Thousands of Burundians have returned home after years of refugee life in Tanzania, but finding shelter and enough land to farm remains a challenge.

"Fifteen percent of long-term returnees repatriated this year are landless," said Léon Ndikunkiko, spokesman for the Ministry of National Solidarity, National Reconstruction, Human Rights and Gender.

In mid-August, some 1,200 returnees were stranded in Makamba Province, waiting to be resettled. By October, only 200 had been resettled in Gitara by the government, while the others were still waiting in temporary sites, according to Ndikunkiko.

About 450,000 Burundians have been repatriated from Tanzania with the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), since 2002. This year, the numbers increased after the Tanzanian government decided to close the camps by December.

By mid-September, some 75,000 had returned to Burundi, including 17,392 long-term refugees. While some had been away since 1972, others had never seen their homeland, having been born in exile or left as children.

Many, however, have come back to find their houses destroyed or occupied by other people.

"Local administration officials have been instructed to allocate [returnees] a 50m x 50m space to build a house regardless of the availability of his [or her] land," Ndikunkiko. "However, this is not always the case since those who stayed on the land sometimes refuse."

Finding land to resettle the returnees is a big concern for the government. "The Ministry of Land Management has to identify the land and puts it at the disposal of the Ministry of National Solidarity," he explained. "It is a long process which takes time and this delays the resettlement of returnees."

A survey conducted by the National Land Commission in December to identify available land or land belonging to the state in the hands of individuals, found that just 4,500 people, mostly returnees, had been resettled.

In situations where they have somewhere to go, the returnees are being offered building materials - although there are often delays depending on the period of repatriation. For example, returnees arriving in October have to wait until June to benefit from the shelter project.

As they wait, the returnees rely on relatives. Others are supported by UNHCR, which constructs temporary shelters for them.

Land disputes

While efforts are being made to address the problem of shelter, land remains a crucial challenge. "Even those who have their land are not resettled immediately," Ndikunkiko said. Land, he added, had become too scarce to accommodate Burundi's increasing population.

Frequent land disputes were now the reason for crime. Local radio stations reported on 23 August that a man blasted a grenade at a wedding ceremony, killing 15 people and injuring more than 60.

On 29 September, a grenade was thrown through a window of a house in the northern Ngozi Province, killing a man and his wife, leaving a baby. Preliminary investigations blamed land disputes.
Michel Nintije, a sociologist who was part of a team that conducted a study on land tenure and alternative solutions in September, has suggested that Burundi prepare a nationwide programme of sensitisation on the land issue.

Nestor Niyonkuru, information officer at the national commission on land and other properties (CNTB), said many of the disputes involved returnees and current occupants of the land.

CNTB was set up in 2006 to assist returnees and other landless people recover their land or other lost properties. As at 4 October, it had registered 11,200 land disputes and solved 2,279.

The government, in an attempt to cater for landless returnees, internally displaced persons and other vulnerable people, has also embarked on building villages in some provinces, each housing 250 families.

However, much more needs to be done. According to UNHCR, 80 percent of returnees have no access to land. Worse still, most of them come from the provinces of Makamba, Rutana and Bururi where pressure on land is high.

For its part, the government pleads inadequate resources for full resettlement and reintegration of the returnees.

"If you resettle the returnees and they have no water, no health-centre nearby, it is not viable," Ndikunkiko said.

IRIN 

Although he looks frail, Cossan Ntabwigwa, in his late 60s, is a determined man. He recently returned from Tanzania, where he had been a refugee since 1972, and is seeking to resettle on a piece of land he left years ago.

Despite finding someone else occupying the land, Ntabwigwa is determined to reclaim it, and he says sharing it with the current occupant is out of the question.

"I left two other brothers there [in Tanzania] who are married and with children and who must also get a share of this land," he said.

When he repatriated from Gatumba settlement in Tanzania at the beginning of August, Ntabwigwa, who heads a 10-member family, spent three days at the commune headquarters in Nyanzalac, Makamba province, waiting to go home.

