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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: Villagers flee as rebel fighters attack splinter group's position

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:35:45 GMT

Friday, October 26, 2007

Fighters of Burundi's last active rebel group have for the second time in one week attacked a position occupied by a break-away faction, forcing villagers to flee their homes, a senior military official said.

The evening raid by combatants of the Front National de Liberation (FNL), led by Agathon Rwasa, took place on 24 October evening on a site where the so-called FNL "dissidents" have gathered in Gakungwe village of Kabezi commune in Bujumbura Rural province.

It forced hundreds of people from surrounding villages to run away as the army sent reinforcements to the area to guard the splinter faction's settlement, residents said.

"There has indeed been such an attack and the heavy exchange of gunfire was heard," deputy army chief of staff Major General Godefroid Niyuhire told IRIN on 25 October. There were, however, no casualties during the attack, he said.

The "dissidents" say they fought with Rwasa for the FNL, but Rwasa's supporters have denied their claims and accused the government of creating a faction within the FNL. Rwasa has said these men, who intend to join the country's peace process, are not even party to a 2006 ceasefire agreement signed between the government and the FNL.

The ceasefire agreement has not been put into effect because Rwasa's FNL has refused to take part in the implementation process, accusing Charles Nqakula - South African security minister and head of the mediation team - of pro-government bias.

On the night of 21 October, seven FNL "dissident" fighters were killed when Rwasa's combatants attacked their position at Gakungwe in Kabezi, according to army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza. Two government soldiers and two of the raiders also died in the attack.

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Assessment to determine whether FNL "dissidents" are genuine

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 09:13:57 GMT

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Mediators in Burundi's peace process are investigating whether members of the country's last active rebel group, who have fallen out with their leader and expressed a willingness to join the process, were genuine combatants with the movement.

“We will not just sit and make an assessment and say that they are FNL combatants without testing," said the head of the mediation team, Charles Nqakula, who is also South Africa’s security minister.

The men say they fought for the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) with Agathon Rwasa, but Rwasa's supporters have dismissed their claims and accused the government of creating a faction within the FNL.

The rebel group signed up to a ceasefire in September 2006 but the peace process remains stalled over their claim that Nqakula’s mediation is compromised by pro-government bias. FNL leaders did not attend the 21 October relaunch of the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism. They had previously expressed doubts that their safety could be guaranteed if they travelled to the capital, Bujumbura.

"The mediation has an obligation to protect the FNL as well as those returning combatants," said Nqakula. "This is stated in the comprehensive ceasefire agreement. We will give all the leaders of the FNL all the security they require to ensure that nothing happens to them."

He said he would meet Rwasa whenever he was ready to participate in the peace process.

While fighting between the FNL and government forces is now rare, internal clashes have become more frequent. On the night of 21 October, seven FNL "dissident" fighters were killed when Rwasa's combatants attacked their position at Gakungwe in the western Kanyosha commune in Bujumbura Rural province, according to army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Adolphe Manirakiza. Two government soldiers and two of the raiders also died in the attack. FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said his group was responsible for the assault.

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Nkurunziza strikes deal to end political stalemate

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:57:43 GMT

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

After many weeks of a political deadlock that saw the Burundian parliament fail to pass any laws, President Pierre Nkurunziza has announced a deal with opposition parties to end the stalemate, a move welcomed by political analysts and observers as positive for the country's peace process.

"Burundi needs to settle this internal political crisis; and we can only welcome Nkurunziza's change of tone since his previous speech in August, which was critical of the opposition," David Mugnier, the central Africa project director of the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on 1 October in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Mugnier was commenting on Nkurunziza's announcement that he had reached an agreement with opposition parties represented in the National Assembly to end the standoff that had paralysed the country's political institutions.

Speaking on national radio and television on 27 September in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, Nkurunziza said the agreement had been reached on power-sharing in the government, to guarantee the right of political parties to meet freely; to fight corruption; and to reinstate opposition members dismissed from the government.

Nkurunziza's announcement follows weeks of consultations with the main opposition parties, the Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU) and the Union pour le progrès national (UPRONA).

However, FRODEBU chairman Leonce Ngendakumana said: “To address cases of corruption and embezzlement and the reform of the security forces will take long but the organisation of political parties or the reinstatement of local leaders dismissed is very easy.”

