Peace process at a “critical stage”

The Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG), says that Burundi’s two-year peace process is at a “critical stage”. “ICG feels negotiations are at a critical stage, everything thing must be done to bring the rebels to the negotiation table, otherwise the talks risk complete failure,” a political analyst with the ICG Central African programme, George Bloch, told IRIN. A briefing paper issued by ICG on Thursday recalled that the mediator of the peace process, Nelson Mandela, has been demanding the release of all political prisoners, restoration of press freedoms, the rights of political parties and the disbandment of all regroupment camps.

ICG requested the Burundi government to grant the local media “immediate unconditional and equal access” to all political parties and armed rebel groups. It urged the mediator to “immediately disqualify from negotiations and bar from the transition’s institutions all individuals who in future resort to defamation, propagation of ethnic hatred, or the use of violence”. The donors, according to ICG, should support training programmes for local journalists in a bid to explain to Burundians the peace agreement and the transition process.