{"id":32565,"date":"2017-02-15T02:05:33","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T02:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/burundi-govt-again-refuses-crisis-talks-with\/"},"modified":"2017-02-15T02:01:08","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T02:01:08","slug":"burundi-govt-again-refuses-crisis-talks-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/burundi-govt-again-refuses-crisis-talks-with\/","title":{"rendered":"Burundi govt again refuses crisis talks with opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Violence erupted when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office in April 2015. At least 300,000 people have fled the country.}<\/p>\n

Mediator Benjamin Mkapa, a former Tanzanian president, has invited \u201ca group of 33 key figures\u201d comprising on one side the government and its allies, and on the other side, their opponents, an African diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The talks are scheduled to take place Thursday through Saturday in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.<\/p>\n

Mkapa is hoping to finally tackle \u201csubstantive issues\u201d at the core of the conflict, notably Nkurunziza\u2019s third term, and the \u201ccreation of a national unity government\u201d, the diplomat said.<\/p>\n

But the government refuses to sit down with members of the umbrella opposition group the National Council for the Restoration of Arusha Agreement and Rule of Law (CNARED) and a major civil society movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CNARED is an organisation not recognised by Burundian law and which includes individuals sought by Burundian justice,\u201d Willy Nyamitwe, presidential spokesman and also a member of the government delegation, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is therefore clear that inviting them to take part in any process of dialogue is an insult that cannot be accepted by the government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nyamitwe added that the government peace delegation would refuse to engage with CNARED or UN mediator Jamal Benomar.<\/p>\n

It is not clear however whether the government intends to skip the talks altogether.<\/p>\n

The Burundi regime has previously described CNARED as a \u201cterrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The CNARED said it would also not participate.<\/p>\n

However, it added that it would \u201csend a delegation to Arusha to see Mkapa and go over one or two details before reaching a final decision on the matter,\u201d one of its leaders told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

The so-called inter-Burundi dialogue has repeatedly run into snags and Tuesday\u2019s statement by the government is only the latest glitch.<\/p>\n

In December, the opposition accused Mkapa of siding with the government by accepting it as \u201clegitimate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am in no position to determine the legitimacy of the government of Burundi. Elections were held, court cases were raised \u2026 and they all said this is a legitimate process which has come to a legitimate conclusion,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"Violence<\/figure>\n

Source:AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Violence erupted when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office in April 2015. At least 300,000 people have fled the country.} Mediator Benjamin Mkapa, a former Tanzanian president, has invited \u201ca group of 33 key figures\u201d comprising on one side the government and its allies, and on the other side, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[99],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32565"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32565"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}