South Africa has agreed to extend the deployment of its protection force in Burundi by six months, a representative for the South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Saturday.
South Africa sent 700 troops to the central African nation in November 2001 to protect politicians from Burundi’s Hutu majority returning from exile to take part in a three-year transitional government set up under an August 2000 political accord.
The agreement, which was mediated by former South African President Nelson Mandela, was supposed to end the nine-year civil war in Burundi between Hutu rebels and the Tutsi-dominated army.
The rebels did not take part in that peace process and fighting continued, but in the last two months all but one rebel faction has agreed to a ceasefire.
South African Major Marius Terblanche said the South African Protection Support Detachment’s mission could also be changed to include training a Burundian protection unit made up of rebels and army soldiers.
”The government prolonged our participation to the peace process for six months until June next year,” Terblanche said. ”We are now looking at the next step, that is training a Burundian self protection unit which will be representative and neutral to have the confidence of the people.”
He said the South Africans are ready to carry out the training, and it is now up to the government and rebels to determine who will be in the force.
The war in Burundi broke out in October 1993 after Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically elected leader, a Hutu.
At least 11 people were killed in separate attacks by
unidentified uniformed men late on Friday, Burundian officials said.
Four people were killed and seven others were injured when assailants attacked houses in Kanyosha, 6 kilometres south of Bujumbura, said Jacques Bigirmana, a local government official. Seven people were killed when uniformed men attacked Muramvya commune, 40 kilometres northeast of Bujumbura, said General Sylvester Nimubna, the army commander in the region.
There were no other details available about either attack. Despite being in the minority, Tutsis have effectively ruled the country for all but a few months since independence in 1962.
More than 200 000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict. – Sapa-AP