Sides meet to choose transitional leader

Representatives of the 19 negotiating sides in the Burundi peace process are meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, for talks aimed at appointing a transitional leader, the Hirondelle news agency reported. However, it noted that the discussions could be “delicate” given the government’s stated position that the transitional institutions cannot be established before a ceasefire has been reached in the country’s armed conflict. Two separate rounds of talks are scheduled, Hirondelle noted. On Monday, the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) is due to meet and the 19 signatories will hold parallel talks expected to focus on the leadership issue. At a regional summit held in Arusha last month, the mediator Nelson Mandela proposed splitting the three-year transition into two 18-month periods - the first led by a Tutsi president and Hutu vice-president and vice versa for the second period. Meanwhile the IMC meeting is expected to concentrate on five issues: setting up a commission on political prisoners, the question of a provisional amnesty for certain crimes, setting up the IMC’s executive committee, preparations for the return of refugees and the “sensitisation campaign” to familiarise Burundians with the peace process. Hirondelle quoted sources close to Mandela as saying it was unlikely the transitional leaders would be named this week. However, the mediation team is reported to be arranging a second face-to-face meeting in Libreville, Gabon, between Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie (CNDD-FDD). The first, held on 9 January, was brokered by former Congolese president Laurent-Desire Kabila who was assassinated shortly after. The sources said the new president, Joseph Kabila, was being “very constructive” regarding Burundi. Ahead of the Arusha meeting, Burundi’s UN ambassador, Marc Nteturuye, on Friday requested the Security Council to issue a statement or resolution calling on the 19 signatories to give priority to the question of a ceasefire rather than the transitional leadership. He asked that the signatories be urged to “give priority to the issue of the ceasefire instead of establishing the transitional institutions which cannot function under current circumstances and even risk creating new problems”, the Associated Press reported. For the past two weeks, there has been fierce fighting in the Kinama suburb of the Burundian capital Bujumbura between rebels of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and the army.