Burundi’s second largest Hutu rebel group, the National Liberation Forces (FNL), has vowed to never negotiate with the government and to wage war without mercy.
The statement made on Wednesday was a sharp rebuff to an appeal for negotiations by President Domitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu who took over Burundi’s presidency in April from Tutsi incumbent Pierre Buyoya in line with a power-sharing accord.
The FNL refused to enter into talks with the government after Ndayizeye decided this week to bolster the armed forces’ defence capabilities.
Burundi’s armed forces are dominated by Tutsis, the ethnic minority in the country.
The FNL said Ndayizeye’s decision amounted to a declaration of war.
”We will never negotiate with the present government of Ndayizeye, whatever the conditions or the concessions it makes,” said a spokesperson for the FNL, Pasteur Habimana.
”President Ndayizeye declared war on us yesterday [Tuesday]. We are ready and we are going to carry out a war without mercy against him.”
Three of Burundi’s four rebel groups, including the largest, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) signed a ceasefire agreement last December with then president Pierre Buyoya.
But that accord was never respected, with the signatories continuing to swap truce violations accusations.
In the light of the repeated violations of the December ceasefire accord, Ndayizeye said on Tuesday that ”the government has decided to give greater means to the army so that it can defend Burundians from the groups fighting against them.
”And I appeal to the FNL … to heed our plea and come to the negotiating table,” he added.
But FNL spokesperson Habimana replied: ”Ndayizeye is a liar with whom we cannot negotiate.
”The FNL is prepared to negotiate with the Tutsis because our gripe is with them,” he said.
The FNL has, however, flatly refused to enter into negotiations with the government, even when it was led by Buyoya, a Tutsi.
Burundi’s interim government was set up in line with a power-sharing accord signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2000, aimed at ending Burundi’s war in which Hutu rebels have battled the Tutsi-dominated army since 1993.
The war has claimed more than 300 000 lives and devastated the small central African country.
Ndayizeye will lead the government for the second half of its three-year term, which is due to conclude with presidential elections late next year.
The Arusha accord called for an equal sharing of power between the majority Hutus and the Tutsi minority. – Sapa-AFP