Political, militia leaders to finalise power sharing deal

Twenty-eight Burundian political and ex-militia leaders are due to resume meetings again on Wednesday in a bid to finalise the country's post-transitional power-sharing agreement. The two-day meeting will be held in Pretoria, South Africa, at the invitation of the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, South African Deputy-President Jacob Zuma. He has invited all 17 political parties that signed the Arusha Agreement, three former rebel movements that signed the ceasefire accords, and eight newly approved political parties in an effort to resolve the power-sharing issue that has blocked the development of a post-transitional constitution. "Inviting PARENA [Parti pour le redressement national] to the talks is a sign that the facilitation is getting more experience in knowing its value," Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, leader of PARENA and former president of the Republic, said on Monday before flying to South Africa. He said PARENA would maintain its stance that power should be shared equally between Hutu and Tutsi communities, to avoid exclusion. This, he added, "has to be directed at institutions like the cabinet, the parliament and the defence and security forces". He also said the "one man, one vote system" should be implemented in the upcoming elections scheduled to end Burundi's transitional period by 1 November 2004. The Pretoria agreement states that the elections would be held under a one-man one-vote system, with the exception of the first poll for which the president would be elected by parliament. The head of Sangwe-PADER, Augustin Nzojibwami, said he would try to convince other leaders that the voters in democratic elections should decide political power. "So far, we have not signed any agreement with the government and we believe power belongs to the population," he said. The faction of the Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) led by Pierre Nkurunziza has declined the invitation to Pretoria, saying it was preoccupied with organising its two-day party national congress due to begin on 7 August. "We will stick to the results of the last round of talks held two weeks ago in Pretoria," he said on Sunday. While Zuma, FRODEBU and the CNDD-FDD hailed the previous Pretoria talks as a success, the Union pour le progres national (UPRONA) said the so-called power-sharing deal did not adequately protect Tutsi interests.