"Pierre Nkurunziza sworn in Burundi"
- From: yared22311@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 27 Aug 2005 07:31:26 -0700
Ex-rebel leader sworn in president
By Aloys Niyoyita
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 27, 2005
BUJUMBURA, Burundi -- A former Hutu rebel leader took the presidential
oath yesterday with Burundians looking to him to seal a peace after 12
years of civil war and lead the central African nation toward
prosperity.
Pierre Nkurunziza was elected by parliament last week following a
four-year transitional government set up to end a war that began when
paratroopers killed the first democratically elected president, a Hutu,
in 1993. Mr. Nkurunziza's Forces for the Defense of Democracy was once
the largest Hutu rebel group fighting the former Tutsi-dominated
government.
"I swear that I will stand for peace, tranquility and development
for all. I will fight against all genocidal ideology and all lies,"
said Mr. Nkurunziza, 40, holding the constitution in one hand and flags
representing the nation and ethnic unity in the other.
Another rebel group, the National Liberation Force, did not take
part in the peace process and has continued to fight, mostly in the
rural areas around the capital, Bujumbura. Persuading that group to
join his government will be Mr. Nkurunziza's top priority.
"I hope he will bring back peace quickly and help us overcome
poverty," Fatuma Siniremera, a 56-year-old Nkurunziza supporter, said
during a rally Thursday.
But some Tutsis, who accused Mr. Nkurunziza during the war of
plotting genocide against them, remain skeptical. Burundi's Tutsi
minority had long dominated politics and the economy in this former
Belgian colony.
Mr. Nkurunziza is the son of a Hutu lawmaker and a nurse from the
Tutsi minority. He saw Tutsi soldiers kill his father during ethnic
violence in 1972.
"I am very pessimistic about whether he will change anything,"
Dieudonne Hakizimana said, adding that he feared that the new
government could split.
Mr. Nkurunziza, a university physical education instructor and
soccer coach before taking up arms, emerged as president after a long
and at times uncertain process brokered by neighboring countries, South
African mediators and the international community.
"The moment we have all been working for and waiting for, the
ushering in of a new democratic dispensation in Burundi, has finally
arrived," said South Africa's former Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who
helped mediate the peace process.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said his government was ready
to assist in Burundi's reconstruction.
As part of the peace deal, Burundian voters in March were presented
with a constitution guaranteeing majority rule and minority rights.
Under the constitution, all political parties must have both Hutu and
Tutsi members.
The constitution was adopted overwhelmingly, and voters then chose
local officials and the lower house of parliament. In the next step,
local government representatives were the main electors for the
41-member upper house of parliament, and both houses of parliament
chose the president.
.
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