Burundi's rebel FNL last obstacle to peace - SA

South Africa today slammed Burundi's Forces of National Liberation (FNL) as the last obstacle to peace in the central African nation, saying the Hutu rebels's position was "intransigent".

The FNL is the only insurgent group that has not joined the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza, elected in 2005 as part of a peace process to halt a conflict that had raged between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority since 1993.

"The South African government remains absolutely concerned that the intransigent position of the ... FNL remains the main and last obstacle to peace in Burundi," Aziz Pahad, South Africa's deputy minister of foreign affairs, told reporters in Cape Town.

Pahad said the FNL, which is boycotting meetings brokered by South Africa to monitor a truce in Burundi, had not shown a willingness or commitment to implement the final stages of the peace deal and now was raising issues beyond the agreement.

The Hutu rebels have, among other things, insisted that the current Burundi army be dismantled and that government positions be given to FNL members before the agreement is implemented.

They have also raised objections to South Africa's mediation of the peace process, which was initially hailed as the last piece of the puzzle to end a conflict that killed 300,000 people in the coffee-growing nation of 8 million people.

Pahad said a recent split in the FNL, which led to deadly clashes between rival factions around the capital Bujumbura, had complicated the peace process and added to a security and humanitarian crisis in Burundi. - Reuters