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"Ensure better protection for Albino children "

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:14:24 GMT

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

United Nations Children's Fund has called for better protection of Albino children in Burundi following murder and mutilation of a six-year-old girl last weekend.

Source: http://www.afrol.com/articles/31737

Albino girl killed for body parts

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:16:01 GMT

Monday, November 17, 2008

A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7733597.stm

BURUNDI: No peace without prosperity – analysts

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:46:53 GMT

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Poverty, selfish political interests and inadequate economic development are the underlying causes of the political crisis gripping Burundi, according to political analysts.

"The whole thing is almost Darwinian: too many people, too little land, an antiquated economy, a runaway demography and no prospects for economic growth," Gerard Prunier, a historian on eastern and central African affairs, told IRIN via e-mail.

Prunier, author of a respected book on Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide (C Hurst, 1998), also derided the "narrow-mindedness, selfishness and self-centredness of the political class".

"In such a situation, massacres have played a role of economic, if not demographic, regulation. The same is true of Rwanda."

Burundi’s Hutu majority and Tutsi minority spent most of the 1990s on opposite sides of a devastating civil war when large numbers of civilians were massacred.

Although the conflict is now officially over, the process of bringing in Burundi’s last rebel group, Palipehutu-Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) is deadlocked.

A crackdown on the opposition also bodes ill for Burundi’s prospects of imminent political stability.

"The Tutsi-Hutu conundrum is only the surface of the deeper economic limitations," Prunier told IRIN. "The real problem is poverty … The only thing that matters is power … outside of government there is absolutely nothing in Burundi you can make money out of … Out of power, you do not eat."

Frederic Ngoga Gateretse, a regional security analyst and member of the opposition National Union for Progress (UPRONA) party, accused the government of putting all its energy into winning elections due in 2010 “at all costs".

"For the alternative will be disastrous to the current leadership, which has a lot to answer for in terms of corruption, mismanagement of public funds, human rights violations and the scrapping of political freedom," he said, citing the detention of politicians such as Alexis Sinduhije.

"Political opposition is vital for a country that is coming out of a decade-long civil conflict like Burundi," Gateretse said.

All in a name

"It is in the ruling party's interest to reach the elections without the FNL," Gaspard Nduwayo, a political analyst and university lecturer, said. "It [the government] counts on the Hutu electorate and the FNL also knows its strength lies in the name PALIPEHUTU."

It is a name – a contraction of the French for the "party for the liberation of the Hutu people" – that the government insists is prohibited by the constitution because of its ethnic reference and one the FNL refuses to abandon.
Nduwayo said the FNL might deem an association with the mainly Hutu Front for Democracy in Burundi, an opposition party, more advantageous than one with the ruling FDD-CNDD.

For Térence Nahimana, a former member of FNL, the fact that the 2010 elections will essentially be a battle among Hutus, who make up 85 percent of the population, will bode well for Burundi’s fledging democracy.

"Even if the ethnic feeling is still there, people will now ask for more, such as whether or not the candidate has the capacity to pull them out of the misery they are living in," he said.

Sticking points

The FNL has maintained government posts should also be subject to negotiations. After the 6 November meeting with the mediation team, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said the government was only offering them "scraps".

The FNL's integration into the security forces is another major issue. The head of the government's delegation in the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, Brig-Gen Lazare Nduwayo, has said the FNL was demanding more than the government could agree to - the FNL wants the security forces and its combatants merged on a 50-50 ratio.

"It should bring its combatants to get integrated in the army as the accords provide for," Nduwayo said. "In proposing the 50-50 ratio and ignoring the ethnic balance in the army, the FNL simply wants to delay the peace process."

Under the peace accords signed in 2003 between Burundi's transition government and the then rebel CNDD-FDD, the army was to be composed of 50 percent Hutu and 50 percent Tutsi. Integrating FNL combatants and the security forces will therefore break this ethnic balance.

Some analysts believe the two parties are not committed to the negotiations. Joseph Mujiji, a member of the executive secretariat of the human rights group Iteka, said if the regional initiative put pressure on the two parties, they would come up with a solution.

"Put them somewhere, tell them to remain there until they reach a consensus - in five days it will be over," he said.

During his last visit to Burundi, South African minister and chief mediator Charles Nqakula said there would be no extension of the 31 December deadline for the peace process.

IRIN

BURUNDI: One word blocking peace process

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:07:10 GMT

Saturday, November 08, 2008

An attempt by regional mediators to revive the peace process between the government and the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) hit a snag on 6 November after the rebels rejected a name-change proposal.

Officials of the Regional Peace Initiative for Burundi, led by South African safety and security minister Charles Nqakula, were in Bujumbura, the capital, to urge the two parties to speed up the process ahead of a 31 December deadline.

"The mandate [of the mediation process] will not be reviewed; everything that needs to be done has to be done before 31 December; this includes the assembly of FNL combatants in the designated areas so that we can begin the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration [DDR]; essentially, that is the message we came to convey to the two parties,” Nqakula said.

Nqakula, who was accompanied by Uganda's Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa, presented a new plan to revive the stalled peace process to President Pierre Nkurunziza and FNL leader Agathon Rwasa.

However, the FNL immediately rejected a proposal requiring it to drop "Palipehutu", which means “for the Hutu alone", from its name.

Its use in FNL's official name and the registration of the group as a political party led to a stalemate in the talks between the government and the country's remaining rebel group.

