Delegations to meet again in Arusha on 7 August

Heads of delegations negotiating the Burundi peace process are due to reconvene in Arusha, Tanzania, on 7 August, the Hirondelle news agency reported on Monday. It quoted Judge Mark Bomani of the facilitation team as saying that representatives of Burundi’s armed rebel groups and the Burundi army would go to South Africa ahead of that date for talks with the facilitator Nelson Mandela. Bomani noted that the delegates were given a draft peace accord to study when they met in Arusha last week and he said the compromises contained in it were “realistic”. “We hope they will be able to accept them in a spirit of give and take,” he told Hirondelle. “In case they wish to make proposals or counterproposals, President Mandela has assured them he will consider them, but it has be a consensus.”