Burundi, last rebel group sign ceasefire

DAR ES SALAAM, Sep 7 (Reuters) Burundi and its last remaining rebel group signed a full ceasefire today, a crucial step toward stabilising a nation trying to rise from the ashes of a 12-year civil war.

President Pierre Nkurunziza -- a former Hutu rebel leader -- and Forces for National Liberation (FNL) chief Agathon Rwasa, also a Hutu, signed the deal in Dar es Salaam in the presence of South African mediators and African leaders.

''Dear brothers of the FNL, get ready to work hard. We are asking our brothers to reiterate their commitment to implement this agreement,'' Nkurunziza said at a ceremony attended by the presidents of Uganda and South Africa among others.

The signing was greeted with caution because past formal truces have evaporated before the ink even dried, with the guerrillas and army clashing in the hilly country's steaming forests within days.

South Africa has been mediating talks between the FNL and Burundi since May. In June, the two sides signed an agreement to stop fighting while they negotiated, but a July deadline for a final ceasefire passed with no deal.

During Burundi's civil war, Nkurunziza's rebel group came to the peace process first, in 2003, while the FNL held out, launching sporadic attacks against civilians and soldiers from its bush hideouts around the lakeside capital Bujumbura.

''The current agreement is really a decisive moment ... for which we have been waiting for so long,'' Rwasa said after the signing.

Now both sides have to hammer out details of how to implement the deal and demobilise the estimated 1,500 to 3,000 FNL fighters, mediators said.

A LAST STEP? Bringing the FNL into Burundi's U.N.-backed peace process had been seen as one of the last steps to restoring stability to the coffee-growing nation of 7.5 million, which suffered a civil war that began in 1993 and killed at least 300,000 people.

Members of the Tutsi minority -- which had dominated Burundi's military and economic spheres since 1962 independence from Belgium -- and the Hutu majority slaughtered each other in a vicious cycle of ethnic reprisals.

Though seen as an African success story because of the relative calm in Burundi during most of its one year in power, Nkurunziza's government has come under increasing criticism for what watchdogs say is a spate of human rights abuses.

The government has jailed about a half-dozen people including former President Domitien Ndayizeye over an alleged coup plot, for which it says it has hard evidence.

But no details have been presented yet and many believe the government made up the plot as an excuse to eliminate dissidents and consolidate power.

A host of opposition, civil rights and anti-graft activists have been arrested since May and journalists have been threatened.

The government says it is committed to free expression and rejects most claims of rights abuses.

On Monday, Second Vice President Alice Nzomukunda -- the second highest-ranking government official in the ruling CNDD-FDD party -- quit, blaming the party's powerful chairman for single-handedly turning back Burundi's progress.

Chairman Hussein Radjabu, feared by many for his control of the former rebel group's finances and intelligence arm, has made no comment on her charges of corruption and rights abuses.

REUTERS KD KP2258