Interview with Mamadou Bah, AU representative

Burundi's transitional government and Pierre Nkurunziza's faction of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) signed a ceasefire accord on 3 December, giving greater impetus for peace in the country torn by nine years of civil war. The agreement, reached at the 19th regional summit on Burundi, in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha, provides for the deployment of an African military force to monitor implementation. The representative of the African Union (AU) in Burundi, Ambassador Mamadou Bah, spoke to IRIN about these plans. Here are excerpts from his interview with IRIN held in the capital, Bujumbura, on Tuesday. QUESTION: Mr ambassador, the recent ceasefire signed by the government and the CNDD-FDD stipulates that an African force be deployed to Burundi to monitor the implementation of the accord. Do we know which countries will contribute troops and when this force might be deployed? ANSWER: The government and the CNDD-FDD and the mediators will jointly determine the countries that will take part in the force. Regarding the moment of deployment, the ideal would have been that right after the signing of the ceasefire we should have had a force to monitor it. Right now we are thinking about that. There is a meeting scheduled in [the South African administrative capital] Cape Town starting 18 December. I believe this question of the force will be discussed there. Q: Who will provide the funds and the logistics? A: What we generally do is to ask countries that can assist Africa in this domain. There are donors, but I cannot name any right now. The mediators, the regional initiative and perhaps the European Union will join their efforts to ask a number of countries capable of assisting Burundi financially in the deployment of that force. Q: But when they mentioned in the accord that the force would be deployed before the 30 December, did the parties to the accord think of all these issues that are likely to take long to implement? A: These issues will take more time. What I can say is that people are aware of the stakes, of the necessity for everyone to move and to move fast, because we must commit all efforts so that the force can start deployment before 31 December. But, of course, it will not be as easy as we would have wished, but I don't think that people are sleeping. [South African] Deputy President [Jacob] Zuma has just returned from the UN Security Council in New York with a response that the UN is ready to assist with the logistics. This issue will certainly be raised at the Cape Town meeting to see what can be done. I have just returned from [the Ethiopian capital] Addis Ababa where I raised the issue with competent authorities in the African Union. Experts are, right now, discussing all possible scenarios whereby the African Union would intervene and how. Q: When the mediators were looking for contributions to the force to protect returning politicians that would take part in the transitional government, a number of countries, including Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, made promises. Do they still hold to these promises? A: I have not heard that these countries are still not holding [to] their promises. But when they made them, it was in the framework of the instalment of the transitional government. The CNDD-FDD was not there. Today for those countries to be able to send troops, there must be a common agreement between the government and the CNDD-FDD. In other words the CNDD-FDD must also give its consent. Q: Under whose jurisdiction will the force operate? Will it hold a mandate of the UN or of the African Union? A: For the UN to intervene, there must be a number of conditions that are fulfilled. These conditions do not exist at the moment. This does not mean that the United Nations is indifferent to what is going to take place here. I have already told you that the UN is ready to provide logistics and even the expertise. But within the current phase, I don't think the UN would back the deployment of the force with its mandate. Q: A mandate of the African Union? A: This is also to be discussed with the regional initiative - to know when the African Union would intervene or whether it would back the force with its mandate. This will also be discussed within the Union's central organ. You know that apart from the immediate neighbours of Burundi, there is South Africa that is acting chairman of the African Union. Q: Mr ambassador, what do think of the ceasefire, since the other rebel group, the Force nationale de liberation [FNL], is still fighting? A: We have obtained a ceasefire with the CNDD-FDD that was not in Arusha when we signed the peace accord in August 2000. We hope that we will work to consolidate what we have obtained with the CNDD-FDD and persuade the FNL of the necessity to join the process.