Zuma working on Burundi peace

2005-01-17 12:58

Kampala - South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma was due to arrive in Uganda late on Monday for talks with officials here on Burundi's fragile peace process, Uganda's foreign ministry said.

Among others, Zuma, the chief mediator in the process, is to meet with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who now serves as chairman of a regional peace initiative for Burundi, foreign ministry official Julius Onen said.

"Zuma will be here for talks with the president on the progress of the Burundi peace process," Onen told journalists.

It was not immediately clear if the discussion would tackle the current controversy in Burundi over upcoming presidential elections, which pits the president of the African Great Lakes state against ex-rebels now in government.

Burundi, which is struggling to recover from an 11-year civil war that claimed more than 300 000 lives, is currently in a transitional phase of government which is due to end in April with presidential elections.

Election officials in Bujumbura have said, however, that the polls are likely to be delayed until June, a prospect that has angered former rebels of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, who have accused President Domitien Ndayizeye of seeking to stay in power permanently.

Under the current constitution, Ndayizeye, a Hutu who took over from Pierre Buyoya - a member of the Tutsi minority who make up most of the armed forces and once dominated the government - is ineligible to run.

However, sources close to the president say he wants an amendment that would allow him to stand for election. A constitutional referendum, originally to be held last year, has been postponed three times and no new date has been set.

Burundi's civil war was triggered by the assassination in October 1993 of the country's first elected Hutu president by the Tutsi-dominated army, triggering a Hutu rebellion that resulted in Buyoya seizing power in a military coup.

- AFP