Council mission holds talks with Buyoya

A UN Security Council delegation currently on a trip in the Great Lakes region, on Wednesday held talks with Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and other leaders in Bujumbura, Burundi. The mission underscored its awareness of the link between the situations in Burundi and in the neighbouring DRC. “We will not allow for a solution to the conflict in the DRC to be had at the expense of Burundi,” a UN statement quoted the mission’s leader, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, as saying after the delegation’s hour-long meeting with the signatories to the Arusha accords. Stressing that “there is no military solution” to the Burundi crisis, Levitte said the Council would plead for peace and for the establishment of democratic institutions that would fully protect minority rights.

He also noted that Burundi was present for the first time as an observer during the joint meeting of the Council and the Political Committee of the Lusaka agreement, which concerns the DRC, in Zambia on Tuesday night. The Council mission has now left for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where they are due to meet the leadership of the armed rebel group which has not signed the accord - Forces nationales pour la liberation (FNL).