Mandela tries to fine-tune his Burundi peace plan

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela held talks on Friday with Burundi's military ruler Pierre Buyoya and U.S. envoy Howard Wolpe on how to fine-tune a peace plan rejected by the biggest rebel group.

Buyoya and Wolpe arrived in South Africa on Thursday to consult Mandela two weeks after the rebel CNDD-FDD rejected his peace plan to end a seven-year ethnic-based civil war pitting the ruling Tutsi-dominated army against the majority Hutus.

Mandela told reporters on Thursday after meeting Buyoya: "The president and I see eye to eye on a lot of issues but we must continue to try to find a solution to the problems of Burundi."

Talks between the two men and Wolpe, U.S. President Bill Clinton's special envoy to Central Africa's volatile Great Lakes region, resumed on Friday with Mandela seeking to extract concessions from Buyoya on the latest rebel demands.

Mandela circulated a draft peace plan three weeks ago in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha but the CNDD-FDD signaled its rejection of the proposals. It said it was ready to continue fighting for the restoration of Burundi's 1992 constitution.

That constitution led to Western-style elections, which saw the Hutu rise to power. But the short experiment with democracy ended tragically in 1993 when minority Tutsi soldiers murdered democratically elected President Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu.

Ndadaye's death led to the birth of the CNDD-FDD, which has fought to restore the constitution and return Hutus to power.

Mandela's draft omits 1992 constitution

But Mandela has chosen to start afresh, leaving out the constitution demanded by the rebels and risking failure.

The war in the tea and coffee-growing nation has cost more than 200,000 lives, uprooted many more from their homes and driven others into exile.

Under Mandela's plan, the Tutsi minority which has dominated since independence would have to hand power to a democratically elected government in three years.

Safeguards would be built in to protect the Tutsis, including a new, powerful upper house of parliament split 50-50 along ethnic lines, and an ethnically balanced army.

But the CNDD-FDD is unhappy with the way the electoral system has been massaged to reassure the Tutsis, arguing this would create a "hostage" government like the one under Sylvestre Ntibantunganya which followed Ndadaye's death.

'Regroupment camps' an issue

The CNDD-FDD wants other demands met before signing the plan: closure of all controversial Nazi-style "regroupment camps" housing Hutus, release of some 11,000 political prisoners and direct talks between the rebels and the government.

Under pressure from Mandela, the military junta has closed most of the regroupment camps in Bujumbura Rurale, the province surrounding the capital, where they had herded civilians in a bid to crush the rebels. But the CNDD-FDD says many hundreds of thousands are still trapped in camps around the country.

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