Burundi forces to integrate 3,500 former FNL rebels

Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:58am EDT

* Security forces to integrate 3,500 rebels

* Another 5,000 to return to civilian life



By Patrick Nduwimana

BUJUMBURA, April 17 (Reuters) - Burundi's security forces will begin integrating 3,500 fighters from the country's last rebel group next month in another step towards peace in the small central African nation, mediators said on Friday.

Under the agreement 2,100 former combatants from the Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) will join the army, while the remaining 1,400 will got to the police. All the former rebel fighters will be retrained for their new jobs.

Lieutenant-General Derrick Mgwebi, special envoy of South African chief mediator Charles Nqakula, told reporters that process would begin next month after the FNL fully disarms.

"Once all the weapons are taken over, the mediators will inform Burundi's government that the FNL combatants are officially disarmed, then the government will proceed to their integration," he said. "There is a light at the end of turmoil."

The FNL signed a peace deal in mid-2006 that ended two decades of ethnic war, but tensions have remained high.

After many delays, mediators led by South Africa's defence minister Nqakula had given both sides until the end of last year to complete the peace process or risk losing regional support.

The integration deal adds that 5,000 former FNL combatants should return to civilian life -- a process that formally starts on Saturday with the demobilisation of FNL leader Agathon Rwasa.

The FNL will be then registered as a political party.

The military and political integration of the FNL rebels is seen by many as the final barrier to lasting stability in the coffee-growing nation of about 8 million people. (Editing by Daniel Wallis)




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