Museveni Returns, Talks Fail

By Alfred Wasike and agencies PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni returned home after a meeting of five African presidents failed on Monday to deliver a solution to the problem of setting up a force to protect exiles returning to war-ravaged Burundi. The day-long meeting was convened in Arusha, Tanzania. Museveni is the chairman of the Regional Initiative on the Burundi Peace Process. Monday’s summit was the 16th meeting of the Peace Initiative for Burundi. “We will resume discussions on October 11 in Pretoria,” said former South African President Nelson Mandela, the facilitator of the peace process for Burundi. Eight years of war in Burundi have claimed more than 200,000 lives. The protection force is essential to the establishment on November 1, of a transitional government provided for in a peace accord signed in Arusha on August 2000. The summit brought together Presidents arap Moi of Kenya, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Buyoya and S. African Vice President, Jacob Zuma. Ends