John Kaninda
16 October 2007
Johannesburg — SAFETY and Security Minister Charles Nqakula, facilitator in the Burundian peace process, has disputed accusations that he was responsible for a breakdown of confidence between the Burundian government and the Palipehutu-FNL rebel movement, which led to the rebels quitting a national monitoring mechanism on July 27.
The Palipehutu-FNL is the last rebel movement in Burundi. Its walkout from the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, set up by regional powers to oversee the implementation of a comprehensive cease-fire agreement between the two parties, threatens continental efforts to find durable peace for Burundi.
"I am well aware of the accusations levelled against me by that movement's leadership -- that I have caused a split among them and even plotted to assassinate some of its members," Nqakula said in Pretoria yesterday.
"But similar accusations were also levelled against (the late) Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere when he was facilitator, then against former SA president Nelson Mandela and former deputy president Jacob Zuma. It is the way they try to complicate the process."
Nqakula said what really caused the walkout was the rebel movement' s inability to get the support of the facilitation on two key demands: political accommodation through the awarding of cabinet positions and securing a forces technical agreement that would see the disbanding of the Burundian national forces followed by a reconstruction of a national army in which former rebels would have key positions.
"These demands were out of the ambit of the facilitation, and should be discussed at the governmental level," Nqakula said.
It was important for peace prospects in the country that Burundians from government and armed opposition distinguished between what fell within the facilitation and what should left to political dialogue.
"It is important for Burundians to have a sense that their country is democratising, and that they build peace together. That is the aim of the comprehensive cease-fire agreement."
Nqakula said that since the July walkout the Palipehutu-FNL had split, and those who had broken ranks with movement president Agathon Rwasa had asked facilitators for shelter, food and medicine, "which are not yet available".
"This has presented us with a dire humanitarian situation. These people need to be taken care of. They might suffer the attacks of those members of the Palipehutu-FNL who have kept their positions, and this actually happened a few weeks ago," Nqakula said.
"If nothing is done, the danger is they might turn into marauding groups that would rove around to satisfy their hunger, trampling communities' rights in the process."
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