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Deputy President Jacob Zuma will travel to New York, United States of America this evening, 3 December 2002, to solicit support from the United Nations for the Burundi peace process.

The Deputy President will tomorrow, 4 December 2002, meet United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations Security Council, to brief them on the Burundi peace process. He will return to South Africa from New York on Friday, 6 December.

Deputy President Zuma returned from Arusha, Tanzania at 6am today, 3 December 2002, after successfully brokering a cease-fire agreement between the National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy movement and the Transitional Government of Burundi.

The cease-fire agreement was signed at 12.30 am in Arusha, Tanzania, this morning, after gruelling marathon talks which began on Sunday, 1 December, and ended shortly before midnight last night.

The Deputy President had been facilitating talks between the two parties since the year 2000 at different intervals.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, who is the chairperson of the Great Lakes Regional Initiative on Burundi, and Deputy President Zuma as Facilitator.

The two parties will immediately suspend hostilities as phase one of the agreement, and the comprehensive agreement comes into effect on the 30th of December 2002 to allow the CNDD-FDD and the government to prepare for the implementation.

According to some of the terms of the agreement, the CNDD-FDD will be transformed into a political party, and will take part in the power sharing arrangements in Burundian transitional institutions and the structures of the state including the army and the security forces.

For more information please contact Lakela Kaunda on 082 782-2575.

Issued by The Presidency, 3 December 2002

Source: Department of Foreign Affairs (http://www.dfa.gov.za)