Arusha meeting case of “bad timing”

A meeting called by the representative of the facilitator of the Burundi peace talks, Mark Bomani, is a case of “wrong timing” by the convenor. “The meeting was called too soon and at the wrong time,” Burundi analyst Jan Van Eck noted on Thursday. “The meeting would not produce results with regards to the transition issue,” he told IRIN. On Wednesday, government and army officials told IRIN that they would not attend the meeting, which was scheduled to take place on Thursday in Arusha to discuss the transition issue. Political parties under the G10 group, UPRONA, PARENA and CNDD also said they would not attend the meeting, saying the priority now was the ceasefire. The government has always maintained this as its priority too.

Van Eck said that a couple of weeks ago a delegation of elders, the civil society, the clergy and army met with the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, Nelson Mandela, in South Africa. He noted that the army delegation had suggested to Mandela that, with time, they would try and help bring consensus on the presidency issue. “This was about two or three weeks ago, so expecting them to have secured the consensus within this time would be a little too soon,” he added. “The failure of the meeting would come more because of its wrong timing,” he reiterated.