Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

 Details were released this month of the African Union's peace-keeping force for Burundi. South Africa is to send 514 SA National Defence Force members, Ethiopia 900 and Mozambique 200 in a three-year operation, a senior SANDF officer said. Altogether 751 SANDF members are already deployed in Burundi, mainly in Bujumbura and surrounds, in a UN-endorsed protection operation for returning rebel politicians.

One rebel group still needs to sign the cease-fire agreement, and the looming difficulties surrounding the hand-over of power on May 1 to a Hutu leader need to be overcome, but South Africa's Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, who is mediating the process, is being determinedly optimistic. In a statement this month he said he believed that Burundi was "through the worst already, and that the situation can only improve".

SA is also to send over 1,200 peace-keepers to bolster the UN force in the DR Congo, it was announced this month. The SANDF has also deployed 12 military liaison officers, observers and support staff in the UN/AU mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and a smaller group of liaison officers and observers in the Comores. This would make a total of around 2,500 troops out in the region, while effectively double that number needs to be available to allow for rotation.

Over-extended?

Some SA military analysts believe the SANDF can sustain this allocation, while others are less sure. The military is also hard hit by HIV - though official figures have not been released - and it is an ageing force. It seems likely the unofficial UN proviso that peacekeepers not be HIV-positive may be quietly dropped.

One consequence of this extension, say analysts, is that there may be no spare capacity to take on emergencies, such as increased border patrols in the event of meltdown in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile a 'Multinational Military-Strategic Planning Team' had been set up under the leadership of Maj-Gen. Sipho Binda of the SANDF. Col. Alioune Samba, MONUC's chief of staff in the DR Congo, has been appointed interim chairperson for the Joint Ceasefire Commission (JCC) whose job will be demobilisation, disarmament and repatriation of the armed combatants.

This month SA appointed Welile Nhlapo, currently the director-general in the Presidential Support Unit, to represent South Africa in the African Mission in Burundi. The mission is being established in terms of the ceasefire agreements signed last year and is scheduled to exist for an initial period of one year to oversee the peacekeeping operation and the ceasefire. It will also seek to prepare the way for a UN peacekeeping force in Burundi and the establishment of a new military and police force in Burundi.

The head of the African Mission will be appointed by the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi, chaired by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.