Bujumbura, Kinshasa to sign peace accord

Burundi has agreed to withdraw its remaining two battalions of troops from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo, while Kinshasa has pledged that its territory will not serve as a rear base for Burundi Hutu rebel groups, delegations from the governments of the two countries said in a joint communique issued on Sunday at the end of talks in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura. Presidents Pierre Buyoya of Burundi and Joseph Kabila of the Congo are to sign a formal agreement to this effect at a venue and time to be announced. This will be done under the auspices of a third party. Congolese Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu, who headed his country's delegation on a two-day visit to Bujumbura, said both countries were committed to normalising relations after more than four years of war, in which Burundi has taken part. The Burundi government also vowed to ban the sale and transit on its national territory of goods illegally exported from the Congo. The deputy spokesman of the UN Mission in the DRC, Madnodje Mounoubai, said on 9 October that Burundi had withdrawn some 7,000 soldiers from the Congo, and had only two battalions left to pull out.