Museveni Attends Burundi Talks
Mar 03, 2003
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is in Tanzania with other leaders for peace talks between the Burundi government and the main Hutu rebel group, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD).
By Felix Osike
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is in Tanzania with other leaders for peace talks between the Burundi government and the main Hutu rebel group, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD).
Museveni is the chairman of the Great Lakes regional peace initiative on Burundi aimed at bringing to an end a war that has left an estimated 300,000 people dead, most of them civilians.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the chief mediator in the Burundi peace process is attending the meeting.
Burundi’s President Pierre Buyoya said on Saturday before he left for the talks, that he hoped it would be the last cease-fire parley, according to AFP.
“The aim of this meeting is to discuss questions which went unanswered during the last one in Pretoria (South Africa),†Buyoya said before flying out of Bujumbura.
The FDD leader, Pierre Nkurunziza, will not personally attend the talks in Dar-es-Salaam, the FDD secretary general Hussein Radjabu said.
Radjabu added, however, that he would be leading an FDD delegation to the Tanzanian coast city.
“We shall be there to listen,†he told AFP in Dar es Salaam by telephone.
The FDD on January 27 signed a protocol of understanding with the Burundi government in Pretoria on implementing and monitoring a cease-fire pact reached in September. Ends
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is in Tanzania with other leaders for peace talks between the Burundi government and the main Hutu rebel group, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD).
Museveni is the chairman of the Great Lakes regional peace initiative on Burundi aimed at bringing to an end a war that has left an estimated 300,000 people dead, most of them civilians.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the chief mediator in the Burundi peace process is attending the meeting.
Burundi’s President Pierre Buyoya said on Saturday before he left for the talks, that he hoped it would be the last cease-fire parley, according to AFP.
“The aim of this meeting is to discuss questions which went unanswered during the last one in Pretoria (South Africa),†Buyoya said before flying out of Bujumbura.
The FDD leader, Pierre Nkurunziza, will not personally attend the talks in Dar-es-Salaam, the FDD secretary general Hussein Radjabu said.
Radjabu added, however, that he would be leading an FDD delegation to the Tanzanian coast city.
“We shall be there to listen,†he told AFP in Dar es Salaam by telephone.
The FDD on January 27 signed a protocol of understanding with the Burundi government in Pretoria on implementing and monitoring a cease-fire pact reached in September. Ends