will be reported by Mandela to the UN Security Council for its endorsement. Mandela also told journalists he could not assume, at this stage, that the introduction of a transitional government would coincide with a ceasefire in Burundi. According to Mandela, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma and Gabonese President Omar Bongo were tackling this issue. “We regard a ceasefire as extremely important to bring stability in that country,” he said. The two men were engaged in discussions with the armed rebel groups, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), “on how they fit into the whole picture since they are not party to the [Arusha] August peace agreement”. “I am optimistic,” Mandela stressed. “The important thing is that we have appointed men who are very capable to engage the armed groups. And they are doing so.”