UN team arrives for talks on truth and reconciliation commission

A United Nations delegation, led by the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Nicolas Michel, has arrived in Burundi for consultations on the setting up of the country's truth and reconciliation commission and a special court.

"We have been mandated to carry out negotiations with involved parties to establish the necessary juridical framework for establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission and a special court," Michel said on Sunday on arrival in the capital, Bujumbura.

He said the UN Security Council had kept in mind the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation of 2000, which was signed by Burundian parties and under which a transitional government was set up, as well has the results of a UN assessment mission that visited Burundi in 2005.

The Arusha accord provides for the setting up of the two mechanisms to shed light on the cyclic violence that has crippled Burundi since independence. Besides a truth and reconciliation commission, the mechanisms would also include an international inquiry commission on genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

Under the accord, the Burundian parties had also agreed to the setting up of an international penal tribunal should the inquiry commission establish existence of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity.

In a statement issued on Friday, the government spokesman, Ramadhan Karenga, said the UN delegation would begin its five-day consultations on Monday.

"The mission comes in the framework of consultations with the Burundi government in view to define a juridical framework, modalities for the creation and functioning of the truth and reconciliation commission and the special chamber," he said.

He added that the delegation would also discuss with the government the "legal and regulatory bases, the competences, structures composition of the commission and the special chamber, and links between both mechanisms and the calendar of their setting up as provided by UN Resolution 1606(2005) of the UN Security Council."

Karenga said Michel's team was also expected to meet a government delegation in charge of negotiating with the UN, judiciary, political and religious officials and representatives of political parties in the government and civil society.

The Burundian delegation would present to the UN team the cabinet's recommendations and lessons drawn from negotiations with the UN in February in South Africa and Sierra Leone.

Michel said the UN mission was that senior Burundian government officials were giving priority to reconciliation and an end to impunity, an essential step for a durable peace.

The UN mission comes to Burundi after the government recently took important decisions such as the release of nearly 3,000 political prisoners, and major changes in the management of justice. The mission also comes to Burundi after the country's remaining rebel group, the Forces nationales de liberation led by Agathon Rwasa, and the Burundian government have agreed to hold peace negotiations.