IMC meets in Arusha

The Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) established to follow up on the Arusha peace accord on Burundi held consultations in the northern Tanzanian town on Tuesday and was set to meet in plenary session for the second time on Wednesday, 17 January. IMC chairman Berhanu Dinka of Ethiopia told the independent news agency Hirondelle that the agenda would include a review of the calendar for implementing the 28 August peace deal. Dinka told Hirondelle that the meeting would last from Wednesday to Friday but could be extended to Saturday if necessary. Also on the agenda are adoption of the IMC’s Rules of Procedure and the nomination of members to the 11-member executive committee.

“The Arusha agreement had a calendar as an annexe, but the time frame envisaged is no more applicable,” said Dinka, who is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Special Representative to the Great Lakes region. “We have to revise the dates and look at what can be implemented in the first
phase, especially in the absence of a ceasefire and resolution of the transitional leadership issue. We must decide what are the implementable things,” Hirondelle quoted him as saying. It was hoped that progress on those sections of the Arusha agreement that could be implemented would provide the Burundi people with a partial ‘peace dividend’, but also improve the chances of moving forward on the more difficult issues, diplomatic sources told IRIN. Overall, the mood was one of quiet optimism after the 9 January meeting of Burundi President Pierre Buyoya and the leader of the rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye in Libreville, Gabon, they added.