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Senior military officers to meet Mandela

    NAIROBI

    The facilitator of the Burundi peace process, former South African president Nelson Mandela, is scheduled to meet Burundi Defence Minister Colonel Cyrille Ndayirukiye and senior military officers next week, with sensitive issues surrounding reform of the armed forces reported to be on the agenda. “Mandela will meet the Burundi Minister for Defence and his delegation on 15 March,” Mandela’s spokesperson Marianne Nudziwa told IRIN on Friday. The Tanzanian independent ‘Guardian’ newspaper on Friday quoted reliable sources as saying that the meeting would tackle reform of the Burundi armed forces in the context of the Arusha peace talks. On 22 February, Mandela told the 19 parties to the Arusha talks that the minority Tutsi ethnic group monopolised politics, the economy and the armed forces - a move that generated considerable anxiety in the armed forces and among Tutsi political parties.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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