Talks with main rebel faction collapse

Talks between the Burundian government and the main rebel faction collapsed over the weekend without any progress towards a ceasefire, the South African facilitators announced on Monday. This is the second time since peace talks began in August that Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie/Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) and the government have failed to agree. Neither side could agree on a "Declaration of Commitment to Negotiate", a document that would identify the real belligerents in the Burundi conflict and commit them to any ceasefire signed, Jacob Zuma, facilitator of the negotiations said in Dar es Salaam. "According to the CNDD-FDD Nkurunziza position, the Transitional Government delegation would be recognised as fully-fledged belligerents," he said, due to its association with the Burundian armed forces. "The two parties could not reach an agreement on the contents and the process of the declaration, with the government emphasising the need to concentrate on negotiating the actual ceasefire agreement and not the "Declaration of Commitment to Negotiate", and the CNDD-FDD insisting that they would not take part in actual ceasefire talks until their requirements were met," he added. The government described the setback as "unfortunate". "It is very unfortunate that they refuse to negotiate and we're just going to wait," Ambroise Niyonsaba, head of the Burundi government delegation, told IRIN. "The peace process is moving backwards, not forwards at the moment. We could be faced with a situation where the FDD completely pulls out of the talks, therefore ending hopes that there could be a ceasefire," Jan van Eck, a Burundi conflict analyst, told IRIN on Monday. "This may result in the region deciding to apply sanctions on the rebel movements at the 7 October summit," he concluded. This is the last summit of the Great Lakes Regional Initiative on Burundi, due to be held in Arusha, Tanzania.