Buyoya in South Africa for talks on transition

Burundi President Pierre Buyoya is in South Africa for talks with the mediator of the peace process, Nelson Mandela. Government sources confirmed to IRIN that Buyoya left Burundi on Thursday for talks which would include the transition issue. The private Netpress news agency said he was leading a large delegation of 22 people, including government ministers and army representatives. Leading members of the opposition FRODEBU party, who had been holding talks in South Africa, were recalled at short notice by Mandela. The officials - including former president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya - returned to Pretoria on Thursday, after arriving back in Burundi the previous day. Before leaving, the presidential candidate of the pro-Hutu G-7 group, Domitien Ndayizeye, said the talks had focused on ways of implementing the stalled Arusha peace accord, including putting pressure on the pro-Tutsi G-10 bloc to come up with a single candidate for the transitional presidency. The BBC Kirundi service on Thursday said rumours were circulating of a deal between the government and the G-7 group, and the sidelining of the smaller pro-Tutsi parties opposed to Buyoya, grouped under the G-8. However, the G-8 spokesman, Alphonse Rugambarara said Mandela would not accept such a deal. “If their intention is to isolate others, it would mean the agreement has lost its value,” he told the BBC. “We think the mediator and the international community will not accept it.” According to the BBC, Rugambarara said his group was also waiting to be called to South Africa.