Notes following Briefing by Minister Nqakula regarding Developments in Burundi Peace Process Media Centre, Union Buildings, Pretoria, Monday 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 the 7th 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 off 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 off 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 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 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 and the force we are speaking of is the force that has been given to us by the African Union. Off 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 Nyere 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 the 7th September 2006 and signed the relevant document that there would be a ceasefire between themselves and the government. That ceasefire says 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 democratizing, 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 amongst 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 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 – that the Facilitation will not change and that they need to work within the ambit of the ceasefire agreement. In fact, all of those organizations, 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 those 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, demobilization 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
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
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15 October 2007