Government says Bayaganakandi “not G-10 candidate”

The Burundi government on Friday rejected what it called “biased news reports” that the G-10 group of pro-Tutsi signatories of the Arusha peace accord had presented Colonel Epitace Bayaganakandi as their candidate for the transitional leadership of the country. Rather, it was the G-6, “a group of small parties”, who had presented Bayaganakandi as its candidate, according to a press release from State House on Friday. Burundi’s Peace Process Minister Ambroise Niyonsaba last week dismissed the pro-Tutsi parties that proposed Colonel Epitace Bayaganakandi as transitional president as “too small”. He said the fact that two other parties had gone along with the G-6 group of Tutsi parties opposed to President Pierre Buyoya “did not mean much to the government”. The government suggested, in Friday’s statement, that some members of the facilitation team were trying to promote Domitien Ndayizeye and Bayaganakandi as a transitional leadership team, and talking of a regional summit to endorse them. “There has been no change in relation to the last summit of 26 February 2001, which rejected the Ndayizeye-Bayaganakandi pairing,” it stated.

During the talks in Arusha last Tuesday, the smaller Tutsi parties agreed on Bayaganakandi’s candidature, and the G-6 Hutu parties supported Domitien Ndayizeye. The pro-Hutu CNDD has rejected Ndayizeye’s candidature. The peace facilitator, Nelson Mandela, has proposed a rotating three-year transitional presidency: 18 months with a Tutsi president and Hutu vice-president, then vice versa for the next 18 months. A senior member of Mandela’s facilitation team, Judge Mark Bomani, told news organisations in Dar es Salaam last week that a regional summit would be held in Arusha next month to finalise details of the transitional leadership. The date for the meeting had not yet been set, Bomani said.