Burundi President to Negotiate With Rebels

Burundi’s military leader agreed to negotiate a cease-fire in the country’s seven-year civil war, apparently bending to outside pressure to talk to Hutu rebels. President Pierre Buyoya, a retired Tutsi army major who seized power in 1996, said at the latest round of peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, that “we will do all we can” to reach a settlement. Former South African President Nelson Mandela, chairman of the talks, was expected to set a date and venue for the first contact between Buyoya’s government and two Hutu rebel groups. Buyoya and other regional heads of state met in Arusha at Mandela’s behest.