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Media Statement: Way Forward for Burundi
Peace
Deputy President Jacob Zuma will travel to New York,
United States of America this evening, 3rd December
2002, to solicit support from the United Nations for
the Burundi peace process.
The Deputy President will tomorrow, 4th December 2002
meet United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and
the United Nations Security Council, to brief them on
the Burundi peace process. He will return to South Africa
from New York on Friday, 6 December.
Deputy President Zuma returned from Arusha, Tanzania
at 6am today, 3rd of December 2002, after successfully
brokering a ceasefire agreement between the National
Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the
Defence of Democracy movement and the Transitional Government
of Burundi.
The ceasefire agreement was signed at 12.30am in Arusha,
Tanzania, this morning, after gruelling marathon talks
which began on Sunday, 1st of December and ended shortly
before midnight last night.
The Deputy President had been facilitating talks between
the two parties since the year 2000 at different intervals.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by President Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda, who is the chairperson of the Great
Lakes Regional Initiative on Burundi, and Deputy President
Zuma as Facilitator.
The two parties will immediately suspend hostilities
as phase one of the agreement, and the comprehensive
agreement comes into effect on the 30th of December
2002 to allow the CNDD-FDD and the government to prepare
for the implementation.
According to some of the terms of the agreement, the
CNDD-FDD will be transformed into a political party,
and will take part in the power sharing arrangements
in Burundian transitional institutions and the structures
of the state including the army and the security forces.
For more information please contact Lakela Kaunda
on 082 782-2575.
Issued by The Presidency
Pretoria
3 December 2002
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