Little progress in Arusha

Signatories to the Burundi peace accord met behind closed doors in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on Tuesday and Wednesday in a bid to tackle outstanding issues such as leadership of the transitional period. However, according to the Hirondelle news agency, they are already at stalemate, unable to agree on the methodology for tackling this sticking point. One delegate said the stumbling block lies in the text of the 28 August peace agreement which “contains no provision for the nomination of transitional leaders”. The peace process mediator, Nelson Mandela, has urged the 19 signatory parties to resolve all outstanding issues before a donor conference in Paris on 11 and 12 December. The signatories’ meeting was due to end on Wednesday, but could be prolonged if the issues are not resolved. Three sub-committees have been established to deal with the leadership issue, a timetable for implementing the accord, and technical corrections to the document.

Delegates have instructed Burundi’s national assembly to ratify the agreement as soon as possible. The assembly had been reluctant to do this, citing “material errors and contradictions” in the document. However, the Agence burundaise de presse (ABP) reported that the agreement would be adopted on 1 December. The assembly’s vice-president Stany Nsabuwaka was quoted as saying the “obstacles” had now been removed.

Meanwhile, the newly-installed Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) - set up to oversee implementation of the Arusha accord - failed to meet as planned on Tuesday because some of its members are also attending the signatories’ meeting and do not want parallel sessions. The IMC is now due to meet on Thursday. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week named his special representative to the Great Lakes, Berhanu Dinka, as IMC chairman. The IMC’s temporary seat will be in Arusha, until the process can move to the Burundian capital, Bujumbura.