Army reported to be in step with peace process

The Burundi army is fully behind the country’s ongoing peace process, Defence Minister Colonel Cyrille Ndayirukiye said on Wednesday after his return from South Africa, where he led a delegation from the Burundian army to meet the Arusha talks facilitator Nelson Mandela. The peace process and the defence forces were the centre of the talks, and delicate questions such as the integration of rebel forces into the regular army were discussed in South Africa, Burundi radio quoted Ndayiruke as saying. The delegation had pledged its support of the “internal and external peace processes,” it added. Ndayiruke had not met the leader of the rebel CNDD-FDD, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye, but was not opposed to doing so once “an appropriate framework was organised,” the report added.