Plea to international community over electoral process

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has appealed to the international community for intervention to set Burundi's electoral process on track in order to safeguard the country's peace as it approaches the end of a three-year transitional period. In its latest report, entitled "End of the Transition in Burundi: The Home Stretch", issued on Monday, ICG said the considerable progress the country had made in consolidating its transition to democracy risked ending in a "dangerous political vacuum if strong commitments are not made immediately to the constitution and the electoral process" outlined in the Peace and Reconciliation Accord signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2000. ICG said Burundi's transitional process was in danger of being compromised if the country's political leaders failed to live up to the commitments they made in the Arusha accord. "Burundi has become much safer, and for the first time in more then a decade, the country could be headed towards a genuine end to conflict," Stephen Ellis, the director of ICG's Africa programme, was quoted as saying. He added: "The international community has to stay engaged, and Burundi's political leaders must also live up to their Arusha commitments by adopting a constitution. Lack of political now could cause the whole transition process to unravel." ICG urged the international community to provide experts to help the country come up with a final draft constitution, and apply political pressure to ensure that the October deadline for national elections, as stipulated by the Arusha agreement, was respected. In anticipation of upcoming elections, new political parties have begun to emerge. On 3 July, the Party for the Integral Renewal of Burundi (Paribu-Intahemana) held its constituent general assembly, naming Benoit Ndorimana as chairman. The party's platform is based on education, development, and the elimination of ethnic divisions. Burundi is emerging from a decade-long civil war between a Tutsi minority government and Hutu rebel groups. Relative peace returned to the country after 16 November 2003 when the transitional government and the country's main rebel group, the Conseil national pour la defense de la démocratie-Forces pour la defense de la démocratie faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza signed a power-sharing agreement with the transitional government. Fighting continues in the western province of Bujumbura Rural, where sporadic clashes persist between government troops and the only remaining rebel group, a faction of the Forces nationales de liberation led by Agathon Rwasa.