Like most Burundians, Ntabwigwa's strong attachment to land means he is unwilling to share his piece of land with the current occupant, whom he considers an outsider since he is not a family member.

Also in Nyanzalac, Alexis Anthony Kifumu, his wife and six children, have been squatting at an elementary school for two weeks. He returned to Burundi to find part of his land occupied by the school while a businessman had used another portion to put up a pub and a shop.

Local administrative officials advised Kifumu to use the remaining 30 metres to build himself a house.

"I have started making bricks, I think it will take me 14 days to get them ready and if I build a house, I will try to work and live as best as I can while waiting for my case to be settled," he said.

Sharing land

Although Kifumu calmly accepted the situation, in line with his Christian faith, he seemed disillusioned.

"I am surprised to find that I am not even authorised to use a classroom while waiting to build my house; when there is a disaster, people seek shelter in schools yet they have no pity for us," Kifumu said.
In March, the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, launched a repatriation operation for up to 46,000 "old caseload" refugees from the Tanzanian old settlements of Katumba, Mishamo and Ulyankulu.

According to a UNHCR factsheet for July, 11,020 of the returnees in 2008, estimated at 59,877, are refugees from the 1972 caseload.

While returnees who fled the country in 1993 find it slightly easier to resettle, the case is not the same for the 1972 caseload, as exemplified by the cases of Ntabwigwa and Kifumu, for whom disputes over land ownership can at times take long to resolve.

Indeed, the complex problem of land remains a major challenge to the reintegration of returnees. Not only do many, if not all returnees have a land-dispute related story to tell, but land has become a scarce commodity.

Bernard Ntagumuka, an advisor of the administrator at the commune of Nyanzalac, said the number of returnees who have resettled was insignificant compared to the number of returnees who find their land occupied by others, "either legally or illegally".

"Others [returnees] find that the government used them [their land] for social infrastructure; take the urban centre of Nyanzalac for instance, it was built on people's land," Ntagumuka said.

Ownership hitches

In other instances, returnees find their land has been resold and divided to the extent that reclaiming it becomes difficult since it has passed from one owner to another. In some cases, refugees returned home, sold their land and went back to Tanzania.

When civil war broke out in Burundi 1972, thousands of Burundians fled to neighbouring countries, leaving their property behind and their lands vacant. In many regions of Burundi, especially the southern provinces of Bururi and Makamba, the then government encouraged people from other regions to occupy the land.

Nestor Niyonkuru, an information officer for the Commission on Land and Other Properties, said: "Logic would dictate that the new occupant vacates the land and return it to the owner, but it is not as simple as it seems.

"Some were given title deeds to the land, others have exploited it for more than 30 years and under Burundian law, this entitles them to the land; others have lived on the land for generations and simply have nowhere to go."

Complicity by past governments

With the increasing number of returnees, land disputes have increased sharply. In the past, the different governments that have controlled the country did not settle the land issue comprehensively, sometimes even complicating the situation. Some government and army officials were allocated title deeds for houses and land left by those who fled the civil war, especially in the southern regions, which are rich in oil-bearing palms.

William Hamenyimana, who fled Burundi in 1972, returned in the 1980s to find his land in Rumonge, Bururi province, occupied.

"My land was given to a senior army officer, when I returned home, I was forced out; I had left a whole plantation of palm oil but I accepted [not to claim it] just to save my life and was given another piece of land in Nyanzalac," he said. "Now that the owner of this land is back, they are telling me to share the small piece with him or leave it, if the occupant of my [original] land leaves, then I will leave this one."

Hamenyimana said while they were in Tanzania, they were made to believe that they would reclaim their land.

"Now they come and force us out overnight, that is not the way it should be done," he said.

Such actions build anger in people who were forced out of their land for one reason or another and who now have to share or to be moved once again.

Ntagumuka said local administrative officials handle about 10 cases of land dispute daily but they are often overwhelmed, with no solution at hand.

"We only sensitise them telling them to share land whenever possible but it is not always easy," Ntagumuka said.

