Burundi’s lone remaining Hutu rebel group on Friday accused the government of repeatedly violating a tentative truce signed last month, amid counter-accusations from Bujumbura.
Since the provisional truce was agreed during talks in Tanzania on May 15 with a pledge to formalise a ceasefire within a month, the National Liberation Forces (FNL) said the army has launched persistent attacks on its positions.
”Burundi government troops have been repeatedly attacking us since May 17,” said FNL spokesperson Pasteur Habimana. ”This makes it rather difficult for us to start negotiations for bringing about peace in Burundi.”
Habimana spoke to news agency AFP as government and rebel delegates were to start talks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on cementing the ceasefire aimed at paving the way for formal peace negotiations to end 12 years of civil war in the tiny Central African nation.
But the FNL spokesperson said that before finalising the deal, the government will have to respond to its allegations of violations, which the FNL will make officially to the Tanzanian hosts of the negotiations.
”We are here to tell the Tanzanian government that despite the ceasefire agreement, government troops immediately started hitting our troops. This is clear lack of sincerity and we are not ready to be part of this hypocrisy,” he said.
Burundian officials, who have accused the FNL of violating the truce on numerous occasions with attacks in and around the capital, could not immediately be contacted to comment on the rebel allegations.
The truce, which was signed by Burundian President Dominitien Ndayizeye and FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, is broadly aimed at finally ending the devastating civil war in which 300 000 people have been killed.
The civil war was driven by long-standing rifts between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority, who had monopolised the army and other centres of power since independence from Belgium in 1962 but who are expected to be marginalised under the new political system. — Sapa-AFP