Mkapa "fed up" with Burundi accusations

President Benjamin Mkapa on Wednesday reiterated his government's denial that it has allowed Burundi refugees to train, equip themselves and launch attacks on Burundi from within Tanzania, and added that his government was "fed up with endless but baseless accusations" when that has never been
its policy. Tanzania was finding it ever more difficult to cope with the number of refugees and earnestly asked "those countries that generate refugees... to create that political dispensation and those security guarantees that will stop their citizens from looking for sanctuary in other countries," the Tanzanian 'Daily News' reported Mkapa as saying.

"We do not want to be a scapegoat for procrastination in the negotiations, and we abhor even the perception that Tanzania is an obstacle to the speedy resolution of the Burundi conflict," Mkapa added, in a speech that analysts considered evidence of severely strained relations between the neighbouring countries.