6,000 ex-rebels ready for cantonment

So far, 6,000 fighters from the main former rebel movement, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democarite (CNDD-FDD), are assembled at Kibongo Commune in the southern province of Makamba and are ready for cantonment, the movement’s spokesman, Maj Gelase Ndabirabe, told IRIN on Thursday. "They are in what we call assembly zones," He said. "Once the cantonment sites are ready, they will go there for demobilisation and disarmament." He said the movement was also identifying other sites for cantonment of its additional fighters. Ndabirabe and six other senior officers of the movement arrived in Bujumbura on Wednesday to take their seats on the Joint Ceasefire Commission comprising the government and various rebel groups. He said the fighters were receiving food from the African Union, the continent’s foremost political body. He said 2,600 kg of cassava flour, 1,550 kg of beans, 360 kg of palm oil, 250 kg of small fish known locally as Ndagala, 150 kg of rice, 150 kg of sugar and 50 kg of salt were distributed Tuesday to 1,500 fighters at Makamba. However, he said more food would be needed as even a greater number of fighters were expected. "The African Mission has been informed about this," he added. The head of African Mission in Burundi, Mamadou Bah, said: "We continue to feed CNDD-FDD combatants with the assistance of the European Union. The NGO GTZ is buying food and transporting it, the African mission provides the escort." Bah said cantonment of the main CNDD-FDD combatants must be well prepared and executed to avoid problems faced by those of Jean Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and Alain Mugabarabona, leaders of the smaller factions of Forces nationales de liberation and the CNDD-FDD respectively. These forces are cantoned at Muyange, 30 km northwest of Bujumbura. "All measures must be taken to set up demobilisation centres that attract people," Bah said. "The building should be well done and logistics inside the sites should be better organised than what we have at Muyange." He said other cantonment sites had been identified, but that the African mission would first discuss these with CNDD-FDD leaders at the ceasefire commission before they became operational.