For about a month, FRODEBU and UPRONA had stopped participating in parliamentary debate, resulting in delays in bills being passed and other parliamentary procedures. They were protesting at not getting the portfolios they are constitutionally entitled to according to their performance in the 2005 general election. Nkurunziza's Conseil national de défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) won the elections.

While seeing Nkurunziza's latest announcement as a positive move, Mugnier cautioned: "Let's wait for the results on the ground," adding, "If Burundi could move beyond this political crisis it could see a revival of the country's peace process."

Internal pressure

However, Jean-Marie Gasana, a senior analyst for Africa at the NGO Forum on Early Warning Response (FEWER), said it was one thing for Nkurunziza to make the promise to resolve the stalemate, "but it is another to see which will be the real centre of decision-making within the ruling party that will get things done".

He said Nkurunziza's deal with the opposition parties was a result of internal political pressure as well as external diplomatic and economic pressure.

Many Burundians are tired of empty promises since CNDD-FDD came to power two years ago, Gasana said, adding that it remained to be seen whether or not the latest deal would have a positive impact on the country's development, "given that everyone [politicians] in Burundi is now playing a card to position themselves for the elections", due in 2010.

Gaspard Nduwayo, a Bujumbura-based political analyst and senior political science lecturer at the University of Burundi, said the inaction by the National Assembly had had "serious" consequences for the nation as "the government was itself paralysed".

He said: "The president could not appoint people to some posts, could not propose [to] the national assembly to debate urgent laws; he simply could not work.”

Instead of agreeing on power sharing, Nduwayo said, the political parties should have agreed on some principles and a programme to boost the nation's economy.

Deal with rebels

Nkurunziza also addressed the issue of the implementation of a peace accord reached in September 2006 between his government and the country's remaining rebel movement, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) of Agathon Rwasa.

“We reassured all those who believe [that] the government has plans to wage a military campaign against the FNL," he said. "Even if FNL combatants have on several occasions attempted to provoke the security forces, they did not fall in the FNL trap.”

But, reacting to Nkurunziza’s call, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said the condition to resume talks with the government was "simple and clear: the appointment of a new mediator”. The FNL has rejected South African security minister Charles Nqakula as mediator, accusing him of bias, and walked out of the talks.

In a report issued on 28 September, the ICG said that for Burundi to move beyond its long civil war and to strengthen democratic institutions and ensure respect for the rule of law, a genuine peace agreement was needed with the FNL, "which is not strong enough to fight a new war but remains a power in most western provinces".

"This requires a new commitment by the government to a negotiated solution, not a military one, and a revived facilitation effort especially by regional states," ICG said. "The country needs a genuine peace agreement to put the conflict behind it, as evidenced by the fact that the rebel delegation’s hasty departure from Bujumbura in July 2007 precipitated widespread fear fighting would resume."

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Calm returns as army warns it may crack down on rebels

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:30:17 GMT

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Residents of Buterere commune near the Burundian capital of Bujumbura have returned to their homes after fleeing clashes between rebel factions that left 20 fighters dead.

An uneasy calm enveloped the commune, with residents saying the fighters had left the area. The Burundian army, however, vowed to crack down on the rebels unless they abandon their current positions.

"Our defence forces did not react quickly to calls to chase the combatants away from the population's neighbourhood," the defence minister, Lt-Gen Germain Niyoyankana, said on 5 September.

Urging the residents of Buterere to alert the armed forces when there were rebels in the area, he added: "They are the ones to suffer most when security is disturbed."

The clashes, which broke out on 3 September, forced hundreds of families to flee their homes as factions of the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) clashed at Mugaruro where one of the FNL wings opposed to leader Agathon Rwasa had retreated into a small forest.

The Buterere administrator, Moise Ndayisenga, said residents and local administrators had been urging the FNL factions to move out of the area, pending their assembly for demobilisation or integration.

A local resident said: "We are happy the combatants have gone."

The defence minister urged the rebel leaders and combatants not to waste time and join other Burundians in building the country. "They should come and share with others what is available and discard the thinking that they can succeed in using weapons," he told reporters. "The army will not allow the formation of rebel strongholds, and will react strongly - with arms if necessary."

He called on the army not to engage in politics. "Officers who take part in political meetings do this on their own and not on behalf of the defence forces," Niyoyankana warned.

