Buyoya hopes talks would make progress

President Buyoya, for his part, on Thursday said he hoped the talks with CNDD-FDD would make progress towards the ceasefire. “As you know this is a major concern for us and all Burundians,” Burundi radio quoted him as saying before his departure to Pretoria. The government has always had trump cards, he said. “The first trump is the political will. The mere fact of going (to the Pretoria talks) is an expression of political will,” Buyoya said. “The second trump is that the peace process is at an advanced stage and this is the result of the government’s political will.

Therefore, we believe the ball is in the other side’s court,” he said. Buyoya said that in the country’s kind of peace process, “you hold discussions with the one who is ready without waiting for the slow mover”. “I believe it is the best strategy, we should move forward with those who are ready and this will compel the others to join in,” he added. Buyoya was referring to the fact that the government was meeting just one of the armed groups [CNDD-FDD] and not FDD or FNL in this round of talks.