Burundi: UN envoy welcomes establishment of electoral commission

The top United Nations envoy for Burundi has welcomed the appointment of a five-member Independent National Electoral Commission as a "decisive step" towards bringing peace to the small Central African country, which has been torn by more than a decade of civil war.

Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Representative Carolyn McAskie yesterday urged the Transitional Government to support the Commission's effective establishment and functioning, and offered the assistance of the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB) in holding free, transparent and democratic polls.

Last month, Ms. McAskie attended a meeting in South Africa of 31 Burundian political parties on forming a multi-party, power-sharing Government ahead of the elections.

But serious tension between ethnic Hutu and Tutsi still roils the country of some 6 million people, with one rebel group, the Front National de Liberation (FNL), shunning peace talks and continuing guerrilla operations in the region around Bujumbura, the capital. The FNL claimed responsibility for the 13 August massacre of 160 Banyamulenge (minority Tutsi) refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

ONUB, created by the Security Council in May, will eventually total 5,650 military personnel and up to 1,000 national and international civilian staff.