Two exiled rebel leaders from war-torn Burundi will return within the next two weeks, a South African official said on Wednesday, amid reports of clashes which left thousands fleeing their homes.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who is working to mediate an end to the war, met rebel leaders Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye and Alain Mugabarabona in Pretoria late on Tuesday, Zuma’s representative Lakela Kaunda said.
”The two leaders, who are currently in exile, told the mediator (Zuma) they would return to Bujumbura in two weeks’ time,” Kaunda said in a statement.
Ndayikengurukiye and Mugabarabona respectively lead splinter factions of the Hutu rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) and the National Liberation Forces (FNL).
They signed a ceasefire with President Pierre Buyoya last October 7, but they are believed to command insignificant numbers of troops in a conflict which has claimed more than 300 000 lives since October 1993.
A first real step to peace was seen in a historic truce signed early in December to end conflict between the mainly Tutsi army and the main wing of the FDD.
However, the latter has frequently been violated and Burundian authorities on Wednesday said that 60 000 people in the central Gitega province had fled their homes because of clashes. Furthermore, no truce has yet been sealed with the main FNL. Kaunda said the exact date of the return of the rebel leaders would be announced after discussions with Buyoya, who was expected to meet them in South Africa on Saturday.
”This will be the first time in many years that they will be back in Burundi,” she said.
Kaunda said the two men told Zuma they had concluded discussions on assembly points for their combatants. The groups’ technical teams were also working on the implementation details of a historic ceasefire accord, signed in Pretoria late last year, in preparation for the meeting with Buyoya.
Tuesday’s meeting was part of a series of discussions with belligerents in Burundi. The first, last Friday, was with Pierre Nkurunziza, who heads the more powerful wing of the FDD. Nkurunziza and Buyoya are expected to meet in South Africa on Sunday after the rebel leader asked for a postponement to allow him to consult his group in Dar es Salaam.
Clashes between the army and Nkurunziza’s FDD have led to the indefinite postponement of a fully-fledged ceasefire originally due to come into effect on December 30.
Asked whether the latest fighting could do lasting damage to the peace process, Kaunda said Zuma believed it would not.
”Not at all,” said.
”That’s why the Deputy President is pushing to begin the implementation process as soon as possible,” she said. South Africa, Mozambique and Ethiopia are committed to sending peacekeeping troops in an African mission to Burundi. – Sapa-AFP