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AU
urges Burundi to implement
peace deal
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 ADDIS
ABABA(August 13,2008) - The
African Union urged Burundi's feuding parties on Tuesday to stop delaying
the implementation of a ceasefire agreement signed almost two years
ago.
Government troops and the last rebel group, the Forces for National
Liberation (FNL), have clashed sporadically despite the deal signed
in September 2006, which became stalled over the issue of how to deal
with demobilised fighters.
"The Peace and Security Council is deeply concerned over the
procrastination and delaying tactics that continue to affect the implementation
process of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement," the AU said
in a statement.
"The patience and generosity of the international community have
limits. Parties must place national interest above any other consideration
and demonstrate patriotism required to meet the aspiration of the
Burundi people for peace, security, stability and national reconciliation."
A final peace agreement between the government and the FNL is seen
as a crucial step to lasting stability in the coffee-growing nation
of eight million, to end more than a decade of ethnic conflict that
has killed over 300,000 people.
FNL leader Agathon Rwasa, who returned from exile in neighbouring
Tanzania in May, has said his forces are ready to demobilise and want
peace with Burundi's ethnically mixed, Hutu-led government.
But tension between his fighters and government troops has continued
despite a second deal signed at the end of May to cease hostilities.
"The council is deeply concerned over the delay in implementing
the peace process, despite the return to Bujumbura of the representative
of FNL and Agathon Rwasa in May 2008," the statement said.
President Pierre Nkurunziza, a former Hutu guerrilla, was elected
in 2005 as part of an African-brokered peace pact backed by the United
Nations. FNL was not part of the pact.
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