Bujumbura — The Tanzanian defence minister, Professor Juma Kapuya, arrived in Burundi on 17 January 2008. He hopes to bolster military cooperation between the two nations. The government of Burundi plans to use this opportunity to send a message to PALIPEHUTU-FNL.

The assistant chief of staff of the National Defence Force, General Major Godefroid Niyombare, says that the government of Burundi will ask this minister to convince PALIPEHUTU-FNL authorities to come to Burundi to assess the situation firsthand rather than relying on hearsay passed along by their supporters. General Major Niyombare is the head of the government's delegation in the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism.

The spokesman for PALIPEHUTU-FNL, Mr. Pasteur Habimana, recently made it clear that there will be no talks in Bujumbura. He said that all talks must take place in Dar es Salaam. The government of Burundi awaits the decision of the regional initiative for peace. The spokesman for the President of the Republic has insisted that the leader of PALIPEHUTU-FNL must make a telephone call to President of the Republic of Burundi.

The government of Burundi and FNL continue to wrestle with each other while the situation escalates in the strongholds of PALIPEHUTU-FNL. In Kinama commune, the Youth's Wing of PALIPEHUTU-FNL (J.P.H) and demobilised combatants are at loggerheads. The administrator of Kinama says that J.P.H members have listings of former CNDD-FDD combatants to eliminate. The main cause of this misunderstanding is the rumor that the National Intelligence Services are planning to infiltrate the PALIPEHUTU-FNL movement in order to eliminate Agathon Rwasa.

FNL sources indicate that the National Intelligence Services will give a reward of 158 million francs to the person who kills Agathon Rwasa. In Kamenge the chief of Teza quarter was killed today around 5:00 P.M. During the attacks that shook Kamenge on 16 January, he was in the company of an agent of the national intelligence services known as Babylone, Digidi, or Dix tonnes, who was seriously wounded in the fighting.