4 December 2008
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda is tomorrow expected in Bujumbura to attend an emergency one-day heads of state and government summit on the Burundi peace process.
Mr Banda, who is expected to arrive at Bujumbura International Airport at about 09:hours, will be accompanied by Minister of Home Affairs, Kalombo Mwansa, Local Government Deputy Minister, Eustarkio Kazonga and other senior Government officials.
Zambia's High Commissioner to Tanzania, Royson Mukwena, who is also ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda and the Comoros, confirmed the schedule to ZANIS in Bujumbura yesterday.
Professor Mukwena said Mr Banda will join his counterparts, South African President, Kgalema Motlanthe, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Tanzania's Jakaya Kikwete who is also African Union (AU) chairperson, and host President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Presidents Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo were also invited to attend the summit but they had not confirmed their attendance by Press time.
The one-day summit which will be held at the Hotel Source Du Nil in Bujumbura has been called by the chairman of the Burundi peace process, Mr Museveni.
The summit is aimed at, among other issues, stating the position of the Great Lakes region on the implementation of the peace agreements signed at the Dar es Salaam summit of 2006 in Tanzania.
The Dar es Salaam summit directed the remaining Burundi rebel group, the Pelipehutu Federation for National Liberation (Pelipehutu FNL) to stop its rebellious activities against the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
It was agreed that President Nkurunziza accommodates some members of the Pelipehutu FNL into various departments of government.
The two parties, President Nkurunziza's government and the Pelipehutu FNL have since the 2006 Dar es Salaam summit not implemented the agreements they signed, hence, the concern by the Great Lakes countries and other mediators.
However, the Pelipehutu FNL leaders who were in Tanzania and those in the bush within Burundi started arriving in Bujumbura in May this year, which was a step towards the integration and disarmament process.
Last month, ministers of foreign affairs for Tanzania and Uganda informed the two warring parties in Burundi that they had a deadline of December 31, 2008 to resolve their difficulties and implement the agreements.
The parties are supposed to complete the assembling and disarmament of the Pelipehutu FNL and accommodate some of its members into government before the end of this year.
The summit is also expected to address difficulties the two parties have been facing in implementing the agreements.
President Banda, who will be with Zambia's special envoy to the Great Lakes region, Siteke Mwale, is expected to return to Lusaka in the afternoon after the summit.-ZANIS
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