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http://www.cbinf.com/netpress.bi
REPUBLIC OF BURUNDI
PALIPEHUTU - FNL
JUSTICE - PEACE - DEVELOPMENT
UBUGABO BURIHABWA
PALIPEHUTU-FNL PARTY DECLARATION TO THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY : OUR POSITION ON THE PEACE AND RECONCILIATION
AGREEMENT ON BURUNDI OF 28TH AUGUST 2000.
The issue of peace in Burundi has become the focus of questions not only nationallybut also at international level.
After signing the agreement on 28th August 2000 there are people who are sure if it will really be practical especially since the agreement is the result of a series of talks in which the belligerents never took part. It is with this In mind, that PALIPEHUTU-FNL has seen it better to clarify the party’s position and its commitment to the peace process.
When the talks stated, the Burundi Government refused to negotiate with any party. It haas been compeiled to talk by the increase of the liberation struggle. The talks have lasted five years during which they changed venues from Cairo to Mwanza and the to Italy under the auspices of San Egidio Center from where they were brought back to Mwanza and there after to Arusha since june 1998.
According to us, the talks have all times been a national debate since they involved the Government, the ruling party, the national assembly and registered parties. Paradoxically PALIPEHUTU-FNL, the party in conflict with the Burundi Government and its mono-ethnic tutsi army has been excluded party because of partiality by some members of the facilitation team both under the former facilitator the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere and now under the former South African President Nelson Mandela the new facilitator, party due to the fact that the talks are supervised buy leaders who are not only responsible for the crisis of the Great Lakes region but are also fighting along side the Government against our combatants i.e. Museveni and Kagame and partly because of power-hungry group’s eagerness to attain positions of authority. These include those which signed a cease fire in july 1998 while they were not fighting, and the pro-tutsi groups which signed with reservations after the me!
diator’s intervention.
PALIPEHUTU-FNL considers the peace and reconcilation agreement signed on 28th August 2000 just as the result of a National debate which in essence can not bring about peace. It is within this perspective that the party has expressed its readiness to take part first and foremost in political negociations. The party’s presence at Nairobi on 20th September 2000 is ample proof of our commitment to the peace process, although it might hit a snag because of ill-will by those responsible for the regional crisis, hence, the party’s surprise at the 30 days ultimatum given by President Museveni for the cease-fire while there is no compromise by the belligerents on the new political orientation of process. Worse still, the time frame was not mentioned at the tête-â-tête between the regional Heads of State and the PALIPEHUTU-FNL delegation hence the questionability of President Museveni’s honesty.
If Museveni with this evident partiality, will continue as key player in Burundi peace process, the Barundi will have to wait longer for the peace beacause he is not only a referee but olso a player.
If at all, the International Community is eager to contribute to durable peace in Burundi, PALIPEHUTU-FNL demands that the World does everything in its power to make sure that those who perturb peace in the region are not considered as the architects of peace.
Attached herewith are two important documents :
1. PALIPEHUTU stand after the signing of the Arusha peace and reconciliation agreement-14th September 2000.
2. Speech of PALIPEHUTU-FNL’S President Commandant KABURA COSSAN to the heads of the state in Nairobi on 20th September 2000.
Done in Bujumbura on 28th September 2000,
For PALIPEHUTU-FNL
Commandant KABURA Cossan
Seal and signature
President of PALIPEHUTU and the Chief of staff of FNL.