Start to demobilisation postponed

The demobilisation of army troops and ex-rebels scheduled for 1 September has been postponed because the National Commission for Demobilisation has not yet received the lists of combatants to be discharged, a commission official told IRIN on Tuesday. "I cannot tell you when the demobilisation will take place," Libère Hicuburundi, the commission's adviser on information and sensitisation, said in the capital, Bujumbura. "I am not sure because the start of demobilisation has been postponed so often." The process is to take four years. A total of 55,000 combatants are to be demobilised; 25,000 could be eligible to join the new national defence force. President Domitien Ndayizeye had gone to barracks throughout the country to explain the need for troops to demobilise. Former rebel leaders, senior army officials and representatives of the commission have concerted their efforts to inform combatants about the need to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate into civilian life. But Burundian military spokesman, Maj Adolphe Manirakiza, told IRIN on Tuesday, "I cannot tell you when we will submit lists of the troops to be demobilised." The former rebel groups that have agreed to demobilise are the Conseil national de défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) of Pierre Nkurunziza; the Front de défense de la démocratie of Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye; the Front national de libération of Alain Mugabarabona; the CNDD splinter wing of Léonard Nyangoma; the Parti pour la libération du peuple of Etienne Karatase; and the Front pour la libération nationale led by Joseph Karumba. A representative from Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD, Burundi's largest former rebel group, said its commanders were reaching out to fighters now assembled in pre-cantonment sites throughout the country. "We hope that by the end of this week we will have submitted lists," Karenga Ramadhan, the CNDD-FDD spokesman, told IRIN on Monday. But Ramadhan said the European Union's decision to suspend food aid to CNDD-FDD combatants had "slowed" demobilisation. "It would have been easier to demobilise our fighters from their current positions where they are protecting the public," he said. Ramadhan also said the withdrawal of CNDD-FDD combatants from the province of Bujumbura Rural had caused an increase in the ongoing skirmishes between government troops and Agathon Rwasa's Front national de libération (FNL), the last rebel group still fighting. He said it was a factor in the August attack on the Gatumba refugee camp. Because of the EU, Ramadhan said, "We were forced to withdraw three-to-four thousand combatants from Bujumbura Rural and take them to pre-cantonment areas." The EU has denied that its food suspension was in anyway linked to the Gatumba killings. "It is not my role to give advice or instructions to the CNDD-FDD. They are required to withdraw from Bujumbura Rural, so that its combatants can receive food supplies," Georges-Marc André, the EU delegate to Burundi, said.