SA's Burundi mission accomplished
31 July 2009
South African peacekeeping troops are to withdraw from Burundi, ending a successful eight-year mission to help safeguard a peace process originally mediated by former president Nelson Mandela.
Speaking to journalists in Pretoria this week, International Relations and Cooperation director-general Ayanda Ntsaluba said the withdrawal would begin on 8 August and be completed by the end of September.
Under the auspices of the African Union (AU), South Africa sent 700 troops to Burundi in 2001 to help safeguard the peace process between the government and rebel movements, following a 15-year civil war that claimed an estimated 300 000 lives.
The South African National Defence Force specialist contingent was deployed in Burundi as part of an AU special task force that has been in place since the establishment of a broad-based transition government, in line with the Arusha Peace Accord for Burundi.
That agreement, reached in August 2000, was signed by 19 Burundian parties and mediated by former South African president Nelson Mandela.
Ntsaluba said South Africa's mandate in Burundi had been to act as a "bodyguard" force for about 150 Hutu politicians returning from exile to participate in Burundi's government of national unity.
South Africa's facilitation efforts involved the disarmament, demobilisation and integration of rebel forces into a national unity defence force.
The withdrawal of South Africa's troops marked "a proud moment in South Africa's and Africa's history as we move towards resolution of this long-standing and violent conflict," Ntsaluba said.
Source: BuaNews
