We are ready for peace talks, FNL rebels say

Burundi's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa, said on Tuesday it was willing to stop fighting government troops. "Our movement is ready to enter into serious negotiations with the interim government and work out a plan for sustainable peace in Burundi," Ibrahim Ntakirutimana, an FNL representative, said in the Tanzanian commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Reading a statement giving the group's position, he added, "We are also formally announcing to cease fighting." Ntakirutimana had led an FNL delegation to Dar es Salaam to meet Tanzanian government leaders and to present the group's position on the Burundi peace process. Flanked by Tanzania's minister of foreign affairs, Jakaya Kikwete, Ntakirutimana, however, said FNL would only stop fighting when the transitional government begins peace negotiations with it. He said the group would neither seek fresh negotiations with the Bujumbura government nor the postponement of general elections - due before the end of April. "We are not going to block elections, but we want to join the peace process," he said. Kikwete said Tanzania welcomed FNL's new intentions. He said Tanzanian government officials had been holding meetings with the FNL delegation since 5 April, and that the next step was to consult other leaders in the Great Lakes region for a "further decision". Kikwete said Tanzania, like other countries in the Great Lakes region, still regarded FNL as a "terrorist organisation". However, he expressed optimism for a change of this perception once the talks with the government in Bujumbura starts. "FNL was declared a terrorist organisation to press it join the peace process," he said. "If they now want peace in Burundi and stopped fighting, then they will obviously be welcomed to join the train." Burundi's transitional government was set up following a Peace and Reconciliation Accord signed by Burundian parties in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania. Apart from the FNL, several other former rebel groups have since signed ceasefire agreements with the government and joined in the country's transitional institutions. The accord provides for a three-year transitional government that should have ended in October 2004. However, the electoral timetable was delayed several times because of disagreements over the details of a new constitution. This resulted in an extension of the transitional period until April, to facilitate the holding of a constitutional referendum on 28 February. In the referendum, 91 percent of an estimated three million registered voters polled "yes" for a new constitution that slashes the imbalance of power between the minority Tutsis and the majority Hutus; the country's main ethnic groups. If held, the elections are expected to usher in an era of sustained peace after an 11-year civil war in which an estimated 300,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.