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ARUSHA, Tanzania, Aug 5 (AFP) - East African leaders have urged the Rwandan government and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) vigorously to pursue and to implement all provisions of a peace agreement they signed here late Wednesday to end nearly three years of a bloody civil war.
In the declaration, issued here Thursday after a meeting between Presidents Ali Hassan Mwinyi of Tanzania, Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi, the four also appealed to Rwandans and political groups in the country "to pursue their commendable efforts aimed at achieving peace, national unity and reconciliation, so as to consolidate democracy in their war-torn nation".
The declaration congratulated President Habyarimana's party and the RPF for their statesmanship and patriotism which contributed to the successful conclusion of the tortuous one-year peace negotiations.
The four also called on the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to redouble their efforts in finalising a Plan of Action for Rwandan refugees and called for a Donors Conference to help finance repatriation of the refugees and resettlement of the displaced.
The four presidents also called on U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to take immediate steps to establish a neutral international force for the purpose of implementing the Rwandan peace accord.
They urged the African group at the U.N. to follow up the matter and report to OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim on the issue of the neutral U.N. force.
In the meantime, they also called on the OAU secretary-general to expand the current Neutral Military Observer Group (NMOG) until an international force had been established and taken over smoothly.
In this regard, the four also appealed to donor countries, notably Belgium, France, Germany and the United States to extend necessary financial and logistical support to the OAU to enable NMOG to fulfil its mandate.
hb/lto/bm AFP AFP SEQN-0248
