Warring Factions Agree to Open Talks

Burundi’s warring factions--minority Tutsis and majority Hutus--have agreed to open talks to try to end their civil war. All factions, inside and outside Burundi, must be involved in the negotiations, which are expected to start within a month, Tanzanian Foreign Minister Jakaya Kikwete said at the end of a seven-nation summit in Arusha, Tanzania. The crucial negotiations would be between President Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi installed as the country’s leader in military coup in July, and Hutu rebel leader Leonard Nyangoma. The agreement is one of the first hopeful signs for an end to ethnic bloodletting that began in 1993 when Tutsi paratroopers killed Burundi’s first democratically elected Hutu president.