Burundian rebels get amnesty for massacre
By: Beauregard Tromp

June 27, 2006 – (Cape Times) The FNL rebel group in Burundi responsible for the massacre of more than 150 civilians and many of their own soldiers has been given provisional amnesty for the killings in a deal brokered by South Africa to help advance the peace process in the troubled country.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula announced this on Monday. He is the facilitator in talks between the last rebel group, the FNL - the Forces Nationales de Liberation - and the Burundi government. The two have just signed a tentative ceasefire agreement. Reporting back on Monday from the negotiations in Dar es Salaam, Nqakula said that the parties were currently working on a comprehensive ceasefire agreement which should be concluded by July 1."All returning exiles will have provisional immunity from arrest and prosecution and all political prisoners will be freed," said Nqakula.

In August 2004, FNL rebels attacked a refugee camp in Gatumba in western Burundi, killing 156 mostly women and children. Claiming responsibility for the attack, the FNL later said the camp was a military base, an allegation UN investigators into the incident disproved. Banyamulenge Tutsis - ethnic Tutsis living in the Democratic Republic of Congo - were said to have been targeted in the attack.

Human Rights Watch reported that the FNL had been responsible for the death of hundreds of their own colleagues, whom they suspected of being in cahoots with the Burundian government and planning to assassinate the FNL leadership. "When the ceasefire agreement has been signed, the programme to repatriate members of the Palipehutu-FNL and other exiles will start. Processes will also begin to assimilate the returning Barundi into the socio-econo-politico life of the country,"said Nqakula.

The FNL remain the only rebel group outside of the peace process in Burundi where elections last year brought to power the largest rebel group the FDD, led by a former FNL ally Pierre Nkurunziza. The elections largely ended 13 years of civil war, although the FNL continued attacking the government and civilians from the hills around the country's capital, Bujumbura. Nqakula said there would not be another election to accommodate the FNL and no government positions had been offered to them either.

The FNL had previously insisted that a national dialogue be held to achieve reconciliation between Hutus and Tutsi before peace could be reached. They have since dropped this demand and accepted a SA-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission process after a peace agreement. Part of the ceasefire agreement is to allow FNL combatants to be assimilated into the Burundian security forces. The rebels will also be allowed to form a political party.

From: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=136&art_id=vn20060627021844468C508155