Earlier, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana had accused the government of creating a faction in the FNL to force a return of combatants who remained in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the movement returned to Burundi in 2003.

The clashes were the latest sign of tensions within the FNL. Two years ago, a breakaway faction accused Rwasa of gross human-rights violations. More recently, the FNL walked out of a ceasefire monitoring team set up after it signed a truce with the government in September 2006.

The team was to start work in February but it has been delayed by the wrangles. Burundi peace mediator and South African security minister Charles Nqakula has, however, said the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism would be relaunched soon so that the country's peace process could be concluded by the end of the year.

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Peace process must be concluded by year-end - mediator

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:50:02 GMT

Friday, August 31, 2007

The mediator in the Burundian peace process, South Africa's security minister Charles Nqakula, has said a lasting peace accord between the government of Burundi and the rebel group that remains outside the peace process must be concluded by year-end.

"We got instructions from the African Union to complete the mission by the end of this year," Nqakula told IRIN on 29 August after meeting Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza.

The Forces nationales de libération (FNL), led by Agathon Rwasa, is the only active rebel movement in the country, despite signing a ceasefire agreement with the government in September 2006.

On 17 June, Nkurunziza met Rwasa in Tanzania and agreed to reactivate that peace deal and to free FNL members imprisoned in Burundi. Critics say the agreement mainly addressed security issues, but stayed silent on power-sharing arrangements, yet the FNL has indicated it wanted a share of government positions.

Nqakula said FNL's spokesman Pasteur Habimana had expressed to South Africa the movement's willingness to "to go back to the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism that had been discussing ways to implement the ceasefire agreement, but whose activities have been regularly at a standstill".

Nqakula did not set a date for the resumption of talks but a summit of regional leaders will be called soon to boost the peace process.

The FNL is itself split into factions between those who want to continuing fighting and those who want peace.

A group of more than 30 FNL combatants in favour of war is entrenched in a forest in Buterere commune, north of Bujumbura. The local authority in Buterere has expressed disquiet over their presence, saying they were likely to attack the local population when they came out of their hideouts in search of food.

Asked to comment on the split in the FNL, Nqakula said: "We do not enter into issues in any of the parties but our instruction is to speed up negotiations with the people we have to."

Cases of banditry and killings are on the rise in various parts of Burundi, particularly in such areas as Bujumbura Rural, Bubanza and Bururi, where FNL combatants have a presence.

"FNL combatants can also be involved in robbery but there are armed bandits who say they are FNL fighters when they are not," said Nkurunziza after his meeting with Nqakula.

Nkurunziza did not comment on the internal divisions among the FNL combatants. He, however, said the government was only interested in "any group that is in favour of boosting peace". He hailed the willingness of FNL leaders to rejoin the peace process.

The government was ready to go ahead with the peace process and implement the ceasefire accord, the president said.

Nkurunziza, himself a former rebel leader, won the presidential elections in 2005, signalling an official end to the country's 13-year civil war in which at least 300,000 people died and hundreds of thousands more were displaced.

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Regina Nzokirantevye, "I have been displaced most of my life"

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:01:13 GMT

Monday, July 02, 2007

CIBITOKE -

Regina Nzokirantevye, 70, left her home in Burundi’s northern province of Ngozi in 1972 when civil war broke out and only returned to the country in 2005, spending more than three decades as a refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Since her return, she has been living in camps for returnees and the internally displaced:

"I am growing old, yet I am all alone in this house. When I left my home in 1972 I wasn't even married. I fled to Bukavu [in eastern DRC] where I married a Congolese man and had three children.

"Unfortunately, my husband and all my three children have died; they are all buried in DRC. When I heard that peace was returning to my country I decided to come back home and see if I could trace any of my relatives.

"I have suffered so much all my life; I don't even know where to begin. When I came back, I tried to find my relatives but my search has been futile. You can see that I'm now weak, I don't even have the energy to dig any more.

"All I depend on is this small patch of land outside my house [with a few maize stalks] and begging from the communities living near our camp. I can't even go out and ask to work on their farms because I no longer have the energy.

"All I need now is a little work to sustain myself; at least I can still do most of the domestic chores by myself. Where to get money for food and other needs is my main problem."

Source: IRIN