SOUTH Africa’s Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to hold a second day of talks with members of a main Hutu rebel group in Burundi to discuss ending the seven-year armed conflict. Zuma met a delegation from the National Liberation Forces (FNL) in Pretoria to discuss a ceasefire agreement. A source close to the negotiations said while discussions had been frank and open, the the meeting had ended inconclusively because of the nature of the broader issues raised during deliberations. After two years of negotiations in Arusha, Tanzania, ethnic Tutsi and Hutu political parties signed an historic peace deal on August 28, but the deal lacked provisions for a ceasefire. The FNL and another rebel group, the Forces for Defence of Democracy (FDD) did not take part in the Arusha negotiations. An estimated 200 000 people have died in Burundi’s civil war which has pitted rebels from the Hutu majority against a Tutsi-dominated government and military since 1993. The peace deal was brokered by former South African president Nelson Mandela. Sixteen out of 19 political groups have signed the accord, and three other Tutsi parties have agreed to add their signatures at a meeting in Nairobi on September 20. The FDD and FNL have been invited to the meeting as have regional African leaders. – AFP