Arusha talks end in stalemate

A week of talks in Arusha, Tanzania, ended on Sunday without any progress on who should lead the transitional government or on ceasefire arrangements, the Hirondelle news agency reported. It quoted a member of the facilitation team, Judge Mark Bomani, who said the 19 negotiating sides dwelt on other, lesser issues “which the facilitator, Nelson Mandela, did not have in mind when he convened this session”. He said Mandela would continue meetings at different levels to try and find consensus on these two major sticking points before 28 August, the date the peace accord is due to be signed. Bomani said time was not really an issue for the negotiating sides. “They may not be able to agree on a particular issue, but that is not because they haven’t had time to discuss, that is just because they won’t agree,” he said. “So even if you give them a year, two years, they probably won’t agree.” The 10 pro-Tutsi parties (G10) negotiating in Arusha on Saturday called for more time to discuss the peace accord, accusing their seven Hutu counterparts (G7) of “blocking” the talks. The G10 reiterated that further negotiations should focus on the question of genocide, the electoral system, the defence forces, the transition, the ceasefire and guarantees for implementing the peace accord “which do not put the country under foreign supervision”. They claimed the draft agreement was “biased” towards the G7 group. “I don’t see us signing on the 28th if we don’t find consensus on these issues,” Mathias Hitimana, the leader of the pro-monarchist PRP group and a member of the G10 told IRIN. He accused the facilitation team of “thinking for us and then telling us to adopt positions which we have not originated”.