IMC meeting ends with series of recommendations

A week-long session of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) for the Burundi peace agreement ended in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday with a set of recommendations, notably to the government and National Assembly, the Hirondelle news agency reported. Delegates told Hirondelle that the government had not met the IMC’s March demand for progress reports on the preparation of three key legal texts - revision of all legal texts limiting political freedom; provisional immunity for exiled politicians returning to Burundi; and a law against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They said the IMC was recommending that the government meet its obligations as a matter of urgency.

“I think this is a step forward for us,” said Alphonse Rugambarara of the MSP-Inkinzo party and spokesman for the G-8 pro-Tutsi parties opposed to President Pierre Buyoya. “Several months have gone by since we signed [the peace accord of 28 August] and the government has done practically nothing to work with the other signatory parties.”

At the end of the meeting, the IMC issued a statement appealing for an end to hostilities in Burundi. “The IMC notes with extreme concern that, nine months after the signing of the Agreement, political and military hostilities are continuing, resulting in violations of human rights, massive destruction and loss of human lives,” the statement said.