Talks between rebels and government postponed

Cease-fire talks scheduled for the end of January between Burundi’s rebel groups and transitional government were postponed on Wednesday after the rebels asked mediator Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s deputy president, for more time to prepare, the South African Press Association, Sapa, reported.

"We are hoping the meeting will take place by the end of February, but we still have to consult all the parties concerned before we set a date," Sapa reported Zanele Mngadi, Zuma's spokeswoman, as saying.

Sapa said that the talks had been due to run from 30 January to 2 February in Pretoria, the South African capital. The rebel groups that requested the delay are the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) and Forces nationale de liberation (FNL). A spokesman for the Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD), Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, told IRIN on Thursday that his group had also told Zuma in December that the CNDD-FDD would not be available for a meeting before February.

"Apart from the fact that we were organising ourselves politically, we realised we would not be ready, because we were in discussions with the FNL," Ngendahayo said. "We are trying to come up with a common theme, and the talks have been going on quite smoothly. We will announce in the next few days the possible dates in February when we would not mind having the meeting."

He said CNDD-FDD was "willing to negotiate", and that together with the FNL their main focus would be the restoration of peace in Burundi. "I cannot discuss what conditions or expectations there are as yet," he said.

Several attempts to hold talks between the rebels and the government have failed, either because the rebels did not attend or because they demanded that Gabonese President Omar Bongo would be co-mediator of the talks.

On 1 November 2001, a power-sharing transitional government was set up in Burundi with Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, as president. He is to lead the country during the first half of the three-year transitional period, while a Hutu is to be president for the next 18 months. Despite the government's inauguration, the rebels have stepped up their attacks around the capital, Bujumbura.