Concern about protection unit for returning Burundi exiles

A special army unit to protect exiled politicians returning to Burundi under the Arusha peace plan is unlikely to be ready in time, AFP reported on Saturday. Speaking in Bujumbura before leaving for South Africa for talks with Nelson Mandela, mediator in Burundi's peace process, Burundi President Pierre Buyoya said that people returning for a three-year political transition period would still be safe. "If we don't manage to get this protection unit in place before 1 November, we shall find a way of protecting those who should be protected and of setting up the transition institutions," AFP quoted him as saying. EU special envoy to the Great Lakes region Aldo Ajello in Bujumbura on Saturday confirmed to AFP that it was unlikely that the force would be set up by 1 November, the date set for the start of the transition period. "Time is short before the setting up of the transitional institutions. We could envisage guaranteeing people's security by other means for a while. That's exactly what we're studying now," AFP quoted Ajello as saying. Under the transition, Buyoya, a Tutsi, is due to remain head of state for the first 18 months, with the Hutu Domitien Ndayizeye as vice-president; the roles will be exchanged between the ethnic groups for the second half of the period.

Burundi has been wracked since 1993 by a war between rebel movements of the Hutu majority and the army and government dominated by the Tutsi minority, AFP noted. All rival political forces signed a peace accord in August last year, but this has not been endorsed by the two main rebel groups.
The agreements signed in Arusha, Tanzania, made provision for a special unit of Hutu and Tutsi troops, to be chosen from army ranks and trained by foreign military advisors.