South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to visit the United States from Wednesday for talks with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the UN Security Council, on UN involvement in further advancing the Burundi peace process.
The deputy president is due to meet Annan and the council on Thursday at the UN headquarters in New York, his office said in a statement on Monday.
Zuma was mandated by the 20th Summit of the Great Lakes Regional Initiative on Burundi — held on November 16 in Tanzania — to request the Security Council to provide direct support to the Burundi peace process to boost implementation of the various agreements.
He was asked by the summit to report to the council on progress made so far, and ask the body to actively become involved with the African Mission in Burundi (Amib), taking into account the qualitative change that had taken place following the signing of the recent agreements between the Burundi Transitional Government and the CNDD-FDD movement of Pierre Nkurunziza, in Pretoria and Dar es Salaam last month.
The signing of the recent power-sharing and military transformation agreements had created a total condition of peace and stability in more than 95% of Burundi.
The part-civilian, part-military Amib was established as a stop-gap measure until conditions were conducive for the participation of the UN.
Troops from South Africa, Mozambique and Ethiopia make up the military component of Amib.
Zuma returns to South Africa on Saturday. — Sapa