Buyoya asks Security Council to help end violence

Burundi President Pierre Buyoya on Tuesday asked the United Nations Security Council to help to end the fighting in his country and to keep the peace process on track, the UN has reported.

In an address to the Council, Buyoya stressed that if diplomatic efforts failed to compel the rebels to renounce violence, other means would have to be taken, the UN said.

He said that while there was "reason for hope" in Burundi, the continuing violence remained a real challenge which could compromise the road to peace. In this context, he recommended that the Security Council visit Burundi to evaluate the situation on the ground.

Another challenge was the reconstruction of the country, Buyoya said. After eight years of crisis, Burundi's economy had suffered, and the percentage of people living in poverty had nearly doubled since 1992. He appealed to the Council to heighten international awareness of the situation so that substantial support could be given to the process of reconstruction.

On a more positive note, Buyoya said the political climate had improved considerably since the establishment of transitional institutions on 1 November 2001.

"We asked the neighbouring countries... [and] the international community to pressure the rebels, to enter into negotiations," AP reported him as telling journalists after addressing the Council. "Our approach is to do everything we can to bring the rebels to the negotiation table," he said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the senate in Burundi was re-established for the first time since 1965. The senate had been abolished after the military seized power, three years after independence from the colonial power, Belgium.

Libere Bararunyeretse, a Tutsi, was elected president on the same day, while Pierre-Claver Nahimana, a Hutu, was elected his deputy. The 54 senators were elected on 25 January. They include two former presidents, both ousted in separate coups by Buyoya. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, who seized power in 1976 was ousted in 1987 in Buyoya’s first coup, and Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, who became president in 1994, was ousted in 1996.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in Burundi since war broke out in October 1993, following the killing of Melchior Ndadaye, the county's first democratically elected leader, who was a Hutu. In August 2000 a peace accord was signed in Arusha, but the country's two main rebel groups - the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie and the Forces nationale de liberation - have refused to observe the ceasefire agreed under the accord.