Burundi's ex-rebel head takes presidency

BUJUMBURA - Burundi's former Hutu rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza takes office as president on Friday, the culmination of a long African-mediated peace process which ended a 12-year civil war that killed 300,000 people.

Nkurunziza's inauguration after a series of democratic polls is a major step forward for the small central African nation, battered by war, ethnic division and poverty that forces many of its 7 million people to survive on as little as US25c (NZ36c) a day.

Securing peace in Burundi is seen as crucial to overall stability in the volatile Great Lakes region, racked by ethnic conflict, fights over resources and refugee problems.

The former physical education lecturer, whose narrow escape from death at the hands of rampaging Tutsi soldiers turned him into a guerrilla fighter in 1995, becomes only the second elected Hutu president in Burundi's post-independence history.

Some opposition groups accuse Nkurunziza of war crimes, and a Tutsi government sentenced him to death in 1999 for laying landmines that killed several people.

Weary of war but equally tired of politicians who promise much and deliver little, Burundians are waiting to see if Nkurunziza can make good on his promises to rebuild the mountainous tea and coffee-growing country.

Several African political leaders were to attend the swearing-in.

Lawmakers sitting as an electoral college elected the devoutly religious 40-year-old a week ago in a vote that was a foregone conclusion, given that he was the only candidate.

His guerrilla movement-turned-political party, the Forces for Defence of Democracy (FDD), dominated elections held under Burundi's UN-backed 2000 peace plan, on a platform of restoring democracy and ethnic inclusion.

"My worst enemies have become my friends and we can share beer together," Nkurunziza said before his swearing-in.

When it was fighting, the FDD argued the 1993 assassination by Tutsi paratroopers of Melchior Ndadaye, the country's first elected Hutu president, had robbed Burundi of democracy.

The murder sparked a series of ethnic reprisals between majority Hutus and the Tutsi minority that has long held Burundi's levers of power. The violence mirrored earlier cycles of slaughter which have marked Burundi's history since independence from Belgium in 1962.

Though Burundi's progress has raised hopes of lasting peace, the spectre of violence still looms, in the shape of the last rebel group fighting.

A clash between the army and the rebel Hutu Forces for National Liberation (FNL) killed eight people on Aug. 17, and the military believes the group may disrupt the inauguration.

Nkurunziza faces a fistful of challenges, including bringing the FNL to peace talks without alienating his Hutu power base, assuring the Tutsi elite they will not be marginalised, rebuilding a limping economy and improving security.

He must also oversee a truth and reconciliation process to sort out who is responsible for war crimes and atrocities. Many are watching closely to see if he makes his own commanders and soldiers face justice.

- REUTERS