Hutu party accuses gov't of stalling ceasefire talks

The main Hutu opposition party, Front pour la democratie au Burundi (FRODEBU), has criticised the country's transitional government for failing to come up with a clear plan on negotiations for a ceasefire with Hutu rebels, AP reported.

It reported the party's secretary-general, Leonce Ngendakumana, as dismissing government claims that it still had to figure out who the "real belligerents" were.

In a statement on Friday, he said the government "knows precisely" whom to blame, and should "stop attending meetings with false belligerents", AP reported, adding that he had also criticised the government's claim that it was willing to negotiate at the same time it continued military buildup.

"FRODEBU is surprised that the government says in its triennial report that there is no programme of negotiation, no strategy, no interlocutors," AFP quoted Ngendakumana as saying. "The president and vice-president made commitments in Arusha, and these should be respected," he added.

The transitional government was installed last November following a peace agreement signed by political parties, but not by armed rebels, in the Tanzanian town of Arusha in August 2000.
Despite the installation of the government, fighting has been going on in different parts of the country and has caused deaths and the displacement of thousands. Fighting intensified between rebels and government troops on 11 March in western Burundi's Bujumbura Rural Province.

Tanzania convened an all-Hutu armed movements meeting at its capital Dar es Salaam from 18 to 25 March to prepare for ceasefire talks, but the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) both boycotted the meeting, and only former rebel leaders now living in exile attended, AP said.

Several agencies have had to suspend their activities in various parts of the country due to insecurity. The World Food Programme (WFP) cancelled its missions in Bujumbura Rural, the eastern provinces of Ruyigi and Cankuzo and the northwestern province of Bubanza, the agency said on Friday in its weekly emergency update.

WFP, however, noted that it was continuing to monitor the food security situation in the Imbo-Nord part of Bubanza Province and the northern province of Ngozi to review the food assistance required from March to May. It also said that it anticipated assisting some 77,200 persons in the northeastern province of Muyinga through the month of May.