OWN CORRESPONDENT, Arusha | Monday 8.30pm.
THE subject of economic sanctions against Burundi will not be discussed at talks aimed at ending the civil war in the country, organisers said on Monday. The talks, due to start on Monday, have been postponed to Tuesday.
“Sanctions are not on the agenda,” General Hashim Mbita of the Nyerere Foundation told reporters.
Sanctions were expected to be part of discussions aimed at resolving the civil war between the Tutsi-dominated army of strongman Pierre Buyoya and Hutu guerrillas.
Economic sanctions against Burundi are observed in principle by nine African countries, imposed shortly after the July 1996 coup which brought Buyoya to power and aimed at forcing him to negotiate with the Hutu rebels and restore constitutional rule.
General Mbita also urged Burundi not to be influenced by the current conflict in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. “Burundi must do everything it can to distance itself from what is happening in Congo,” he said.
Former Burundi president Sylvestre Ntibantunganya said his country “is in an extremely troubled region, which cannot help but have an effect on what is happening in Burundi”.
The civil war has claimed more than 200,000 lives since Burundi’s first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye, and several of his colleagues were assassinated in an attempted coup by the army in October 1993.
But Ntibantunganya said he was optimistic about the talks. “My hope comes first of all from the initial two rounds of talks we have already had,” he said. “The fact that the talks are continuing is an extremely positive sign,” he added.
Meanwhile a Burundi group which opposes the talks, the Power of Self Defence (PA), demanded Monday that its president, Rutamucero Diomoede, and two other members be freed after being arrested Sunday.
A security services spokesman said they were arrested because they were holding a meeting on a football field in the Bujumbura district. The PA claims to represent “civilian victims of genocide”, according to a spokesman for the group.