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BURUNDI PEACE TALKS

BURUNDI CONFLICT MORE POLITICAL THAN ETHNIC, SAYS DRAFT DEAL

Arusha, July 22nd, 2000 (FH) - Burundi's conflict is more

political than ethnic, says a draft peace accord prepared by the

Facilitation. The conflict is "fundamentally political, with ethnic

dimensions that are extremely important," says the text.

Negotiators describe it as "a conflict arising from a struggle

among the political class to obtain and/or maintain power".

The draft accord is the result of more than two years of all-

party peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, with Facilitation

compromise proposals on the major sticking points. According

to mediator Nelson Mandela, an agreement should be signed on

August 28th this year.

The 19 political parties negotiating in Arusha propose a

number of political and judicial measures to help end the conflict.

They say "measures of a political nature" are needed to combat

impunity, punish and prevent acts of genocide, war crimes and

other crimes against humanity, and violations of human rights.

The delegates call for the creation of national and sub-

regional observatories for the "prevention and eradication of

genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity". They

stress also the need for "a vast programme of sensitization and

education" to promote peace, unity and national reconciliation.

Proposed "judicial measures" include new legislation

against genocide, crimes against humanity and human rights

abuses. The transition government is to ask the United Nations

for an international commission of inquiry into such crimes

committed in Burundi between independence in 1962 and the

signing of the peace accord. If the commission finds that there

have been acts of genocide and crimes against humanity, the

Burundi government is to ask for the setting up of an

International Criminal Tribunal to judge the perpetrators.

The Burundi delegates stress the importance of drawing

up a new Constitution to guarantee the rights of all citizens and

all components of Burundi society. This is set to be done by the

transition government.

They also propose the creation of a national Truth and

Reconciliation Commission, saying that "all complaints and

appeals concerning assassinations and political trials" should be

addressed to this commission.

Belgium under fire

The draft accord strongly criticizes Burundi's former colonial

powers, Germany and Belgium, which it says "played a

determining role in fuelling the frustrations of the Bahutu, the

Batutsi and the Batwa, and in the divisions that led to ethnic

tensions".

"In the context of a divide-and-rule strategy, the colonial

administration injected and imposed a racist and caricatured

vision of Burundi society," the text continues, "accompanied by

prejudices and clichés on physical appearance aimed at setting

different components of Burundi society against each other on

the basis of physical and character traits."

The draft criticizes the introduction by the Belgian

colonial powers in the 1930s of ethnic identity cards which it

says "strengthened perceptions of ethnic differences" and also

"allowed the colonizers to reserve a particular type of treatment

for each ethnic group, according to their theories".

These attacks, according to the Belgain news agency

Belga, took Belgian foreign affairs minister Louis Michel "by

surprise" during his visit to Arusha this week. "This is

victimization and an attempt to pass the blame off on someone

else," Belga quoted Michel as saying.

The agency said Michel managed to persuade mediator

Nelson Mandela to remove a passage in the text accusing

Belgium of "planning and organizing the assassination of Prince

Louis Rwagasore, notably with the intention of provoking

political violence". Rwagasore, a Burundian nationalist leader,

was murdered on October 13th, 1961.

"Mr. Mandela agreed to have this passage removed

because in any case it is based on an old rumour that has never

been verified," Michel told Belgian journalists.

Burundi's current crisis was sparked by the October

1993 murder of the first democratically elected president

Melchior Ndadaye (Hutu) by Tutsi soldiers. Many key figures in

Ndadaye's administration were also killed. This was followed

by inter-ethnic massacres, the rise of a Hutu rebellion and a

coup by the current president Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi) in 1996.

The civil war that is still raging has killed at least 200,000 people.

AT/JC/FH (BU%0721F)