Five parties back foreign peacekeepers

Five political parties have expressed support for the deployment of a foreign peacekeeping force during Burundi’s transition period, the Hirondelle news agency reported. It said representatives of the pro-Hutu FRODEBU, PP, RPB parties and the pro-Tutsi ABASA and PARENA parties told a news conference in Bujumbura on Saturday that such a deployment would not constitute “recolonisation” as feared by some Burundians. It would guarantee respect for the peace accord, they said. The Burundi government has rejected the idea of a foreign peacekeeping force. Government spokesman Luc Rukingama said Burundi had no faith in such troops, which had not been successful in other countries. Rukingama on Monday also urged Burundian journalists to “sensitise” the public to the idea of a peace accord and create a “conducive environment” for the emergence of such an accord, the Agence burundaise de presse reported.