Buyoya, Mkapa agree to restore “good neighbourliness”

Burundi’s President Pierre Buyoya on Wednesday said that he had agreed with his Tanzanian counterpart, Benjamin Mkapa, to restore the “good relations of neighbourliness”. “We expressed the wish to see that the frameworks which were created in order to solve all these questions, particularly, the question of security, function,” Burundi radio quoted Buyoya as saying upon his return from Dar es Salaam. “We expressed the wish that the ministers of defence should meet regularly. They will meet again this month. Junior security officials should also meet regularly,” he said. “We noted that in the last months there was progress and that matters should continue in that direction,” he added. The two leaders also discussed the refugee issue. “It seems that some in the international community dealing with the refugees in Tanzania are not in favour of their repatriation,” Buyoya said. “It seems that there is a rebel propaganda against their return and it seems that some local authorities are not in favour of it for well known reasons, because they believe their repatriation is not for their interests,” Buyoya added. President Mkapa, for his part, was quoted as making an “urgent call” to the rebels to lay down their arms and join the peace process which is “in their interest, it is the best path in order to find a place in their own country and it is in the interest of Burundi, Tanzania and the region”. According to Buyoya, Mkapa’s sentiments were a “satisfactory answer”. “I think it is the first time that the Tanzanian president has spoken on the question in such a clear manner. I think it is an acknowledgements of the progress made in the peace process,” Buyoya said.