Daniel K. Kalinaki
28 January 2008
Burundi's last major rebel group, the Palipehutu-FNL, has agreed to rejoin the peace process, ending months of stand-off that risked returning the country to war.
Uganda's special envoy to the Burundi Peace Process, Adonia Ayebare told The EastAfrican, "There have been a series of consultations with all the stakeholders that are pointing towards a positive direction as far as the implementation of the ceasefire agreement are concerned."
The FNL had rejected South African mediation in the matter, accusing the facilitator, Pretoria's Minister for Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, of taking sides, and last July withdrew from the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Highly-placed sources in the region told The EastAfrican that following intense shuttle diplomacy between Pretoria and Dar es Salaam, where some of the rebel leaders are based, the FNL had agreed to rejoin the process "without pre-conditions."
Government officials from South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania are now expected to meet FNL leaders in Dar es Salaam this week to discuss the implementation of the FNL's obligations under the ceasefire agreement that ended close to a decade of fighting in Burundi.
The FNL's decision ends months of a political merry-go-round full of twists and turns, whose origins can be traced to the FNL's insistence on discussing the "political" aspects of its transformation from a rebel fighting force to a political party in Burundi and the counter-insistence by the mediation team that those issues were beyond the ambit of the ceasefire agreement, which pays attention to disarmament and demobilisation of ex-combatants.
After withdrawing its members from the joint verification committee, communication with the FNL top leadership became harder, especially after the rebel group demanded $54,000 to attend the meeting in Dar es Salaam, a figure roundly dismissed as exaggerated.
However, President Nkurunziza's struggle to hold his government together due to an internal dispute in the ruling party dispute distracted attention from the peace process and emboldened the FNL.
Then, domestic and regional developments late last year swung the advantage away from the FNL. President Nkurunziza appointed an inclusive new government last November, around the time that some impatient FNL fighters started voluntarily offering themselves up for demobilisation.
The pendulum swung farther away from the FNL after a United Nations Security Council report accused it of carrying out attacks on its former fighters seeking voluntary demobilisation and of recruiting and arming child soldiers, in violation of the Rome Statute.
The FNL has also been facing growing pressure from the Tanzanian government, which gave it an ultimatum to rejoin the peace process, as well as other regional and international bodies.
A Tripartite Plus meeting between the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo under the aegis of the United States last December in Addis Ababa gave the FNL until the end of last year to start implementing the comprehensive peace agreement or face sanctions.
A strongly-worded communiqué issued by the Tripartite Plus meeting says that it "....deplored and condemned the repeated ceasefire violations by the Palipehutu-FNL and its stubborn and unjustified refusal to resume its participation in the work of the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism."
The African Union's Peace and Security Commission also gave the rebel group a January 31 deadline to fully return to the peace process.
This week's meeting will seek to return the peace process on track, particularly in regard to disarming and demobilising FNL fighters.
The FNL's political demands are likely to be discussed through the newly-created political directorate set up by Mr Nqakula in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, and chaired by the South African special envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Kingsley Mamabolo.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon told the Security Council in a report last November that the political directorate is expected "to address the political obstacles arising from the implementation of the comprehensive ceasefire agreement."
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