President Nelson Mandela said on Monday while visiting Finland that he is confident that South Africa and the European Union will reach a deal on a free trade pacton Monday to the war-torn central African country during which he is to visit its notorious regroupment camps for political prisoners.
Mandela is scheduled to hold talks with Burundi’s President Pierre Buyoya and visit a regroupment camp in the Bujumbura rural zone, his spokeswoman said.
He said last week he would be meeting political prisoners held in some cases for seven years, and that he considered their release vital to the peace process.
Mandela said on Saturday he was optimistic political prisoners would soon be freed.
Mandela told journalists he expected a breakthrough on the issue when he visited Burundi on Monday and Tuesday.
Mandela was also scheduled to meet representatives of rebel groups and hold talks with the Burundi army command and a broad cross-section of the country’s civil society, including religious leaders and leaders of women’s, students and youth groups.
The former South African leader hoped to submit to his discussion partners accords signed last week with Buyoya, especially on release of inmates of regroupment camps by the end of July.
Mandela, appointed Burundi mediator late last year, secured a commitment from Buyoya during talks in Johannesburg last Wednesday that all internees would be freed from Burundi’s notorious regroupment camps by July 31.
The very next day, more than 45000 internees from five regroupment camps in Kanyosha, on the outskirts of Bujumbura, walked out and began returning to their villages.
Mandela said on Saturday he also hoped to fine-tune with Buyoya their agreement to restructure the Burundian army so it is made up in equal parts of members of the country’s warring Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.
War broke out in Burundi in 1993, pitting several rebel Hutu factions against the Tutsi-dominated government and army.