According to Niyonkuru, one third of land disputes in the country ere presently registered in the provinces of Bururi and Makamba, the two areas to which most of the 1972 refugees are returning.

However, some of the returnees and those internally displaced prefer to avoid confrontation and simply share the land. Niyonkuru said by June 2008, some 657 cases of land disputes had been settled, and 394 of them did not require the intervention of the land commission, which only endorsed the decisions as the parties signed agreements.

The Burundi government set up the land commission in 2006 to help returnees recover their land and other property lost during the civil war.
The commission was not only intended to lighten the load of law courts overwhelmed by land disputes but to also simplify the procedures and spare the returnees the delays and costs.

However, the commission does not have the power of a court and only mediates between the parties. If it fails, the parties still have to go to court.

Since its creation, the commission has registered 10,541 cases, but only 657 had been settled as at June 2008, prompting criticism from human rights activists.

"If the land issue is not dealt with adequately, it can be the source of potential violence," Joseph Ndayizeye, the deputy chairman of the Human Rights League in the Great Lakes Region, said at a press conference in August.

Ndayizeye proposed the creation of a specialised court to deal with land disputes, saying it seems the commission's competence was limited.

A survey conducted by the commission in December 2007 found more than 34,000 hectares of land belonging to the state in the hands of individuals who appropriated or received the land from local chiefs illegally.

Human rights activists say if such land was to revert to state ownership, then perhaps the landless, including returnees, could be resettled.

IRIN 

Several thousand combatants of the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) have assembled at Rugazi in northwestern Bubanza Province but only a few weapons have been handed in, according to observers.

FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said 2,450 fighters were in Rugazi and that number would rise to 3,000 as more came in from pre-assembly areas in Bujumbura Rurale.

The rebels were required to surrender their weapons to an African Union protection unit, but only 40 weapons had been handed in, according to government spokeswoman Hafsa Mossi.

That number of weapons, she added, was very small considering the number of combatants supposed to have them. This had prompted the government to question where other arms were being kept.

In a statement issued on 25 July the government said: "All the combatants still holding weapons are considered criminals." It also criticised the FNL for failing to forward the list of its combatants to the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism (JVMM), saying this was evidence the movement was still recruiting fighters in order to meet the number of 21,100 men it says it has.

"That is evidence that it [the FNL] has a hidden agenda," the statement added, noting that this violated the peace accord. The group is Burundi's last armed rebel movement.

The move to assemble fighters was welcomed by the chairman of the political directorate, Ambassador Kingsley Mamabolo. The envoy, who also represents the South African government in the mediation team, said it was an important step in the peace process.

"It opens the way to the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants," he said in a statement. "We expect other FNL combatants to join the assembly areas in the coming days, which will be a confirmation that the peace process is really back on track."

The government representative in the mediation process, General Evariste Ndayishimiye, described it as a sign "that can contribute to get things moving forward".
Poor conditions

In Rugazi, residents said it would mark an end to harassment by FNL combatants searching for food. "If they are given food, we can attend to our daily activities without fear," a resident of Rugazi, who requested anonymity, told IRIN.

FNL combatants have regularly been accused of looting households or fields for supplies. Only combatants in assembly areas are provided with food and until 28 July, the Rugazi site was only hosting 155 combatants.

Habimana deplored the poor living conditions of combatants in the site, saying they did not have enough food, mattresses or medicine. This issue, he added, needed to be discussed in the JVMM, the body overseeing the implementation of the peace accord.

The FNL had suspended the regrouping of its combatants on 7 July, demanding recognition as a political party. However, the government objected to the legalisation of the movement unless the regrouping of combatants was realised.

It accused the group of recruiting new combatants and delaying the peace process by insisting on political recognition before cantonment. However, FNL leader Agaton Rwasa denied recruiting new combatants.

Rwasa returned to Burundi on 30 May after years of exile in Tanzania and has since denounced rebellion. Before his return, he signed an agreement with the government, committing his group to end rebellion.

