African leaders in Burundi to push for talks to end crisis

South African President Jacob Zuma will on Thursday lead a high-level delegation of African Union heads of state and government on a two-day mission to the troubled state of Burundi, International Relations and Cooperation Ministry officials in Pretoria said on Wednesday.

The visit follows that of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to whom Nkurunziza promised to release 1,200 political prisoners earlier this week.

Noting that he was last in Burundi in June 2010, only weeks before the general elections, Ban said that at the time, he spoke about the peace dividends of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement and the Global Ceasefire Agreement, which put the country on a path to economic recovery and national reconciliation.

The opposition was angered by the president’s apparent attempt to choose who should participate when he said the dialogue would include all Burundians “except those engaged in acts of destabilisation”.

He also said that he has spoken to Ban on the phone on Monday, ahead of his visit to Burundi.

“Burundians and United Nations agree that inter-Burundian dialogue shall bring together Burundians but the perpetrators of insecurity… will not be involved”, Nkurunziza told a joint news conference with Ban in Bujumbura.

According to the report, Nkurunziza has refused to talk to CNARED, a coalition of opposition movements in exile, which it accused of involvement in a coup attempt that was thwarted in May.

Civil unrest began last April, when the president announced he would seek an amendment to the constitution and run for a contested third term. Ban said the promise to release some prisoners is “an encouraging step” and urged Nkurunziza to take more measures to promote peace. “It is a false opening because, in effect, the president told the UN Secretary General that he accepts inclusive dialogue and then immediately afterwards wants to choose his interlocutors, accusing some of disrupting security”, CNARED chairman Leonard Nyangoma told AFP. Burundi has a similar ethnic make-up to Rwanda.

Nkurunziza has already rejected African Union plans to send in peacekeepers, saying he would see their arrival as an invasion.

The UN chief is due to hold talks with President Pierre Nkurunziza on Tuesday after meeting with leaders of political parties and civil society.