By Patrick Nduwimana
BUJUMBURA, Aug 31 (Reuters) -
Burundi's new president has formed an ethnically mixed government under
a deal to end a civil war that killed 300,000, but rival Hutu and Tutsi
parties immediately criticised his lineup as not inclusive enough.
Former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza appointed a cabinet of 20 ministers late on Tuesday, giving Hutus 60 percent of the posts and Tutsis 40 percent, in accordance with the new constitution.
Nkurunziza handed 12 cabinet positions to members of his former rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), and other parties said the government was not broad-based enough.
"We expected five ministries but we only got three, which shows that this new cabinet is not inclusive," said Leonce Ngndakumana, chairman of the Hutu former ruling party FRODEBU.
The largest Tutsi party also criticised the appointments.
"Our party has not been consulted for the nominations," UPRONA chairman Jean-Baptiste Manwangri told Reuters.
Nkurunziza gave the powerful foreign affairs portfolio to Antoinette Batumbwira, a Tutsi from the FDD -- one of seven female ministers. He points to the many Tutsis among his party's ranks as proof it is inclusive.
Many people in the lakeside capital Bujumbura welcomed the new government.
"I may not know much about the cabinet, but the positive thing is that the president has included Hutus and Tutsis, which will bring confidence to the people," taxi driver Celestin Bayizire said.
The allocation of a third of the cabinet posts to women, won the approval of businesswoman Jacqueline Hatungimana.
"While women are in power, they can change society because women don't care about ethnic divisions. They will rule like mothers," she said.
Last Friday's election of Nkurunziza, 40, was a crowning moment for a peace plan signed in 2000 to end 12 years of conflict between rebels from the Hutu majority and a Tutsi elite that has controlled the state for most of the post-independence years since 1962.
African leaders hail Burundi's relatively smooth progress to peace as an example of the continent solving its own problems.
They hope that lasting democracy in Burundi will help the overall stability of the Great Lakes region, racked by ethnic violence, fights over resources and refugee problems.
For Nkurunziza's cabinet of new faces, the challenge lies in rebuilding the broken economy, launching a reconciliation process in a society traumatised by atrocities and dealing with the last remaining Hutu rebel group.
The formation of the government came a day after the Burundian national assembly and senate endorsed the appointment of two vice-presidents -- Martin Nduwimana, a Tutsi, and Alice Nzomukunda, a Hutu.
Nkurunziza is the second democratically chosen Hutu leader in Burundi's history after Melchior Ndadaye, assassinated by Tutsi fanatics months after his election in 1993.