BUJUMBURA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Foreign
peacekeepers will only finish deploying in Burundi when rebels join demobilisation
camps in accordance with a peace plan aimed at ending a decade-long war,
South Africa's defence minister said.
Rebels from the Hutu majority have been
fighting the Tutsi-led army in Burundi in a conflict that has killed some
300,000 people. South Africa has brokered peace talks aimed at shoring
up a widely ignored ceasefire signed last year.
"We think in so far that the various parties have signed for peace, it is to their responsibility to tell their combatants to go to the demobilisation centres so that the peace process can proceed," South Africa's Mosiuoa Lekota told Reuters late on Thursday at the end of a one-day visit to the central African country.
"We can't just bring a large number of people if the ex-combatants come in small numbers," he said.
Three rebel groups have agreed to a truce including the main Hutu rebel Force for Defence of Democracy (FDD), whose fighters have repeatedly violated the ceasefire.
Analysts say rebels will never stop attacks unless they are disarmed, put in barracks and demobilised, all of which are supposed to happen under the terms of the ceasefire.
Only one demobilisation centre has been set up at Muyange, 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the capital, Bujumbura. To date only 191 former fighters from splinter groups of the main rebel factions have reported to the site, which had been set up to accommodate up to 3,000.
Lekota said that the young former fighters should be trained. "We think that there is a need to move very quickly, to move these people either to go and be trained or to proceed on to civilian life," he said.
Lekota and Mozambique's Deputy Defence Minister Henrique Banze were in Burundi to discuss funding for the peacekeeping mission with the African Union.
He said donor countries were expected to attend a conference in South Africa to discuss funding, but gave no date.
Of a total of some 3,000 peacekeepers, only 1,600 South Africans have been deployed. Mozambique has agreed to supply more than 200 troops, but has yet to deploy them.
"We hope that at least at the end of September that part of the contingent will be here in Burundi," Banze said.
The country's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) remains outside the peace process.