BUJUMBURA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - A ceasefire monitoring team combining members of Burundi's government and its last Hutu rebels began work on Monday, stirring hopes of lasting peace in the tiny central African country after years of civil war. The Forces for National Liberation (FNL) guerrillas agreed a truce with the government in September, but then refused to join the planned monitoring team, instead demanding immunity for its fighters and insisting others be freed from jail. "Today is the beginning of a new process in the search of lasting peace in Burundi," South African mediator Charles Nqakula, who brokered September's deal, told reporters. The head of FNL members on the team, Jean Berchimans Ndayishimiye, said his side was committed to the truce. "It is no longer time for speeches. We FNL delegates...are determined to implement the ceasefire agreement," he said. The monitoring team, which includes officials from the United Nations and African Union, will decide areas where FNL combatants are to gather before being disarmed and integrated into the country's security services. The FNL is the last holdout from more than a decade of civil war that killed some 300,000 people. Its persistent insurgency was seen as a final barrier to stability in a nation of 7 million people who have suffered years of ethnic violence.
