Military committee on peace ends visit

A technical military committee of officers from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa have ended their review of the security situation in Burundi and the possibility of sending a small peacekeeping force to end the long-running civil war, Radio Burundi reported on Thursday.

The peacekeeping force is one of two options the delegation has presented as a way forward in returning the country to stability. The other option is for a mission - whose members will be drawn from the four countries - to protect returning political exiles, Radio Burundi reported. However, it quoted Defence Minister Maj-Gen Cyrille Ndayirukiye as saying that the four countries were not interested in participating.

Nevertheless, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is seeking parliamentary approval for Nigerian peacekeeping forces to be deployed to Burundi, AFP reported last week. In a letter to Nigeria's upper chamber of the national assembly, the Senate,
Obasanjo said his request followed efforts by African leaders, particularly South African former president and Burundi
peace mediator Nelson Mandela, to end Burundi's civil war.

The military committee, headed by South African Defence Force General Lusse Yan, were in Burundi at the behest of Mandela.
Some Burundi political leaders have expressed opposition to the deployment of a peacekeeping force.

Burundi has been at war since 1993. All political and civil parties to the strife agreed to a ceasefire in August 2000. Under a power-sharing deal, a transitional government is due to be set up on 1 November. However, the two main rebel movements, the Forces for National Liberation and the Forces for the Defence of Democracy, have not signed the Arusha peace accord.