/REPEATING/ BURUNDI-POLITICS: Preparing for a New Round of Peace Talks

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Aug 20 1997 (IPS) - Burundi’s government says it is looking forward to next week’s talks in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha despite the “negative” media campaigns which Bujumbura says Tanzania is orchestrating against it.

Burundi’s Ambassador in Kenya, Nakaha Stanislas, told IPS on Tuesday that his country would be represented at a very high level in Arusha.

Relations are at a low ebb between Bujumbura and Dar es Salaam, which is hosting the Aug. 25 talks to reconcile Burundi’s belligerents.

“We are aware of the attitude of some Tanzanian officials towards Burundi,” Luc Rukingama, Burundi’s Minister of External Relations and Co-operation told journalists here on Aug. 15. He said Tanzania’s attitude would not deter Burundi from participating in the talks, which will be chaired by former Tanzania President Julius Nyerere.

Rukingama was in Kenya lobbying ahead of an Aug. 18 meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, to decide whether to relax sanctions imposed on Burundi by its neighbours on Jul. 31, 1996, after military strongman Pierre Buyoya deposed civilian president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya.

Following the Kampala meeting, Tanzanian Foreign Affairs Minister Jakaya Kikwete told a press conference that the sanctions would remain in place until they achieved their aim of restoring democratic rule in Burundi. He also urged countries like Kenya that had relaxed their sanctions on Burundi to tighten them.

“We have not been happy with what happened in Kampala,” Stanislas said. “We thought that Tanzania as a host, and a mediator, would send a positive signal to alleviate the sufferings of the people of Burundi.” To the ambassador, the twin issues of the embargo and the peace talks should not be linked. “The Arusha meeting is for Burundians … to enable them to talk peace,” he said.

The quarrel between the two neighbours heightened early this month following an allegation by a group of Tanzanian legislators that four Tanzanians had been killed by the Burundi army in a raid inside Tanzania.

The claim was denied by Burundi, which, in return, accused Tanzania of harbouring armed rebels among nearly 230,000 refugees from Burundi’s civil war, which pits insurgents from its Hutu majority against the army, which is dominated by minority Tutsis. Tanzania has repeatedly denied such charges.

Echoing earlier statements by Buyoya, Rukingama had said Tanzania was doing nothing to prevent infiltration by armed Hutu rebels from refugee camps along its border with Burundi. He also rejected an accusation by Tanzania that Burundi’s army had a secret plan to attack refugees in Tanzania.

Of late Burundi has been concerned about statements made by Tanzania doubting the commitment of the Buyoya regime to the peace process.

It is also unhappy about a statement by Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa criticising the recent execution of six Burundians accused of taking part in an ethnic bloodbath that followed the 1993 assassination of Burundi’s first Hutu President, Melchior Ndadaye.

Mkapa had commented while on a visit to Uganda that “any further trials should await a new dispensation and the restoration of the legality and constitutional order in Burundi.”

The crisis in the Central African nation was triggered by the assassination of Ndadaye in a failed coup by Tutsi soldiers against his Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) government in 1993. About 150,000 people have reportedly died there since then.

Experts on the region say the conflict in Burundi is rooted in the fear of both Hutus and Tutsis for their existence. Hutus account for an estimated 85 percent of Burundi’s 5.6 million people and Tutsis about 14 percent.

For Rukingama, Tanzania’s insistance on maintaining the sanctions — despite efforts by Burundi to reconcile its people — smacks of deep hatred for Burundi. After all, he said, Burundi has fulfilled the three conditions imposed on it by Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), Ethiopia, Zambia and Cameroon last year.

“We have restored parliament. We have unbanned political parties. And we have opened talks with armed opposition groups,” he said.

Rukingama complained that the embargo had virtually paralysed Burundi’s economy. “Before the embargo Burundi’s annual economic growth was 3 percent. Now it is registering negative. Inflation rate was less than 10 percent. Now it is four times more than the pre-embargo period. Our immunisation was rate 70 percent. Now it is less than 50 percent,” he explained.

Rukingama thanked Kenya for permitting Burundi to import a ‘limited amount’ of petroleum products on humanitarian grounds two weeks ago. The Nairobi government has also scrapped sanctions on air travel between the two countries. As a result, transporters, including U.N. and aid agencies, no longer require clearance from the Kenyan authorities to fly to Burundi.

Rukingama also appealed to the international community to urge Tanzania to return to Burundi its embassy in Dar es Salaam, which was seized by Burundi’s exiled opposition when Buyoya came to power.

“Tanzania is a neighbour and Burundi’s largest trading partner,” said the minister. “We, therefore, expect it to observe international codes relating to good neighbourliness.”

An undisclosed number of political parties are expected to attend the parley in Arusha. Chief among them is the main armed Hutu opposition group, the National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD), led by Lawrence Nyangoma.

The last talks between Burundi’s belligerents took place in Rome, Italy, in March, and were brokered by the Sant’ Egidio, a Catholic community that has mediated in other conflicts including the 1975-1991 civil war in Mozambique.