Government, AU sign agreement on peacekeeping force

The African Union (AU) and the government of Burundi signed an agreement on Wednesday on the statutes for the AU peacekeeping force due for deployed to Burundi, the country news agency, APB, reported. Burundi's minister of external relations and cooperation, Terence Sinunguruza, and the AU secretary-general's special envoy, Mamadou Bah, signed the agreement in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura. APB reported that Bah was, however, unable to confirm the strength and arrival date of the force. Burundi has experienced political upheaval and war since the assassination in October 1993 of its first democratically elected president, Melchoir Ndadaye. Approximately 200,000 Burundians have died since the civil war began. Based on the Arusha Peace Agreement of August 2000, a transitional government, made up almost equally of Hutus and Tutsis, was inaugurated on 1 November 2001. However, fighting has continued despite the ceasefire accords signed in Arusha, Tanzania, on 7 October and 2 December 2002 between the government and all rebel factions, except the Forces nationales de la liberation led by Agathon Rwasa. APB reported on Thursday that the agreement on the statutes related to the rights and duties of the peacekeeping troops and the logistic details of getting the mission's equipment into Burundi. The AU force is expected to supervise the implementation of the ceasefire accords and help with the stabilisation of the country, ABP reported. It will also help in disarmament and reintegration of displaced people and refugees. When the AU pledged in February to provide peacekeeping troops, Ethiopia, Mozambique and South Africa offered contingents but they have not yet arrived. However, the AU has sent observers to Burundi to shore up the ceasefire agreements. The first of the observers arrived in Bujumbura on 12 February. On 12 March, eight Gabonese soldiers arrived in Bujumbura, bringing to 43 the number of AU ceasefire monitors in country. Their arrival brought the force to its full complement. Burkina Faso, Gabon, Togo and Tunisia are the other countries that contributed personnel to the AU observer mission.