Burundi: No Amnesty, no rejoining truce team-Burundian rebels

(SomaliNet) Demanding amnesty in exchange for participation in the group overseeing the end of Burundi’s civil war, Burundian rebels refused to rejoin a truce monitoring team which was to have begun work on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) insurgency is seen as the final barrier to lasting stability in the central African coffee growing nation of 8 million, which has seen more than a decade of ethnic conflict that killed 300,000 people.

The FNL first quit the team last year, hampering a deal they had signed in September 2006 to end Burundi\'s 13-year civil war.

The truce team -- FNL members, government officials and international mediators -- was due to resume work on Tuesday, under a deadline set by chief mediator Charles Nqakula of South Africa.

\"We have a team of 11 people ready to join the joint verification monitoring mechanism, but they can\'t come to Bujumbura unless they have immunity,\" FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

He said the Burundian parliament should grant the amnesty, which the Burundian government said had already been granted.

\"Last year, FNL members came into Bujumbura to take part in the ceasefire monitoring team. This couldn\'t be possible if an immunity was not given to them,\" said Evariste Ndayishimiye, head of the government delegation to peace talks.

\"We think the FNL has a hidden agenda and doesn\'t want to come back to the peace process.\"

Nqakula has said FNL leaders would return to the central African country by May to finalise the peace deal.

Talks on the peace agreement were suspended last July when FNL members walked out after accusing mediators of bias.-Reuters