Government, FDD in preliminary talks

Delegates from the Burundi government and from the rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) on Saturday held preliminary talks in Pretoria, South Africa, an analyst on Burundian affairs, Jan Van Eck, told IRIN on Monday.

According to him, nothing concrete had so far come out of the meeting "since they were preliminary talks". "The government delegation was supposed to have left on Sunday, but they have stayed on. There is a possibility that the two groups will continue the talks on Tuesday," he said.

"At the moment, we are waiting to meet with the United Nations Security Council delegation," the FDD spokesman, Jean-Marie Ngendahayo, told IRIN on Monday. "Our talks with the government delegation will depend on the outcome of our talks with the Security Council team," he added.

Talks between the government and FDD rebels failed to start on 22 April after most of the FDD delegation were held up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, because they could not secure travel documents from Tanzanian authorities. They finally obtained the documents through the South African authorities and travelled on 26 April.

In this round of talks, which were scheduled to end on 30 April, the two groups were to discuss ways of bringing about a of cessation of hostilities.

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Sunday that South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma had spent several hours on Saturday with a delegation from the Burundian rebel Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), which arrived in South Africa on 26 April. The FNL delegation was not, however, scheduled to meet either representatives of the Burundian government or the FDD, AFP said.

Despite the setting up of a transitional government in Burundi in November last year, rebels have stepped up attacks in various parts of the country, resulting in the displacement of thousands. Plans to have talks between the armed rebel groups and the government on securing a ceasefire have so far achieved very little.