CNDD-FDD says it will never sign Arusha accord

The rebel CNDD-FDD has said it will never sign the peace accord under deliberation in Arusha, Tanzania, as it has never been part of the two-year process. The group’s spokesman Jerome Ndiho told IRIN on Friday that CNDD-FDD’s path to peace was by holding direct talks with the government, as the two sides constituted the main belligerents in Burundi’s conflict. However, CNDD-FDD was not prepared to have face-to-face talks until its two conditions of dismantling the regroupment camps and freeing political prisoners had been met. Until the talks culminated in a cessation of hostilities and an eventual ceasefire, the war would continue, he said. “However the fact that the war is continuing does not preclude holding talks,” Ndiho added. He said CNDD-FDD supported the signing of a peace accord by the 19 negotiating sides as a “positive step forwards” in the search for peace.

On this week’s talks in Pretoria, South Africa, between Burundi government and rebel representatives, Ndiho said CNDD-FDD had accepted an invitation from the mediator, Nelson Mandela, to attend. However its delegation had not gone there to negotiate “but to pass on the message” that direct talks with the government were conditional. For some time now, CNDD-FDD and the government had been having “informal talks aimed at preparing the ground for a formal meeting”, he told IRIN. The Pretoria talks, he added, had ended “up in the air”. “We remain open to all initiatives but the ball is in [President Pierre] Buyoya’s court,” he said.