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BURUNDI: Sides meet to choose transitional leader
Representatives of the 19 negotiating sides in the Burundi peace process are meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, for talks aimed at appointing a transitional leader, the Hirondelle news agency reported. However, it noted that the discussions could be "delicate" given the government's stated position that the transitional institutions cannot be established before a ceasefire has been reached in the country's armed conflict. Two separate rounds of talks are scheduled, Hirondelle noted. On Monday, the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) is due to meet and the 19 signatories will hold parallel talks expected to focus on the leadership issue. At a regional summit held in Arusha last month, the mediator Nelson Mandela proposed splitting the three-year transition into two 18-month periods - the first led by a Tutsi president and Hutu vice-president and vice versa for the second period.
Meanwhile the IMC meeting is expected to concentrate on five issues: setting up a commission on political prisoners, the question of a provisional amnesty for certain crimes, setting up the IMC's executive committee, preparations for the return of refugees and the "sensitisation campaign" to familiarise Burundians with the peace process.
Hirondelle quoted sources close to Mandela as saying it was unlikely the transitional leaders would be named this week. However, the mediation team is reported to be arranging a second face-to-face meeting in Libreville, Gabon, between Burundian President Pierre Buyoya and rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces de defense pour la democratie (CNDD-FDD). The first, held on 9 January, was brokered by former Congolese president Laurent-Desire Kabila who was assassinated shortly after. The sources said the new president, Joseph Kabila, was being "very constructive" regarding Burundi.
Ahead of the Arusha meeting, Burundi's UN ambassador, Marc Nteturuye, on Friday requested the Security Council to issue a statement or resolution calling on the 19 signatories to give priority to the question of a ceasefire rather than the transitional leadership. He asked that the signatories be urged to "give priority to the issue of the ceasefire instead of establishing the transitional institutions which cannot function under current circumstances and even risk creating new problems", the Associated Press reported. For the past two weeks, there has been fierce fighting in the Kinama suburb of the Burundian capital Bujumbura between rebels of the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) and the army.
BURUNDI: Journalists freed
The Burundian authorities have released two journalists from the private Radio Bonesha FM, detained after the radio broadcast an interview with FNL spokesman Anicet Ntawuhiganayo earlier this month. According to the national human rights organisation ITEKA, Gabriel Nikundana and Abbas Mbasumutima were freed on Friday by the Documentation nationale (secret services) after paying a penalty of 100,000 Burundi francs each. Their case was taken up by the international human rights organisations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
BURUNDI: Human rights group warns over worsening situation
In an open letter to the negotiating sides in Arusha and the rebel groups, ITEKA expressed concern over the volatile situation in Burundi. It warned that given the current circumstances - the recent fighting in Kinama and in the provinces of Gitega and Makamba - 2001, more than any other year during the conflict, would be "bogged down" by military confrontation and a deterioration in social and economic conditions. "Burundians are awaiting a new dynamism from the peace process during the transition period," ITEKA's letter said. "It would be tragic if, instead of this, they find themselves once again ruled by leaders who will paralyse each other by refusing to take on board the inevitable duties and sacrifices of any 'cohabitation'." It appealed to all the sides to compromise and accept the "shared risks". "The people hold you responsible, both today and in the future," the letter stated.
DRC: EC pledges support given progress on peace
The European Commission (EC) president Romano Prodi stated at the weekend that the EC would gradually resume development cooperation with the DRC - frozen in 1992 during Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorial regime - as the country made progress towards peace and democracy. Prodi made the comments after a meeting with DRC President Joseph Kabila in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on the last leg of a state visit to Europe. The Commission was prepared to release some 120 million euros (some US $107.7 million) from the 7th and 8th European development Funds (EDF) "to support the peace process by funding actions in areas such as the health sector and food security," Prodi told journalists at a press conference in Brussels, attended by IRIN. Other funds could also be called upon in the event of significant progress being made in the DRC peace process and the country's transition to democracy, he said. Part of this sum could be released after Kabila met with the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire [which happened on Sunday], Prodi added.
Meanwhile, the Commission had given agreement for a convention worth 28 million euros (about US $25 million), to be implemented by the EC, for a programme to help enhance the rule of law, the EC president said. "I urge President Kabila ... to follow up his statements with concrete actions, particularly as far as the respect for human rights, political freedoms and freedom of speech are concerned. The international community is following closely developments in the DRC and the region as a whole," Prodi added. Kabila on Saturday finished up a six-country tour to brief European leaders and try to muster support for the resumption of aid. Tens of thousands of people marked Kabila's return to Kinshasa in a show of support organised by the city council and "people's organisations" but later frowned upon by the presidency, AFP reported.
