UN envoy to guide IMC on implementing agreement

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday confirmed the widely-expected appointment Berhanu Dinka, his Special Envoy to the Great Lakes, as chairman of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) set up to monitor implementation of the Arusha peace agreement on Burundi. The appointment of Dinka, an Ethiopian national, was made in consultation with the facilitator of the Burundi peace process, former South African President Nelson Mandela, according to a statement released by Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard.

The IMC is mandated to monitor, supervise and coordinate the implementation of all provisions of the Arusha agreement, the UN statement said. It is also charged with interpreting the agreement and ruling on disputes between the parties. In addition, the Committee is to guide the activities of various bodies set up under the agreement, and assist the transitional government in mobilising the resources needed for implementation of the peace agreement, it said. Both Dinka and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Burundi, Jean Arnault, have just concluded consultations with all the parties concerned on the IMC’s structure and functioning, and on the role expected of its chairman and the UN, according to Eckhard.

Dinka was due to chair his first meeting of the IMC in Arusha, Tanzania, on Tuesday. Addressing Burundian signatories to the accord who gathered in Arusha on Monday, he said the launch of the IMC was a step in the right direction. “There should be no thought of turning back,” he added, according to the Hirondelle news agency. The mediator, Nelson Mandela, told the same gathering that he had obtained a pledge of US $50 million for next month’s donor conference on Burundi in Paris. He urged Burundian leaders to “take advantage of the reserve of goodwill which exists in almost every country of the world”.