Summit endorses Buyoya as first transitional leader

Regional leaders who met in Arusha on Monday announced that agreement had been reached on President Pierre Buyoya’s presidency for the first 18 months of the transition, news organisations reported. Peace mediator Nelson Mandela, who arrived in Arusha on Monday, had stated on arrival that the “overwhelming majority of the parties negotiating have accepted this decision” and “we are not going to reopen the matter”, the Hirondelle news agency reported. Buyoya will be assisted by Hutu Vice-President Domitien Ndayizeye for the first half of the three-year transition period, after which the roles will be reversed. Hirondelle recalled that implementation of the Arusha peace accord, signed last August, had been blocked by the absence of a ceasefire and by lack of consensus among signatory parties on who should lead the transition.

Mandela went into consultations with regional leaders on Monday before the summit opened. According to Reuters, four presidents have turned up - Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, Kenya’s Daniel arap Moi, Tanzania’s Benjamin Mkapa and Burundi’s Pierre Buyoya.
Other invited countries have sent representatives. President Museveni, who made the announcement on Monday, said the transitional government would be established on 1 November.

The Burundian negotiating sides had been meeting in Arusha, ahead of the regional summit, and a threatened boycott of the meeting by Tutsi parties opposed to Buyoya appeared to have been averted. Over the weekend, delegates in Arusha discussed the distribution of ministerial posts and the conditions attached to Buyoya’s presidency, as announced by peace mediator Nelson Mandela in Pretoria earlier this month. The parties were allowed to modify these conditions - which include reforming the army, inviting international peacekeepers and freeing political prisoners - but only by consensus.