DRC: Masire meets Kabila on dialogue process
President Joseph Kabila on Sunday met former Botswana president Ketumile Masire, who is the OAU-designated facilitator of the proposed inter-Congolese dialogue on the political future of the DRC, for preliminary talks about the process. "We discussed how to do it, where to do it and also much more important aspects," AP quoted Kabila as saying. Masire said he and Kabila shared similar views on making the talks inclusive but gave no time or place for the opening of the talks process because he said he still had consultations to conclude, the report said. Masire would be meeting armed opposition groups in northern and eastern DRC after his discussion with Kabila. The facilitator was due to travel to Europe on Monday to see if he could secure money that had been pledged but not handed over for the talks process, AP added.
Sunday's was the first meeting between Kabila and Masire. Kabila's father, the late DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila has rejected Masire's facilitation, claiming he was biased. The DRC confirmed in February that it had invited Masire to retake his mantle as the dialogue facilitator in what has been considered a big step towards reviving implementation of the Lusaka peace agreement.
RWANDA: Kagame mends fences with Zambia
President Paul Kagame returned to Kigali on Sunday from a three-day visit to South Africa aimed at "consolidating" bilateral relations. According to a press release from presidential spokesman Nicholas Shalita, Kagame held extensive talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki on issues concerning the Great Lakes region and Rwanda's withdrawal from the DRC. Kagame's special envoy Patrick Mazimhaka described relations with South Africa as excellent, adding that meetings would soon take place at ministerial level to outline areas of cooperation.
Kagame also made a brief visit to Zambia for talks with President Frederick Chiluba where they reiterated their commitment to the Lusaka peace accord for the DRC. There had been friction between the two countries, after Rwanda refused to attend a February summit in Lusaka, accusing the Zambian authorities of "bias" by refusing to hand over Interahamwe and ex-FAR members who had fled to Zambia from the DRC. "We look forward to the full implementation of the Lusaka peace process, the withdrawal process, the dismantling and disarmament of the Interahamwe militias," Kagame was quoted as saying in Zambia.
RWANDA: 1,000 troops to be pulled out
Rwandan Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya told a news conference in Kigali that on Monday, some 200 Rwandan soldiers would be totally withdrawn from DRC and flown back home. A further 1,000 would also be withdrawn "soon", he added. Rwanda and its allies from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) on Thursday began pulling back from its frontline positions in Pweto, southeastern DRC, in keeping with the latest Security Council resolution. Bumaya said they would pull back to a distance of 200 km, Rwandan radio reported.
RWANDA: ICTR appeal judges on UN agenda
The UN General Assembly on Friday decided to include an additional item on its agenda for the current, 55th session regarding election of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The Assembly was following up on a note by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan which asked that the election of extra judges be included in the 55th session, and that it be considered directly in a plenary meeting, a UN statement said. That in turn followed a Security Council resolution on 30 November last which allowed that two additional judges be elected [by the General Assembly, from a shortlist supplied] as soon as possible to enlarge the Appeals Chambers of the ICTR at the earliest practicable date.
UGANDA: Besigye denies any link with bombings
An explosion in a market place in Kampala killed one woman and seriously injured a number of others on Friday night, according to Uganda police. This, the third bomb attack in Uganda since President Yoweri Museveni was declared re-elected last Wednesday, occurred when "a grenade was hurled into a crowd by unknown assailants at around 845 pm (local time)", Reuters news agency quoted police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi as saying. Police on Thursday arrested two men in connection with a home-made bomb that killed two people in downtown Kampala a day earlier, the report said.
Defeated presidential candidate Kizza Besigye, who polled second behind Museveni in last week's election, has dismissed as "ridiculous" suggestions by security officials that he might be linked to three separate bomb blasts in the country, AFP reported on Sunday. Besigye was on Saturday been stopped from flying to South Africa on the orders of Military Intelligence Director Lt-Col Noble Mayombo, on the basis information alleging that the bombings were "politically motivated by those unhappy with the election results," the report said. "I find it most ridiculous that anyone could suggest that the bombing is the result of any activity on my part," it quoted Besigye as saying. "I think what is happening is an attempt to muzzle any political opposition," he said. The Post Referendum Support group (PRSG), comprising Uganda's donors, has said that Ugandans made a genuine choice of president on 12 March, notwithstanding certain difficulties and concerns.
UGANDA: Army deployed after weekend raid on Kasese
The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) had been deployed in large numbers in the Kasese District of western Uganda after an attack by armed raiders on Kasese town on Saturday in which up to 15 people are reported to have been killed. The raiders, who had arrived in a convoy of trucks and pick-ups armed with mortars and heavy machine-guns, destroyed two petrol stations and burnt 60 vehicles in a raid that lasted several hours, according to media reports. Residents described the attackers as rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), according to the independent 'Monitor' newspaper on Monday. The ADF has carried out sporadic raids in the area, and mostly on civilian populations, over the past five years. However, army spokesman Lt-Col Phineas Katirima said they were not rebels but just doing "the dirty work of some local politicians with misgivings about the results of the elections", the 'Monitor' stated. A massive army deployment was now in evidence along the Mbarara-Kasese road and particularly in Banyarugure, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Kasese town centre, it added.
Nairobi, 19 March 2001
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