The FNL last attacked Bujumbura's suburbs in May, leaving 33 people dead and at least 20,000 displaced. Observers have hailed the fact that the guns have remained silent since Rwasa's return, saying it could signal the end of conflict.

IRIN

At least 400 people were killed in the first quarter of 2008, which indicates that Burundi's human rights record has failed to improve this year, according to Iteka, a rights group.

All the country's provinces were affected by violence, particularly Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza and Cibitoke, where the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) have been active, Iteka stated in its report for 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.

Addressing a news conference on 21 July, Iteka chairman David Nahimana said the "killing is mainly blamed on the armed banditry, which claimed 223 victims”.

However, Nahimana said: “The police and the army also account for 31 and 48 cases respectively, while FNL is blamed for 47 cases.”

On 22 July, Lt-Col Adolphe Manirakiza, the army spokesman, rejected Iteka's allegations, saying the army was not killing civilians.

"The author of the report is the only one responsible for its content,” Manirakiza said. "Whenever a soldier is held responsible for a killing, whether by indiscipline or misconduct, he is seriously sanctioned before the military jurisdictions."

Iteka also deplored the fact that sexual violence remained rampant. The group registered some 455 women and girl victims of rape, the majority younger than 12.

According to Nahimana, sexual violence was on the increase because perpetrators were not punished sufficiently. He added that victims' fear of reporting rape crimes and lack of support from the community were contributing factors.

Among other recommendations, Iteka urged the government to speed up the disarmament of the civilian populations and establish protective measures for vulnerable groups and to enact severe punishment for sexual crimes.

IRIN 

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved a three-year SDR 46.2 million (about US$75.6 million) arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) for Burundi, to support the implementation of the country's poverty reduction program and its efforts to consolidate macroeconomic stability. It takes into account the financial impact of rising world food and oil prices in 2008.
The Executive Board's approval enables Burundi to draw an amount equivalent to SDR 6.6 million (about US$10.8 million) under the PRGF arrangement.

Following the Executive Board's discussion, Mr. Murilo Portugal, Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:
"The Burundian authorities are to be commended for the progress they have made in implementing Burundi's first PRGF-supported program in a difficult post-conflict environment. Though structural reforms have been slow, most monetary and fiscal reforms have progressed well. However, despite the progress made, poverty remains widespread, and the challenges for Burundi in meeting the MDGs continue to be significant.
"The new three-year PRGF-supported program, anchored in Burundi's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, is designed to reduce inflation to single digits; ensure fiscal sustainability in the face of heavy debt; improve the composition of spending; strengthen public financial management and enhance governance; and accelerate structural reforms to stimulate growth and reduce poverty.

"The authorities' fiscal program for 2008 targets a substantial increase in capital spending, while accommodating additional spending to boost agricultural output and help alleviate the impact of increasing food and fuel prices on the poor.
"The success of the authorities' PRGF-supported program will depend, in part, on strong and coordinated assistance from the international community. Accelerating structural reforms, most notably on governance issues, will also be critical," Mr. Portugal said.

The approved PRGF arrangement for Burundi succeeds an arrangement that expired earlier this year. The PRGF is the IMF's concessional facility for low-income countries. PRGF loans carry an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent and are repayable over 10 years with a 5½-year grace period on principal payments.

ANNEX

Recent Economic Developments
Economic growth decelerated in 2007, while inflation increased, mostly driven by rising food and energy prices. Higher grants disbursement from international donors contributed to an improved fiscal position and helped build international reserves.
After an upturn in 2006, real GDP growth decelerated from 5 percent to 3.6 percent in 2007, mainly because of a poor coffee harvest. End-period inflation increased to 14.7 percent, from 9.3 percent in 2006, owing to higher international commodity prices and exchange rate depreciation. In the first four months of 2008, domestic prices of fuel and basic staples rose on average by 23 percent, pushing the overall inflation rate to 11.7 percent during the same period. Excluding food and oil, the inflation rate would be about 3.5 percent.
The overall fiscal position improved in 2007. The overall fiscal balance (on a commitment basis and after grants) shifted to a surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP from a deficit of 1.8 percent in 2006. Social spending was estimated to have increased from 8.7 percent of GDP in 2006 to 9.2 percent in 2007. The authorities have implemented a number of measures with a view to ensuring fiscal discipline and improving transparency in public finances.

