All parties favour elections, Zuma says

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who is also the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, said on Thursday that all Burundian parties he had held talks with had expressed their determination to go to elections as scheduled. "What [we need] to do is to ensure that the conditions are ready for elections, that is a challenge to all of us," he said at a news conference in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, at the end of a two-day visit. Under the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord, which 19 Burundian parties signed in August 2000, Burundi is due to hold elections by November, to mark the end of a three-year transitional process from strife to democratic rule. Zuma said that during his visit, he held talks with all the key stakeholders in Burundi's politics, including President Domitien Ndayizeye, Vice-President Alphonse Marie Kadege, officials of major political parties as well as those of the former rebel faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza, representatives of the international community and leaders of registered political parties that are not part of the peace process. "All parties, without exception, want to see elections going ahead," he said. "All parties want to see favourable conditions for free and fair elections. We must work on the conditions." The other issue on Zuma's agenda was that of the rebel faction led by Agathon Rwasa, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), the only group that has not signed a ceasefire agreement with the transitional government and continues to attack government troops. Zuma said he had contacted Rwasa's FNL but added, "I can't reveal the details here." After his Burundi visit, Zuma was due to fly to Uganda for a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni, who is also the chairman of the Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi, but Zuma said he cancelled the trip because Museveni was out of Kampala.