By Simon Denyer
ARUSHA, Tanzania, July 19 (Reuters)
- Burundi's peace process entered a critical stage on Wednesday as
Nelson Mandela and five African leaders pushed the warring parties to back
a peace accord drafted by the former South African president.
The leaders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia met in the Tanzanian town of Arusha to add their voices to Mandela's appeal for an end to a war which has cost 200,000 lives since 1993.
Mandela's team has circulated a draft peace plan among leaders of government and opposition delegations, marking an important step forward in the peace process.
For the first time, the leader of one of the main armed rebel groups, Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of CNDD-FDD, was attending the talks, a coup for Mandela.
Nevertheless, government and opposition groups still disagree widely on many fundamental issues, and there is much tough talking ahead, especially in Burundi itself.
"By simply having something that is a draft agreement, that means we are close (to a peace deal)," said Burundi presidential spokesman Apollinaire Gahungu.
"(But) there are some important issues where compromise has not been achieved as yet."
Mandela had hoped a peace accord would be signed at this summit, but has had to delay the signing until August 28. Nevertheless, he was upbeat when he arrived in Arusha on Wednesday.
"Let us not act as prophets of doom," he told reporters. "Nobody expected there would be no differences of opinion. In all negotiations, especially with a large number of parties... you can't expect it will be smooth sailing."
Burundi's civil war began in 1993 when soldiers from the ethnic Tutsi minority assasinated the country's first democratically elected president.
Melchior Ndadaye came from the ethnic Hutu majority, and his death marked the start of a Hutu insurgency against the Tutsi-dominated army, a conflict which has also spilled over into neighbouring Rwanda.
CRITICAL COMPROMISES
Under the draft peace plan, the Tutsi minority, which has dominated Burundi's political and economic life since independence, would have to hand over power to a democratically elected government in three years time.
A number of safeguards would be built in to protect and reassure the Tutsis, including a new upper house of parliament split 50-50 along ethnic lines, and an ethnically balanced army.
But many issues still have to be resolved which strike at the heart of the two ethnic communities's beliefs and involve compromises which the politicians may find tough to sell at home.
Among them, the question of the liberation of so-called "political prisoners", a key opposition demand backed by Mandela which the government rejects. Tutsis, it argues, would never feel safe if Hutu "genocidal killers" were pardoned and allowed to roam free.
Also unresolved are issues like the exact composition of a peacetime army, who should lead the transition period before elections are held and whether an international force should be invited into Burundi to keep the peace during that transition.
Wednesday's summit and talks, which Burundi's President Pierre Buyoya was also attending, were initially being held behind closed doors. Mandela is due to stay until Thursday, but the talks are expected to continue in his absence.