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The internal wing of the opposition FRODEBU party has condemned the announcement by Burundi peace mediator Nelson Mandela announcing Tutsi President Pierre Buyoya to lead the first half of the transition with Hutu Domitien Ndayizeye as vice-president. In a statement issued on Saturday, the FRODEBU faction, led by Augustin Nzojibwami, said the Arusha peace negotiations had “divided Burundi society along ethnic lines”. It said Mandela’s announcement “violated national sovereignty and did not address the aspirations of the signatories to the agreement, of the Burundi people in general and of FRODEBU in particular”. The internal FRODEBU party, claiming Ndayizeye belongs to Jean Minani’s external FRODEBU wing, vowed to resist the Buyoya-Ndayizeye team “energetically, fiercely and peacefully”.
Thomas Bukuru, FRODEBU’s secretary-general, accused Mandela of usurping
Burundi’s sovereignty. “How can a foreigner in the year 2001 give
himself the right to designate the president of the republic of Burundi and even say that he will increase the salaries of ministers in Burundi?” he said in an interview with IRIN. “There
are Burundians who cannot accept that situation.” He predicted that the new government would “fail”.
“Burundians today are today a humiliated people who will not accept the Buyoya-Ndayizeye team,” he said.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions