Pro-Tutsi parties seek decision on transition

A week before a meeting of signatories of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, the Burundian Net Press news agency reported that the group of eight pro-Tutsi parties (G8) supporting the candidacy of Col. Epitace Bayaganakandi as president of the first phase of the transitional period has written to the mediator in the Burundi conflict, Nelson Mandela, drawing his attention to what they believe to be impeding progress in negotiations: stubbornness on the part of President Pierre Buyoya and the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) and Forces nationales pour la liberation (FNL) rebel groups.

According to Net Press, the G8 claimed that Buyoya called for a cease-fire before any implementation of the agreement, “knowing full well that FDD and FNL rebels have, for a long time, said they would never stop fighting as long as he was still in power.”
The G8 requested that Mandela inform all involved in the peace process of this stalemate in an effort to find alternative solutions to the ones proposed thus far, according to Net Press.

The G8 was also reported to have asked Mandela why they were not given an opportunity to meet with him, as had been the case for the Front pour la democratie au Burundu (Frodebu), the government and the pro-government Union pour le progres national (Uprona) faction.