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 BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) - A former Hutu rebel leader was chosen by lawmakers as Burundi's president Friday, culminating an internationally mediated effort that hopes to bring peace to a central African nation wrecked by a dozen years of ethnic war.
Pierre Nkurunziza, the 40-year-old son of a Hutu father and a Tutsi mother, appealed for support from all Burundians to meet the challenges of healing ethnic divisions and rebuilding the shattered economy as he tries to get the last Hutu rebels to lay down their arms.
"I am like a small ant on the back of a big elephant. When the elephant does something, the ant rejoices as if the ant himself has done it," he said.
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