Annan's special representative arrives

The newly appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) for Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, arrived in Bujumbura on Friday to take up her duties as the head of the UN Operation in Burundi, known as ONUB. In a communiqué released Thursday, ONUB said her main tasks would be to steer the recently deployed UN peace keeping mission and help Burundians implement the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed in August 2000. ONUB was established on 21 May, by UN Security Council Resolution 1545, taking over from the African Union's Mission in Burundi on 1 June. Prior to her appointment as SRSG for Burundi, McAskie served as Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and Deputy to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs from October 1999 to May 2004. Burundi is emerging from a devastating ten-year civil war between Hutu rebel groups and the minority Tutsi government. With the establishment of a transitional government, relative peace has been restored in the majority of the country. Sporadic fighting continues in the western province of Bujumbura Rural where a faction of the National Liberation forces, who refused to join the transitional government, continues to stage attacks.