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ARUSHA, Tanzania, Aug 4 (AFP) - The Rwandan government and Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels signed a final peace and new regime accord here on Wednesday after nearly three years of bloody civil war in the tiny central African nation.
Under the accord, signed amid great fanfare in this northern Tanzanian town by Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana for the government and RPF Chairman Alexis Kanyarengwe, the two sides "resolved to eradicate all root causes" which gave rise to the conflict".
They pledged to make every possible effort to ensure the agreement is observed and implemented in order to achieve lasting peace for the 7.4 million people of Rwanda, one of the poorest countries in the world.
Habyarimana and Kanyarengwe agreed on the appointment of Faustin Twagiramungu, chairman of the opposition Republican Democratic Movement (MDR), as prime minister of the broad-based transitional government to be established under an earlier agreed protocol on power-sharing.
They agreed to spare no effort in promoting national unity and reconciliation, and endorsed as integral to the peace agreement the protocols and memoranda agreed earlier in what has been a long negotiating process.
These earlier accords include a ceasefire agreements made at N'Sele in Zaire in 1991, at Gbadolite, also in Zaire, the same year, and at Arusha in July 1992.
They also include protocols on respect for the rule of law, power-sharing in a broad-based transitional government, the return of refugee Rwandans, the resettlement of displaced people, and integration of forces from the two sides in a new 13,000-man national army.
Under the signed agreement, the current government is not allowed to make decisions which may be detrimental to the implementation of the new government's transitional programme.
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