Assemble ex-fighters by 15 May, monitoring team urges political movements

The Implementation and Monitoring Commission (IMC) of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord has urged former rebel groups and political movements in Burundi to complete the assembling of former fighters at pre-cantonment sites by 15 May, as part of efforts to speed up the country's electoral process. Expressing concern over the slow pace of the electoral process, the IMC said in a statement issued on Friday, at the end of its 18th session, that many obstacles remained before the country's transition to democracy could be realised. The IMC singled out the definition of a statute of combatants as one of these obstacles. This issue is under consideration by a Joint Ceasefire Commission, an organ of the transitional government, but it remains a matter of concern as all the groups do not have the same definition of a combatant. The IMC said other obstacles included the assembling of all combatants in the pre-cantonment sites and the return of government soldiers to their barracks to allow the implementation of a Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration programme. IMC Chairman Berhanu Dinka urged all political movements to send their former combatants to the assembly areas as soon as possible in order to complete the move by 15 May. Government soldiers are also expected to have returned to their barracks by the same date, he said. However, the adherence to this deadline is in doubt as some movements are just beginning to assemble their former fighters. The first 43 former fighters loyal to the Front de liberation National (Frolina) of Joseph Kalumba arrived on Saturday in Rangi, a site in the Nyanzalac Commune of the southern province of Makamba. The Frolina representative in the IMC, Gerald Bikebako, said 200 more of its combatants arrived at Rangi on Sunday. "We will continue forwarding troops to Rangi until we reach the 3,000 figure," he said.