Citation
DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 29 (AFP) - Another round in the laborious peace talks between the Rwandan government and rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) were scheduled to start in Arusha, northern Tanzania, Friday after a four-day delay, officilas said.
The government delegation led by Defence Minister James Gasana arrived in Tanzania late Thursday, the director for African affairs in Tanzania's foreign ministery Ami Mpungwe said.
The latest round of the negotiations was earlier scheduled to start last Tuesday but the government delegation was delayed at home by a tug-of-war between the President Juvenal Habyarimana and the Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyareye over who was to head the team to Arusha.
Foreign Minister Boniface Ngulinzira, who has been leading the government side, was replaced on the president's orders by Gasana but the prime mister had rejected the change.
The latest round of discussions, expected to be the final one, will discuss the integration of mostly-Tutsi RPF forces into the national army and the repatriation of Rwandan refugees.
The other outstanding issue to be tackled is the duration of the transitional period.
The Arusha talks started July last year and both parties have since managed to clinch deals on a ceasefire and power-sharing during the transition to democratic government.
Habyarimana's supporters protesting against the the Arusha peace talks have massacred at least 80 people in the past week.
The killers have been largely from the president's Hutu tribe who attacked Tutsi's and fellow Hutu who belong to opposition movements.
Rwanda's Roman Catholic bishops meanwhile called on the Hutu-dominated government to halt the ethnic violence carried out by its supporters against the minority Tutsis.
In a statement issued following a meeting in Kigali Thursday, the bishops said they were "appalled at the human and material damage" caused by the violence.
hb/jnm AFP AFP SEQN-0282
