While the road ahead is long and hard, Burundi’s Tutsi and Hutu leaders have at last agreed to talk of peace. Chris McGreal reports form Arusha
BURUNDI’S Tutsi military leader has bowed to regional sanctions and agreed to unconditional negotiations with Hutu rebels. But a weekend summit of East African presidents remained suspicious of Major Pierre Buyoya’s assurances, declining to lift their blockade until talks are irreversibly on course towards resolving Burundi’s civil strife.
Ten weeks after seizing power, vowing there would be no negotiation with Hutu rebels until they laid down their weapons, Buyoya made the concession which many Tutsis argue will eventually lead to their extermination, but Hutus say is the only path to peace.
A letter from the major was delivered to East African leaders at the summit in Arusha, Tanzania, in which he agreed to talks with the Hutu rebel National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD) in the hope that the blockade would be lifted.
But the leaders declined to ease the sanctions until the talks are making headway. They set a one-month deadline for talks to begin.
The continuation of sanctions was a snub to the United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who pressed the regional leaders to ease them when he met them the day before the summit. US and European diplomats argue that the hard line by regional powers leaves Buyoya little room for manoeuvring and plays into the hands of the most extreme Tutsis.
In “ethnically cleansed” Bujumbura, which is a virtual Tutsi fortress, the blockade has hardened the resolve of many who believe they are struggling for survival against Hutu rebels intent on repeating the genocide of neighbouring Rwanda. Some argue that negotiation will inevitably lead to Tutsis losing control of the army.
But Hutu politicians in the largest political party, Frodebu, and Hutu rebels say that nothing short of the restoration of democratic rule – introduced three years ago but snatched away within months by the army’s assassination of Burundi’s first Hutu president – can end the bloodshed that has claimed 150 000 lives.
In a letter to the summit, the CNDD rebel leader and former interior minister Leonard Nyangoma warned the participants to be wary of Buyoya’s promises.
“Maintain the sanctions until the conclusion of an agreement, or at least until the negotiations have reached irreversible levels,” he wrote. “Major Pierre Buyoya and his army, who initiated this crisis and its tragedy, are now pretending to be saviours. They are arsonists pretending to be firemen.”
Significant obstacles to negotiations remain. The military regime wants all parties to join round-table discussions which would first explore the origins of Burundi’s problems.
The rebels and Frodebu say this evades the fundamental issues, such as reforming the military and reinstating a political system which respects the power of the Hutu majority. Even the site of the talks is contentious, given the dangers for Hutu politicians in the capital Bujumbura.
Even before the summit, Buyoya had met two of the three demands laid down when the blockade was imposed at the beginning of August: the restoration of Parliament and the unbanning of political parties. The third was the start of talks.
But Buyoya’s reluctant agreement to reconvene the national assembly undermined his claim to be normalising government. At its opening, only 34 of its 81 MPs turned up. The Hutu speaker, Leonce Ngendakumana, who had sheltered in the German embassy in fear of his life, said 22 of those absent had been murdered. All the dead are from the mainly Hutu Frodebu party. Many other MPs are in exile or in hiding.
The unbanning of parties failed to impress the summit, which was divided on what to do next. Kenya and Tanzania, with the greatest trade links to Burundi, took the toughest stand for maintaining sanctions. Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda -close to the US and sympathetic to Tutsi fears of genocide – were willing to make concessions to Buyoya.