Accord “rushed”, government says

The Burundi government on Saturday said certain aspects of the draft peace accord, circulated in Arusha, Tanzania, earlier this month were “not practical”. In an interview with Burundi radio, Peace Process Minister Ambroise Niyonsaba said the government believed the document was prepared “in a hurry”. “There are some contradictions within the draft,” he said. He refused to be drawn on whether the government rejected the document outright, saying the most important issue was to have a workable agreement. “If we reach a good draft agreement, we will sign, and if we do not reach a good draft agreement we shall discuss it further,” he said. He added that even a “gentleman’s agreement” was possible which was “far-reaching and which may carry more weight than a signature”. “Certain provisions of the draft agreement are not practical,” he commented. “There was no effort made to place things in time and fix them chronologically...This is particularly true of the transitional arrangement and the interim periods.”

His comments were echoed by government spokesman Luc Rukingama who said the draft accord was “replete with confusion, ambiguity and double standards”. “The institutional vacuum...risks leading to destabilisation,” he warned, speaking after a cabinet meeting last week.