Parties endorse Bayaganakandi as transitional president

Six pro-Tutsi political parties - Anadde, Inkinzo, AV-Intwari, PIT, PP and Raddes - have announced their agreement on nominating Colonel Epitace Bayaganakandi as their candidate for the presidency of the transitional period envisaged under the Arusha peace process. The party leaders told a press conference in Bujumbura on Thursday that the government had played a role in “spreading rumours” that Colonel Bayaganakandi intended to divide the army, to “discriminate” according to regions or to reject the peace agreement, the BBC Kirundi service reported. The leaders intended to write to President Pierre Buyoya asking him to stop his “negative criticism” of Bayaganakandi, they said. Journalists at the press conference also raised the prospect that the army would consider that Bayaganakandi - who was still a soldier since he had not resigned his commission - had defected and become a rebel, the BBC report said.