Burundi Sanctions to Stay in Place, Neighbors Decide
Economic sanctions against Burundi will remain in place until the country makes more progress toward returning to civil rule, a summit of regional leaders decided Saturday.
“The sanctions shall be retained,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said after the summit in Kampala. “The decision was unanimous.”
The summit brought together the presidents of Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Rwanda with Organization of African Unity Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim and former Tanzanian President Julius K. Nyerere.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Congo President Laurent Kabila and Zambian President Frederick Chiluba pulled out and were represented by their foreign ministers.
The meeting offered Burundian President Pierre Buyoya, who came to power in a July 1996 coup that prompted the regional embargo, the chance to explain why he thought sanctions should be lifted, but the leaders felt the government could be doing more to bring about a return to civil rule.
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