Negotiating parties played a waiting game in Pretoria on Monday as South Africa’s two top statesmen attempted to broker a Burundian power-sharing agreement.
Karenga Ramadhani, chief of protocol for the former rebel CNDD-FDD group led by Pierre Nkurunziza, said the group was waiting to hear what agreements had been reached between the Tutsi-based Uprona group, the Hutu-based Frodebu group and South African President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Jacob Zuma.
”We have not been involved in negotiations today yet,” Ramadhani said on Monday afternoon while waiting to be called into the discussions at the presidential guest house.
Generally regarded as the most powerful party in the talks, the CNDD-FDD was not sure if a conclusion would be reached before its departure on Tuesday, Ramadhani said.
”We will have to wait and see what the facilitators [Mbeki and Zuma] decide on how to proceed if a conclusion is not reached,” he said.
The tiny Central African state is emerging from more than a decade of war fuelled by ethnic rivalries that have claimed more than 300 000 lives.
General elections are scheduled for November 1, but a referendum on a Constitution still has to be held.
There has been speculation whether the elections, initiated by the Arusha Peace Accord, will go ahead.
The South African government has argued that before there can be elections, there has to be a power-sharing agreement in place to ensure an all-inclusive Parliament.
Henri Boshoff of the Institute for Security Studies said Monday’s talks had been proceeding smoothly but there was still much to accomplish.
Boshoff said the talks had centred on the sharing of power. He said the minority Tutsi-led Uprona party was demanding guarantees of certain posts in the government.
Leaders from Burundi’s Tutsi minority, about 14% of the population, are seeking a 40% quota of elected posts in the country’s future political dispensation, while the Hutus, about 85% of the population, are vying for a straightforward one-man-one-vote system.
Boshoff said issues concerning the electoral Act and the Constitution have still to be finalised.
”Also the integration of the different military bodies, that was due to start on July 15, has had to be postponed again,” he said.
The military integration is seen as a vital step towards a unified government.
”If elections are held before all the ground work is done it could be disastrous,” Boshoff said.
But Uganda’s acting Foreign Minister, Tom Butime, said last Thursday in Kampala that if elections do not take place the peace process will collapse.
”[By November 1] Burundi should have held presidential, parliamentary and regional elections, failure of which the whole peace process will collapse,” he said.
By 4pm on Monday delegates were still locked in talks behind closed doors in Pretoria.
”There is no way of knowing when they will come out,” said presidential spokesperson Dumisani Nkwamba. — Sapa