|
Bujumbura - Burundi on Monday kicked off talks with United Nations officials over what happens when the world body's peace force deployed in the tiny Central African nation pulls out, officials said.
The UN is expected to wind up its gradual troop reduction by December after helping Burundi achieve peace following years of civil unrest that claimed 300 000 lives.
"We have begun consultations today on future cooperation between the United Nations and Burundi after the peace mission whose mandate ends on 31st December," first vice president Martin Nduwimana said at the start of the talks.
Currently, only 40 percent of the 5 364 UN troops deployed in the country in mid-2004 remain in Burundi since the phased draw-down began last December.
Burundi is still recovering from the ethnically-driven conflict that erupted in 1993 with the assassination of the country's first democratically-elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, by officers in the minority Tutsi-dominated military.
"We are no longer in the conflict resolution stage. The talks are about helping us in development and reconstruction," Nduwimana said.
The country installed a new power-sharing government in August headed by former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza. - Sapa-AFP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
