Pro-Tutsi parties withdraw threat to leave government institutions

Burundi's Group of Five pro-Tutsi parties has withdrawn its threat to suspend participation in state institutions, so that Tuesday's planned ceasefire talks between rebels and the transitional government could have a better chance of success, a Burundian news agency, Net Press, reported. The G-5 accordingly asked its parliamentarians on Saturday to continue their participation in the deliberations of the National Assembly, it said. In July, the group said it would pull out of all state institutions until its continuing marginalisation within the government ended. It then called on former South African President Nelson Mandela - who facilitated the peace process - to intervene, and for regional leaders restore their rights within the government. The five parties are the Alliance nationale pour les droits et le developpement economique, MSP-Inkinzo, Parti de reconciliation du peuple, the Ralliement pour la democratie et le developpement economique et social and the Parti independent des travailleurs. Ceasefire talks involving the two wings of the Burundian Hutu rebel Force pour la defence de la democratie - one led by Peter Nkurunziza, the other by Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye - and the Burundi government are due to take place on Tuesday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. "The Forces nationale de liberation [FNL] has not confirmed its participation," a diplomat, who did not wish to be named, told IRIN. The FNL, the other Hutu rebel group, has also been fighting for nine years to unseat the transitional government of President Pierre Buyoya. Neither it nor the FDD were parties to the Arusha agreement leading to the inauguration of the transitional government on 1 November 2001. Buyoya was in South Africa on Sunday for consultations with that government. South Africa, Gabon and Tanzania have been trying to set up ceasefire talks.