Speaker off to meet Mandela

The speaker of Burundi’s national assembly, Leonce Ngendakumana, on Tuesday left for South Africa for talks which he said would mainly centre on the peace process. “We have been invited by the mediator in the Burundi talks [Nelson Mandela],” Burundi radio quoted him as saying. “We believe that he would like to talk to Burundians once again, to assess whether they still support the agreement they signed [in Arusha] on 28 August 2000, whether they made a step forward or backward,” he said. “Therefore, we shall know for sure what he wants to tell us after meeting him, after he has told us what he thinks and what he thinks we should do.”