Committee on peace “guarantees” to reconvene in June

Burundian delegations in the Arusha peace process made “good progress” last week in their negotiations on drawing up a list of “guarantees” needed for the implementation of an eventual peace accord, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. The delegations on Saturday concluded a week of talks in Committee Five, and the committee was scheduled to reconvene on 12 June, Hirondelle said. It quoted committee chairman Armando Guebuza of Mozambique as saying the delegations had agreed to work on a 15-point document drawn up by the facilitation team on the basis of proposals from the 19 parties taking part in the peace process. He said they had covered 11 of the 15 points, although “that doesn’t mean we have agreed,” Hirondelle reported. A key area of disagreement was whether or not to ask for the presence of a UN peacekeeping force to oversee implementation of an accord, it added.