Regional leaders spurn Burundi rebels and call for elections

The one rebel movement still fighting in Burundi’s civil war was declared a terrorist group on Wednesday at a one-day summit of regional heads of state. The leaders also ratified a timetable for Burundi’s elections to be held before 1 November. The leaders vowed to act "decisively" against the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa, which has claimed responsibility for last week's massacre of 160 Congolese refugees in Burundi. "We're going to take action provided for by protocols governing terrorism both nationally and internationally and act decisively against the group," Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa told a news conference at the end of the summit on Burundi in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Flanked by Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi's Domitien Ndayizeye and Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia, Mkapa described the summit as an "in-depth and extremely productive meeting." The facilitator of the Burundi peace process, South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, was also present as was the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, and the Special Representative of the African Union in Burundi, Mamadou Bah. Ugandan vice-President Gilbert Bukenya and representatives of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda were also in attendance. The leaders called upon the Burundi transitional government to ensure that an independent electoral commission was in place by 29 August. A summit communiqué called for the Burundi National Assembly to decide on a draft constitution within three weeks of establishing the commission. If the national assembly fails to do so, the president of Burundi should send the draft constitution to a referendum or to the Implementation Monitoring Committee of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed in August 2000 in Arusha, Tanzania. Burundi is required to hold democratic elections after the three-year transitional period, which ends 31 October, in accordance with the Arusha accord. Summit leaders also endorsed an agreement reached in Pretoria on 6 August, which provides for a government and national assembly that would be 60 percent Hutu and 40 percent Tutsi. It also provides for two vice-presidents from different ethnic communities and political groups. While 20 of Burundi’s political parties signed the agreement 10 of the main Tutsi parties did not. The 10 groups also complained about not being invited to the summit. The chairman of the Tutsi-dominated PSD Party, Godfrey Hakitimana, said in a statement on Wednesday that the power-sharing talks had "not drawn any national consensus." The summit "strongly condemned" the Friday attack at a refugee camp in Burundi, which was against Congolese Tutsis known as Banyamulenge. "The Summit resolved to declare the Palipehutu-FNL a terrorist organisation and urged the African Union and the United Nations Security Council to support this decision and for the relevant UN Security Council conventions and protocols on the combating of terrorism to apply in this regard." But while the FNL claimed responsibility for Friday's attack many officials in the region, particularly Tutsis leaders, have said that groups based in eastern DRC also collaborated. On Wednesday, the government of the DRC called for the appointment of an independent commission of inquiry into the massacre of the Congolese refugees in Burundi. But the DRC’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Ramazani Baya, told a news conference on the sidelines of the summit that his country was not involved.