Leaders back region's move on rebel group

Two Burundian leaders have welcomed Wednesday's move by heads of state of the Great Lakes region to brand Burundi's rebel Forces nationales de liberation of (FNL) a terrorist organisation, terming it long overdue. "[The] FNL has refused to take part in the peace process and has been killing innocent women and children. There was no choice, but to declare it a terrorist group," Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the former main rebel movement in the country, the Conseil national de défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD), said in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the end of the daylong summit. The Speaker of Burundi's National Assembly, Jean Minani, said: "The international community talks a lot, but there has been little action so far. I hope they'll now finally take action." Although Nkurunziza and Minani were in Dar es Salaam, they did not participate in the summit. Nkurunziza is the minister of state for governance in Burundi's transitional government. His ministerial appointment followed a power-sharing agreement his group signed with the government in November 2003. Minani supported the region's move against Rwasa's FNL, saying "swift action" should be taken against the group. Rwasa's FNL has claimed responsibility for the massacre of 160 Congolese refugees on Friday at a refugee camp in Burundi near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the only rebel group in the country that is yet to lay down its arms. It continues to fight government forces from its stronghold of Bujumbura Rural, the province the surrounds the capital, Bujumbura. Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD, on the other hand, formally transformed itself into a political party at a congress held in Bujumbura on 7-8 August. Nkurunziza said there was now hope for lasting peace in Burundi, and that he was looking forward to elections scheduled to take place before 1 November, at the end of a three-year transitional period. However, he declined to state whether or not he would be a presidential candidate. "I will not betray my people if they choose me to run for president," he said, but he added that his party would pick a candidate only upon the confirmation of an election date. The regional summit urged Burundi's transitional government to ensure that an independent electoral commission was in place by 29 August. It also urged the National Assembly to endorse a draft constitution within three weeks of the establishment of the electoral commission. The region's heads of state vowed to act "decisively" against Rwasa's FNL and called upon the African Union and the UN Security Council to support their decision by applying the relevant international anti-terrorism conventions and protocols. The leaders also endorsed a post-transition power-sharing agreement signed on 6 August in Pretoria by Burundian political parties and called for the incorporation of the agreement's provisions in the country's constitution. The Pretoria agreement provides for a government and national assembly that would be 60 percent Hutu and 40 percent Tutsi. It also provides for two vice-presidents from different ethnic communities and political groups.