Bujumbura — The activities are still blocked in the national assembly. Members of the parliament have again boycotted for the second consecutive day the activities of the extraordinary session that was called on by the head of state to analyse and endorse three draft laws.

Opposition members of the parliament refuse to enter the house and prefer to meet in small groups outside the national assembly. Opposition members of the parliament still demand the inclusion of the setup of the parliamentarian commission to look into the disagreements that appeared in the talks between the government of Burundi and PALIPEHUTU-FNL resulting in a blockage.

The pro government members of the parliament are still opposed to any move that is contrary to the one that was proposed by the Tripartite Plus in a meeting that was chaired by the American Secretary of State in charge of the cooperation, Ms Condoleezza Rice. During this meeting it was agreed actions such denying access to the mass media to leaders of PALIPEHUTU-FNL after December 31, 2007 were envisaged. Although the head of state has called on the contribution of every person to bring back the PALIPEHUTU-FNL to the Joint Verification and Monotoring Mechanism in his last national address, it is still clear that many obstacles still lie ahead. The spokesman of the President of the Republic, Léonidas Hatungimana, recently said, in what seems to be a street talk, that Agathon Rwasa knows the telephone number of the Head of State and he should therefore call him first. This sounds as a reply to the call made by the spokesman of PALIPEHUTU-FNL who indicated that the government knows where leaders of this movement are, and should therefore meet them first in order to talk about a new mediator.