Program Summary
The purpose of the new PRGF arrangement will be to consolidate macroeconomic stability, further reduce the heavy debt burden, and help the government of Burundi pursue implementation of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. It will also support the government's efforts to obtain debt relief under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).

The main objectives of the new three-year PRGF program will therefore be to:
• Return to single-digit inflation. An independent central bank with price stability as its principal mission will be essential for this purpose. Better budget and monetary policy coordination will also be essential, especially during this period of increasing inflationary pressures.
• Improve the composition of public spending to the benefit of the priority sectors, while preserving fiscal sustainability. To that end, the wage bill will have to be controlled. It will also be important to rely mainly on grants and highly concessional loans to avoid unsustainable debt.
• Strengthen public financial management (PFM). The program will seek to stabilize the existing PFM system, with particular attention to two ongoing initiatives: (1) the passing and gradual implementation of the new budget organic law; and (2) consolidation of a single Treasury account and an effective cash flow management plan; and
• Strengthen the internal control systems of the central bank. Emphasis will be placed on parliamentary passing of the draft central bank law and on the implementation of a number of financial safeguard measures to strengthen internal controls and risk management systems.
Provided that the public security situation continues to improve, the macroeconomic objectives are as follows for the period of the PRGF program: (1) GDP growth should average 5 percent over the medium term, up from the average of 3.6 percent in 2004-07; and (2) inflation would slow to about 6 percent by 2011.

The projected growth pattern, which resembles those observed in other post-conflict countries, is predicated on three factors: (1) continued removal of major economic distortions, especially in the coffee sector, which will boost total factor productivity; (2) a substantial increase in investment, driven by international aid and largely consisting of infrastructure renovation, which will help relieve major supply bottlenecks; and (3) further advances in trade liberalization with accession to the East African Community, which will help diversify the economy, stimulate competition, and attract more investment.

The International Monetary Fund 

Hundreds of Burundian soldiers scheduled for demobilisation under a donor-recommended programme have refused to complete the process until various financial and selection concerns are answered.

"We cannot go to demobilisation sites before we get an explanation on how our selection was carried out," one of the soldiers, who requested anonymity, told IRIN on 1 April.

The army is in the process of scaling down to 25,000 soldiers by the end of 2008 as part of a series of conditions imposed by development partners for writing off the country's US$1.5 billion foreign debt.

A total of 916 soldiers had been put on a list of those to be demobilised; including 739 privates, 169 non-commissioned officers and 18 officers.

About half of these were due to be taken from a military camp near the capital to a demobilisation centre in the central Gitega province, but refused to board trucks.

Some of the reluctant soldiers said they would end their protest as soon as they received their demobilisation allowance (the equivalent of US$600) and due salary payments, and if they were taken directly home, rather than going to the demobilisation centre.

"We need the entire package now because we have no confidence we will get it later on," one of the soldiers, who also requested anonymity, said. "We can't get our money if it is not given to us now; others who were demobilised earlier have not yet collected their package to date despite organising demonstrations to highlight their case."

They also raised concerns over whether the legal 50-50 ethnic quota in the make-up of the Burundian army had been respected in the process of demobilisation.

"We need to see posted, the list showing ethnic balance, to be persuaded there was transparency," one soldier said. “Those who prepared the lists should come and explain everything to us; until now no one has come to listen to our concerns since the lists were displayed."

Some 200 soldiers who voluntarily went to the Gitega demobilisation site on 31 March expressed their support for those who remained in Bujumbura. They said they would not agree to eight days of training aimed at preparing them for civilian life.

