IMC begins work in Arusha

The national human rights organisation, ITEKA, said the session of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), set up to oversee implementation of the Arusha peace accord, began its work on Wednesday “with some problems”. The IMC is meeting in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, parallel to a separate meeting of the 19 signatories to the peace accord, who are discussing Burundi’s transitional institutions. After much wrangling over admission of the PARENA party’s representative, the IMC finally adopted an agenda late in the evening, ITEKA said.

This includes studying and adopting a report from the IMC’s first session held in January, establishing an executive committee, looking at political freedoms, a sensitisation campaign to explain the accord to the population, preparatory work for the rehabilitation and reinstallation of refugees and affected populations, and looking at the question of political prisoners. An ad hoc committee will also look into issues such as genocide, the upsurge in fighting, the transitional institutions and the ceasefire.