DATE=9/30/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CQ BURUNDI / PEACEKEEPING (S-O)

NUMBER=2-308061

BYLINE=CATHY MAJTENYI

DATELINE=NAIROBI

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: Ethiopian soldiers are arriving in Burundi as part of a multi-national peacekeeping mission. Cathy Majtenyi reports from V-O-A's East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.

TEXT: More than 200 Ethiopian soldiers are to arrive this week in Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. Last Saturday, 226 Ethiopian soldiers were deployed in the country.

According to media reports, around 900 soldiers are expected to be deployed in Burundi by the end of this week.

They are joining around 16-hundred troops from South Africa and more than 200 troops from Mozambique as part of the African Union's African Mission in Burundi. Altogether, the mission is expected to total more than 25-hundred troops.

The mission's mandate is to help disarm, demobilize, and integrate Burundi's ex-rebels into new defense and security forces, as outlined in an earlier agreement between the government and three rebel groups.

But analysts say the mission will face major challenges. For instance, peace talks between the Burundi government and the country's main rebel group, a faction of the Forces for the Defense of Democracy fell through several-weeks ago. (SIGNED)

NEB/CM/MAR/RH/RAE