Former South African President Nelson Mandela has announced that the Burundian government and the different rebel factions may soon sign a peace agreement. South African media are reporting that both sides in the Burundi conflict will sign a deal later this month to end the seven year old civil war. The agreement calls for a "transition government, the creation of an army equally composed of Hutu and Tutsi....an electoral system able to guarantee an equal division of power between the two ethnic groups (Hutu and Tutsi)", reports MISNA, a Catholic news agency based in Rome.
Conseil National pour la Defense de la Democratie (CNDD), one of the main rebel factions, has denied that they plan to sign a peace deal with the government later this month. The CNDD rebels are reportedly calling for the dismantling of civilian camps and the release of political prisoners before they can consider signing an agreement with the government.
Burundi, a landlocked tiny central African country has been involved in political violence for years pinning the two major ethnic groups against each other. In 1972, more than 100,000 Hutu were rounded up and killed by the Tutsi minority. The majority Hutu are mostly peasants, while the Tutsi run the economy, the government and the military.
The latest round of fighting started after Tutsi soldiers assassinated President Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu. He was the first ever democratically elected President of Burundi. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed since the 1993 assassination of President Ndadaye. More than 1.5 million people, mostly Hutu, including East Africa Annual Conference Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa have fled the fighting in Burundi. The Bishop, who was President Ndadaye's spiritual adviser fled to Nairobi, because his life was threatened in Burundi.
Many of the refugees have settled in neighboring countries. Tanzania holds the largest Burundian refugee population in the region.
Accompanied by retired Bishop David Lawson from the Great Rivers Conference and Mozambican Bishop Machado, Bishop Ndoricimpa recently returned for a brief visit to Burundi. According to Bishop Forrest Stith, the Council of Bishops had appointed the two bishops to accompany Bishop Ndoricimpa as a form of "fraternal support."
President Nelson Mandela has been mediating between the belligerents since December last year. He was appointed after the previous facilitator, former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, died of Leukemia. Mandela's appointment was hailed by many Burundians, including Bishop Ndoricimpa.