C Nqakula on Burundi Peace Process developments

15 October 2007

Minister Nqakula

Thank you very much to members of the media for making the time to come and
listen to what we will be saying.

Firstly let me say, there has been a lot of writing in the recent past on
the issues of Burundi. There are some people who have been interviewed by
various elements of the media with regards to that matter and I thought it was
also necessary for me to make an input to clarify what is happening regarding
the peace process in that country.

Firstly let me very briefly bring you up to speed with regards to the
decisions that were taken. But in the first instance, some time in 2006, South
Africa was asked to facilitate negotiations between the government of Burundi
and the Paliphehutu-FNL a rebel movement that has remained outside of the
Arusha negotiations. The Arusha negotiations, as you know, resulted in the
adoption of the Constitution in Burundi and the holding of elections.
Therefore, the present government was elected through these processes.

We started our work in May 2006 and on 7 September 2006 we were able to get
the two parties, the government of Burundi and the Paliphehutu-FNL, to sign a
Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement. In terms of that agreement, we needed to
facilitate a process that was going to see the demobilisation and the
reintegration of members, combatants of the Paliphehutu-FNL into government
organs but particularly so, those that deal with Defence and Security in that
country.

But, we did not complete that process in 2006. There were many difficulties
and difficulties that continue to hound the process until some time this year
we agreed we were going to start the process of the implementation of the
Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement. But on 27 July 2007 the Paliphehutu-FNL
walked out of the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM) which is
the vehicle for the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement. And, they have
refused to go back to the JVMM since then. But a crisis has now arisen and that
crisis has to do with the fact that there are combatants of the Paliphehutu-FNL
who are leaving their positions and are therefore coming forward asking the
Facilitator to create conditions for them to be reintegrated. That has been a
problem for us.

Firstly, it has humanitarian connotations because when they abandoned their
positions they rendered themselves open to attack by those of the
Paliphehutu-FNL who did not leave their positions and such an attack did happen
and there have been other attacks on them. Therefore, they have asked the
facilitator to provide shelter for them. And because they are not a structure
that is acting within the confines of the principles of the Ceasefire Agreement
they are not receiving food and many of them are going hungry. And of course,
some of them require urgent medical attention and protection which is not
available at this time.

We raised this matter with the regional leadership; the regional initiative
is chaired by the President of Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni who is
deputised by the President of Tanzania, President Jakaya Kikwete. And of course
President Mbeki represents the Facilitation Country. We raised this matter
urgently with the leadership of the region and we were advised that given that,
part of our function indeed is to ensure we implement the ceasefire agreement
that ceasefire agreement gave us authority to establish assembly areas in order
for those who have left their positions in the FNL to be admitted to those
Assembly points.

We had an urgent meeting on Friday to discuss that matter and on Saturday
this week, a meeting is going to be held of the Joint Verification and
Monitoring Mechanism in Bujumbura for us to take forward plans that relate to
the establishment of the Assembly areas. And quite soon after they have been
completed we are going to be taking in those members of the Paliphehutu-FNL who
want to be demobilised and integrated.

So, what that is going to mean is that there are those who are going to
continue to resist this and we expect there may be problems that arise as a
consequence of this. But we have sent out a general appeal to the
Paliphehutu-FNL leadership to participate in this process. We have in fact
invited them to attend the meeting on Saturday, 19 October 2007 so that we can
work on this issue as a collective, including themselves because if this does
not happen there are going to be some difficulties.

We have invited them to that meeting that will simply finalise a programme
that will discussed with respect to the establishment of the Assembly areas for
purposes of starting the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration
processes. It is commonly called the DDR process and is the same process that
is in place in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) to reintegrate people who
were part of the combatants of the revolutionary forces.

So this is the situation we thought we should share with you.

Thank you

Questions and answers

Question: Minister, the last piece three weeks ago was when the FNL rejected
South Africa as the facilitator. Is that the case? Have you had face-to-face
talks with Agathon Rwasa? Are you able to talk to him when you need to?

Answer: I last spoke with Agathon Rwasa in August this year telephonically.
This was following a meeting in Dar-es-Salaam. And we were discussing some of
the issues that we needed take action on because the Paliphehutu-FNL had
already walked out of the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism. And what
we were discussing was the possibility of a one-on-one meeting between the
Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza and himself as the chairperson of the
Paliphehutu-FNL. In fact, that meeting did happen between the two of them on 17
September 2007. What to us was a significant breakthrough was that President
Kikwete sat in the meeting since he was chairing the interaction between the
two. That is the last time I was able to speak to him.

Question: Minister, are you receiving commitment from the
Paliphehutu-FNL?
Answer: Well, we do not know what is going to happen. We do have contact with
them although we do not know what they are going to do but apart from the
meeting that will happen on Saturday as I have indicated, the region is
considering holding a Summit. The Paliphehutu-FNL will be invited to that
Summit and they will have to indicate to the leadership why they want to
continue to remain outside the process. That is the kind of forum in which they
will have to explain themselves.

Question: Minister, you said you are experiencing some problems when some of
the combatants resist who is going to sort this out will it be the South
African National Defence Force (SANDF) since they are the only ones left to
maintain peace?

Answer: The issue of the protection for those armed combatants who leave
their positions and go into the Assembly areas is the responsibility of the
facilitation and the facilitation is being helped by the African Union (AU) and
the force we are speaking of is the force that has been given to us by the
African Union. Of course you are correct, it consists of members of the South
African Defence Force but they are acting under the aegis of the African Union
so if there are difficulties that relate to that, they will provide
protection.

