Burundi’s limping peace process could be slowed down further by promises that have allegedly not been kept and growing divisions between the South African mediation team, specialists involved in the negotiations and the main rebel group, Palipehutu-FNL (FNL).
Last week, Jan van Eck, a Burundi expert who has been involved in the Burundian peace process for the last 12 years, was prevented from entering Burundi when he arrived on a flight from South Africa. He says that the Burundian government has not yet given him an official explanation of why he was turned away, but he has indicated that he believes that his deteriorating relationship with the South African mediation team may have played a role in the matter.
The point of contention is whether or not the South Africa mediation team pressured the FNL into signing two peace accords last year by telling them that they could continue to negotiate key points later.
Van Eck says he knows the mediation team made that promise to the rebels and recently mentioned it to the Burundian government, which has consistently refused to revisit talks with the rebel group.
“I told government that the facilitation team promised [the FNL] that talks could continue. The government said that it knows nothing about this and that if the team made the promise, it was not consulted and is therefore not responsible for implementation of the promise… Now the facilitation team is saying it never made the promise and accuses me of lying,” Van Eck told the Mail & Guardian.
The disagreement highlights the serious problems in the peace process, key aspects of which have remained unaddressed since the FNL and the government signed a ceasefire agreement last year. The main problem is that the FNL feels that key matters, such as the number of its troops that will integrate into the Burundian army, as well as senior political posts for its leaders, are still unresolved.
“When we first met [Minister of safety and security Charles] Nqakula, he said that all negotiations would take place in Dar es Salaam [the Tanzanian capital where the talks have been held]. Then we were told to sign the accords and that we could continue to negotiate when we were in Bujumbura.
“We were told we would be treated like terrorists if we did not sign. So we signed. When we arrived in Bujumbura, the government told us it did not have a mandate to negotiate and the facilitation team told us the same thing,” said Pasteur Habimana, spokesperson for the FNL.
A joint verification monitoring mechanism (JVMM) to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement only started to meet six months after its inauguration, and was suspended when the rebels dropped out of the talks.
“When the JVMM met, and the FNL brought the promise up, the JVMM told them that it had no mandate to discuss this and then FNL suspended its participation,” Van Eck said.
Habimana says the FNL supports the South Africa mediation team, but it also wants Van Eck to continue to be involved.
“We are for the South African mediation, but we are against their methods and methodology … Mr Van Eck is being sidelined because he has always told the truth. We will negotiate, but we will continue to demand that Van Eck be allowed to return to Burundi,” Habimana said.
Ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo, the South African government’s special envoy to the Great Lakes, rejects the suggestion that the South African government promised the rebels negotiations could continue after the signing of the ceasefire agreement.
“We never promised anything. Whatever was agreed was put in writing. How could they have taken my word for it? … The government and the FNL agreed on issues such as the need for army reform, and they must now decide how it must be done… These are points that were agreed in the ceasefire agreement. You can’t reopen negotiations on the ceasefire now, it contains all the elements of the issues,” Mamabolo said.
Mamabolo says the JVMM must remain the main forum for further discussions, and that any new issues should be discussed between Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and Agathon Rwasa, the leader of the FNL.
“Sub-committees of the JVMM should be set up to deal with outstanding issues such as the release of political prisoners, the immunity issue, assembly point for the FNL … The question of political positions for the FNL leadership, the FNL needs to talk to government directly … that is not something the facilitation can decide. We have told government, and Nkurunziza has said that he is willing to talk to the FNL, but that he cannot violate the Constitution by appointing unelected people to Cabinet,” Mamabolo said.
He also denied that South African mediators, led by Ngakula, have a problem with Van Eck.
“The minister said that as far as he is concerned he has not been approached by any of the parties regarding Van Eck’s role in the process … If Van Eck has a role to play, the parties must say so.”
Patricia Rwimo, the Burundian ambassador to South Africa, places the blame for the stalled talks on the FNL: “What stopped the process is that the FNL had demands that were not part of the committee’s mandate. The FNL started asking for positions in Parliament, in the senate and government … The commission stopped functioning because the FNL brought demands that were not part of the commission’s mandate.”
She said that she had not been informed of the official reason why Van Eck had been denied entry into Burundi.