UPRONA on why it boycotted Arusha meeting

The leader of the UPRONA party, Luc Rukingama, said his party did not go to the Arusha meeting fixed for Thursday, because at a previous meeting his party and others had not been allowed to speak. “During [the meeting of] the signatories of Arusha peace agreement, the chairman of the meeting did not allow UPRONA and several other parties to speak,” Rukingama told the BBC Kirundi service. “We wrote to the mediator, [Nelson] Mandela, and informed him about what had happened,” Rukingama explained. “We told him that the report which was made was wrong and that the meeting’s chairman had not followed rules on how to conduct meetings in Arusha,” he noted. “He had allowed some to speak while denying others the same right, and that unless that changed we would no longer take part in those meetings,” Rukingama added.