Question: Minister, you are aware there are lots of suspicions from members
of the Paliphehutu-FNL. They were upset South Africa had accused them of
stealing weapons and that was the breakdown of your relationship. How can you
overcome these issues?

Answer: I am aware of the allegation that relates to their accusations that
they say was made. I was also hoping you would speak of the other allegations
they made including that they say I am personally involved in causing a split
between them. The only way in which I can do that is when I am able to go into
their bases and I don't even know where their bases are. If I am able to speak
French, I was hoping you teach me some French so that I could go and cause a
split within their ranks.

They also accuse me of trying to mount assassination attempts on some of
their leaders. This is not the first time they make such serious allegations.
They were making these allegations during the first peace processes in Arusha
accusing the late President Julius Nyerere who was the facilitator, our own
former President Nelson Mandela when he was the facilitator, the former Deputy
President Jacob Zuma this is what they do to further complicate the negotiation
processes.

This is nothing new. We know about this. And the issue of the delays, they
agreed on 7 September 2006 and signed the relevant document that there would be
a ceasefire between themselves and the government. That ceasefire says that
within 72 hours certain things needed to have been done as part of the
implementation of the ceasefire agreement. Here we are, a year later and many
of the things that needed to be done have still been done because of delays
like this.

We believe it is important for Burundi as a country, for the development of
that country, for the people of Burundi, at least to begin to have a sense that
their country is democratising, they have adopted a constitution and there have
been elections and therefore they need to work together to ensure there is
peace in Burundi because it is only peace that will guarantee a better life for
the people there.

It does not matter therefore whether it is people who are part of the rebel
movement or part of government. It is necessary for them to work together and
the comprehensive ceasefire agreement and the negotiations that relate to
political principles were indeed designed to create conditions for them to move
in that way.

Question: Minister, what is the alternative solution?

Answer: It is quite clear it has to be resolved and there is a view among
the Paliphehutu-FNL people themselves that an atmosphere has been created for
them to participate in the processes completely in that country that relate to
the social, economic and political conditions of that country. That is why you
have some people who are now abandoning their positions because they want to be
integrated into that situation.

There is an understanding among some of them that this needs to be done and
some of the delays have to do with things that are outside our mandate as the
Facilitation. The real reason they have left the Joint Verification and
Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM) has to do with the fact they put two issues on the
table that we could not discuss. The first issue was political accommodation,
in other words, they wanted some of them to be put into cabinet positions in
that country.

The second issue was what they termed the resources technical agreement,
what this means is firstly, the Burundian army had to be disbanded and built
anew. And in that process they would require positions. But those two matters
were not matters we were discussing as the facilitation and we pointed this out
to them that they needed to discuss this with the government of Burundi and in
fact, when Mr Agathon Rwasa met with President Nkurunziza these matters were
part of their discussions and there were decisions that related to those
questions.

Question: Minister, sometime in September the FNL asked the facilitation to
step aside from the process. What is your view on this? You mentioned some FNL
are already leaving their positions – how many have done this?

Answer: On the first question, let me say, I had said right at the outset
that South Africa was appointed by the regional leadership to become
facilitators. I was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to represent the country
in that position. And that it would be the regional initiative that therefore
would decide to withdraw me and the facilitation. This position has been
endorsed by the African Union and the United Nations (UN) that the facilitation
will not change and that they need to work within the ambit of the ceasefire
agreement. In fact, all of those organisations, including the United Nations,
made a call to the Paliphehutu-FNL to participate in the JVMM without
conditions. This is what they have said.

The issue of that Paliphehutu-FNL leaving their positions is a simple one
that we are going to deal with. They want to be accommodated and we will
accommodate them because we have been given an instruction to do so by the
regional initiative. By the way, there is interaction between those people and
the African Union Force that is there and the figure which changes all the
time, began with 400 people, now stands at 1500 people. That is a huge number
by any consideration and what worries us is that a number like that of hungry
people can easily turn into a marauding mass and while trying to find food may
also trample on the rights of the communities. These people are not subject to
command and control.

Question: Minister, you spoke about political accommodation. The government
of Burundi has already accommodated other parties. This is apparently one of
the reasons the FNL does not trust the government of Burundi to accommodate
them. What have you personally observed about this?

Answer: I do not want to speculate on those matters. This will not be right.
That issue is one we clearly indicated we would not be able to deal with
because it was outside of the ambit of our facilitation. What we were happy
about was the fact that Agathon Rwasa did meet with President Nkurunziza and
these matters were raised. We expect there was a way in which they agreed this
matter would be dealt with. I don't want to further speculate on this
matter.

Question: Minister, is it your view that the December deadline set by the
region is realistic?

Answer: As I indicated, there is a Summit of the region that will be taking
place soon. We do not know what decisions will be taken there about that
particular question. But we have accepted that our instruction is for us to
complete the process by the end of December 2007. The region will indicate what
will happen if the process has not been completed.

Question: Minister, what is the objective of the meeting on Saturday in
Bujumbura?

Answer: That meeting will mainly discuss the establishment of the Assembly
areas. There will however be other matters that will be discussed as part of
the Ceasefire Agreement including the release of political and war prisoners,
matters relating to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration
programme. These matters will also be discussed.

Question: Minister, the weekend paper in Uganda reported that Rwasa will
rejoin the JVMM have you heard about this? Has it been confirmed to you?

Answer: That matter has been conveyed to us. We met with some of them; they
did say they are keen to rejoin the process. We have a meeting on Saturday and
we have invited them to that meeting and if they are rejoining the process,
they will be present and we hope that indeed they will be present at that
meeting.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
15 October 2007