"We will not change our name, we signed the [peace] accords as the PALIPEHUTU–FNL, they should accept us as such," Pasteur Habimana, FNL spokesman, said.

By proposing the change of name, Habimana said, the mediator had surrendered his responsibility as the guarantor of the peace accords signed in 2006 between the government and FNL.
Saying that the peace process had taken too long and should be concluded, Nqakula stressed: "There is nothing that has no end, we must come to the end of the road in terms of ensuring that all the building blocks for durable peace in Burundi are in place."

FNL posts

At a press conference on 6 November, Nkurunziza's spokesman, Léonidas Hatungimana, said the government was satisfied with the regional initiative's formula to get the peace process back on track.

The regional initiative recommends that the government integrate FNL members into its institutions, in accordance with the constitution.

"A list of places available for PALIPEHUTU–FNL is ready and has been communicated to Agathon Rwasa," Hatungimana said.

However, FNL rejected the offer, saying it was not up to the government to propose posts. "The government proposes [to give] us just scraps; we should sit together and negotiate,” Habimana told reporters.

According to Burundi's constitution, FNL will only get posts that do not require elections, such as provincial governors or posts in public administrations. It cannot get seats in the National Assembly or Senate.

DDR process

FNL said it was ready to have its combatants in assembly areas, but criticised the poor living conditions at the assembly points.

So far, only 2,000 FNL combatants are assembled at Rugazi in the northwest province of Bubanza. The FNL claims it has at least 21,000 combatants waiting to join assembly areas.

The head of the government’s delegates to the joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, Brig-Gen Lazare Nduwayo, said preparation for another cantonment site in Bubanza province to host about 8,000 FNL combatants had been delayed but the site would be ready soon.

IRIN

BURUNDI: State cracks down on opposition

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:26:52 GMT

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

The arrest and detention of Burundian journalist and opposition leader Alexis Sinduhije and a stalemate in the peace process between the ruling party and the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) signal a possible return to instability, rights activists have warned.

"It looks like the ruling party is calling in the power of the state to silence the voices of dissent,” Alison des Forges, senior Africa adviser for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on 5 November.

Sinduhije, leader of the Movement for Security and Democracy (MSD) and founder of Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), and at least 30 other party members were arrested on 4 November for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government, holding illegal MSD meetings and sending Tutsi youth to join rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where a civil war is raging.

Sinduhije denied the allegations. Speaking from his police cell, he told IRIN on 5 November: "The real reason behind my arrest is that they want to get me out of the [2010] presidential race. The claim that I am threatening state security is false. I have no army, I have no militia group; I only want to bring new political ideas to the country and they [the government] are not used to this."

No formal charges have been laid against Sinduhije.

"According to Burundian law, they can hold me here [in detention] for 14 days; after that they will have to take me to prison and it could take months before I am charged in court," Sinduhije said. "I spent about two hours today [5 November] being interrogated by the police; I explained to them that I have nothing to hide; I only want to contribute, politically, to nation-building."

Des Forges said: "Using the police to limit dissent and to discourage peaceful political activity violates the rights of Burundians and weakens the rule of law."

Officials should promptly release Sinduhije and others arbitrarily detained and permit Burundians the full exercise of their civil and political rights, she added.

HRW said Sinduhije's detention highlighted the growing obstacles to the free exercise of civil and political rights in the country, adding that the detentions follow "extensive harassment" of leaders of several parties opposed to the ruling Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie-Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD).
Sinduhije's MSD party is not yet registered for political activities. The police spokesman, Pierre Chanel Ntarabaganyi, told HRW the MSD party was illegal and that "therefore the search and subsequent detentions were justified".

A ministerial ordinance issued in October requires political parties to obtain official authorisation for meetings rather than simply informing officials of their intent to meet, as previously.

HRW said Burundi's Interior Minister Venant Kamana had declined to register MSD, claiming that a party cannot include "security" among its goals as security was the exclusive province of the state.

According to HRW, other parties have also faced harassment.

"Since late September 2008, police have arrested at least 25 members of UPD-Zigamibanga, a party opposed to the CNDD-FDD," the agency said. "Most were arrested in Ngozi province on charges of participating in an unauthorised meeting and released after paying a fine, but two others were detained in Kayanza province on charges of insulting President Pierre Nkurunziza after they criticised his education policy during a private conversation."

Burundi has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Sinduhije said: "President Nkurunziza should understand that I am not his enemy; fighting in politics involves the competition of ideas, not brutality against citizens using state funds and resources."

Meanwhile, the peace process with the FNL is deadlocked over the group’s determination to keep the word “Palipehutu” as part of its full name, an ethnic reference prohibited by the constitution, and over its demands for a greater role in national decision-making.

According to Henri Boshoff of the Institute for Security Studies, these issues “militate against the speedy gathering-in of rebels in the assembly areas and the finalisation of the disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration programme”.

Regional mediators are due to travel to Burundi this week in an attempt to break the impasse.

IRIN

BURUNDI: Fighting for land

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:42:20 GMT

Monday, October 06, 2008

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

BURUNDI: Land remains key challenge in reintegration of returnees

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:11:14 GMT

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

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

BURUNDI: Government questions lack of weapons as FNL fighters assemble

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:05:19 GMT

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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

BURUNDI: Human rights record "shows no improvement"

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:20:10 GMT

Friday, July 25, 2008

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

IMF Approves US$75.6 Million PRGF Arrangement for Burundi

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:00:42 GMT

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

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