In an attempt to resolve the row, First Vice-President Yves Sahinguvu and Defence Minister Lt-Gen Germain Niyoyankana met senior military officers on 1 April.

He said those with genuine grievances should lodge complaints with the authorities.

Banguabo Mosozi, 68, was a young man when he fled neighbouring Burundi to Tanzania, escaping violence that is estimated to have killed at least 200,000 people. That was in 1972.

Now, a father of 14 with four wives, Mosozi is one of the 218,000 Burundian refugees living in three settlements in the western Tanzanian regions of Tabora and Rukwa.

Like his fellow refugees, he faces the prospect of staying in Tanzania or returning home because the settlements - Ulyankulu, Katumba and Nishamo - are being closed down by Tanzanian and Burundi authorities, in collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

"In Burundi you will participate in the unfolding peaceful and democratic process, as well as take part in the reconstruction of the country," UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres told the refugees at Ulyankulu on 8 March.

The day Guterres visited, with Khamis Kagasheki, Tanzania’s deputy home affairs minister, a registration exercise began in which the refugees would choose between going back to Burundi or applying for Tanzanian citizenship.

"For those who now feel that you are now more Tanzanian and pleased to remain, the government has generously offered to consider your application for citizenship in accordance to the country’s laws," Guterres said.

Some 20 percent of the refugees, according to UNHCR, expressed their wish during a 2007 population registration to return to Burundi. Another 172,000 indicated their wish to remain in Tanzania.

"No one should hold refugee status permanently," Kagasheki said at a send-off ceremony, where a train carrying the first 255 refugees returning to Burundi was flagged off a railway station at Katumba.

"To be a refugee is a temporary status and there must be justifications for such a situation," the minister added.

Choices

At the camps, many refugees, especially those younger than 40, seemed reluctant to return to Burundi, saying they arrived in Tanzania as toddlers and have no idea of the reality back home.

"I am so used to this place," Absalom Frederick, 40, a father of six, told IRIN. "Many times I have heard of horrible stories about what made us flee Burundi. I will remain here for the rest of my life. I am very comfortable."

Banyutilieko Anania, 64, said as much as he loved his home country, he was reluctant to leave. "There are reports that in some parts of the country killings are going on. I may not go," Anania, a father of 14, said.

In January, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete reiterated his government’s resolve to close down all refugee camps, saying there was need for a durable solution to the old settlements.

Tanzania also hosts 110,000 Burundian refugees and 96,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in UNHCR-managed camps in Kigoma and Kagera regions.

More than 350,000 others have returned since the start of the repatriation programme from northwestern Tanzania to Burundi in March 2002, according to UNHCR.

Land issues

The refugees raised the issue of land and women’s rights with Guterres, whose visit coincided with International Women’s Day on 8 March.

"Our appeal to governments of Burundi and Tanzania is that women must have access to land, education and healthcare facilities," one of the messages read. "This should be the case for those returning to Burundi and those opting to take up Tanzanian citizenship."

John Magufuli, former Tanzanian land minister, told IRIN the country's laws prevented a foreigner from occupying land. Only through naturalisation could one expect the right of occupancy.

Kagasheki said those who would apply for Tanzanian citizenship through naturalisation should not expect to continue living in the settlements. "They will relocate to other parts of the country," he said.

In a meeting on 10 March with donors in the commercial capital of Dar es Salam, Guterres renewed an appeal to the international community to support the resettlement programme.

"Tanzania has assured the protection of refugees on behalf of the international community," he told a news conference. "It is now time for the rest of the world to show solidarity with Tanzania, especially in the phase of final integration in the country."

The programme will rely heavily on support from donors and on 21 February, UNHCR launched an appeal for US$34.29 million. So far, pledges totalling almost $9 million have been received.

Guterres hailed the so-called "1972 refugees", saying they were not a heavy burden on the agency and the host country because they were able to feed themselves and sell their surplus produce in markets near their settlements.

"During my visit, most of the land reserved for the settlement was intensively cultivated and different crops were doing well. It was all green," he said.