Government in ceasefire negotiations with rebel faction

Burundian official began ceasefire negotiations on Tuesday with the country's largest rebel group, raising hopes that an end to the nine-year civil war is in sight.

Acting under the facilitation of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the Pierre Nkurunziza faction of the rebel Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Force pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) shifted from insisting on a cessation of hostilities as a condition to ceasefire talks, to going directly into negotiating a ceasefire.

Zuma's office reported that the last week of peace negotiations had been spent "largely in pre-negotiation consultations".

During these consultations, the CNDD-FDD faction had initially proposed that the ceasefire negotiations be preceded by an agreement on the cessation of hostilities. However, the facilitators said, the Burundi government maintained that the cessation of hostilities should be part of the general draft ceasefire agreement that could be dealt with during the negotiation of a ceasefire.

"It was opposed to separating the cessation of hostilities from the ceasefire agreement, and added that the manner in which the CNDD-FDD was proposing the separation made government interpret it as a precondition before the beginning of actual ceasefire negotiations," Zuma's office reported on Monday.

Disagreement on whether to first enter into a discussion on a cessation of hostilities or move straight into ceasefire talks has previously stalled the present round of talks in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.

Zuma's office said that on Wednesday discussions between the Burundi government and the CNDD-FDD faction would take place at the level of technical committees where the two sides would negotiate details of the draft ceasefire plan. Nkurunziza and Burundian President Pierre Buyoya - would not attend these technical meetings. The two would rejoin the talks on Thursday, Zuma's office said.

The office went on to say that on Monday, Zuma had met a delegation of the hardline Parti de liberation du peuple hutu-Force nationale de liberation (Palipehutu-FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa.
"They indicated that they did not have a mandate to negotiate with the Burundi transitional government until the government had met a set of conditions," Zuma's office reported.

These conditions were that the government destroy what the FNL says are concentration camps in Burundi, officially recognise the FNL, send all Burundian government soldiers back to barracks and the "destruction and disarming of all pro-government militias". Other conditions were that the government release what the FNL says are political prisoners, and suspend criminal courts.

"In light of the above, Deputy President Zuma does not have plans to hold further meetings with the Palipehutu-FNL," his office reported.

At the Great Lakes summit on 7 October, regional leaders ordered the armed movements to work out a ceasefire with the government in 30 days or face the consequences.