Burundi peace talks resume
2006-05-29 14:56
Dar es Salaam - Long-delayed peace talks between the government of Burundi and the country's last active Hutu rebel group opened on Monday with a call finally to end more than 12 years of bloody civil war.
Representatives from Bujumbura and the National Liberation Forces (FNL) gathered in Tanzania's commercial capital for the South African-mediated negotiations that began even as hostilities had continued.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said: "There is an opportunity before us to effect a new, hopeful and inclusive political dispensation in Burundi.
"Battles leave social, psychological and political scars among the belligerents as well as innocent bystanders. But, every war must end."
Nyerere, Mandela 'worked hard for peace'
Kikwete said: "You can choose to heed the folly of triumphalism and drive your country to ruins. You can choose to sound the death knell for dialogue and let the guns usurp the place of reason.
"Or, you can choose to honour the toil of Julius Nyerere and Nelson Mandela, who worked hard for peace in Burundi by agreeing to negotiate earnestly and conclude a peace deal."
Nyerere, the late president of Tanzania, and Mandela, the South African former president, had been at the forefront of efforts to bring an end Burundi's war, which erupted in 1993 and had since claimed about 300 000 lives.
Their efforts resulted in a 2000 peace agreement that all, but the FNL, one of Burundi's seven Hutu rebel groups, had now signed.
Despite the adoption of a new constitution and a series of elections last year that saw the formation of a new power-sharing government headed by a former Hutu rebel leader, the FNL had remained outside the process.
Its fighters continued to wage a low-level insurgency in areas surrounding Bujumbura and just last week the government launched a major offensive against the guerrillas in retaliation for previous attacks.