Burundi, 1999

Allow me first of all to associate myself with previous

speakers in expressing to you, Sir, and to the members of

the Bureau, my delegation's warm congratulations on your

election to lead us in the General Assembly at this

session. You can count on our total support for the

accomplishment of your difficult task.

I would also like to express my appreciation to your

predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, for the skill and

competence he exhibited during his mandate.

I would also like to take this opportunity to

congratulate the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of

Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga on having joined the

great family of the United Nations.

Finally, allow me to pay tribute to the work of Mr.

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of our Organization,

for his ceaseless efforts in favour of international peace

and security. My country, Burundi, fully appreciates his

valuable contribution to the search for a negotiated

political solution to the crisis it has suffered since October

1993.

As the work of the current session of the General

Assembly is taking place, my country is striving to turn

a new page in its history. Burundis have decidedly chosen

dialogue and negotiation to put an end to the armed

conflict that has lasted for almost six years. The Arusha

peace talks that began in June 1998 under the aegis of the

former President of the sisterly country of Tanzania,

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, are being actively pursued and

are now at a crucial stage.

The sixth round of the Arusha peace talks, which

ended a few days ago, was preceded by fruitful

consultations held in Dar-Es-Salaam among the six

principal negotiators aimed at reaching a compromise

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based on the drafts submitted by the negotiating parties or

groups of parties. These consultations, which represent the

keystone of the peace process, should resume on 4 October.

We hope that this time they will have tangible results that

could serve as a basis for the final Arusha agreement.

Let me briefly recall the specific context in which the

Arusha process was initiated in June 1998: five years of

relentless fratricidal war between the rebels and the

Government, in which the principal victims had been, as

they continue to be, hundreds of thousands of innocent

children, women and elderly people, for the most part

unarmed. More than 30 years of massacres and killings

have torn asunder the very fabric of society and resulted in

entrenched hatred and extreme mistrust among the various

ethnic and political groups. Repeated crises have resulted in

massive flows of refugees and a major diaspora.

Furthermore, economic development plans have been

consistently hamstrung by recurring political instability.

It was in that context that the Government objectively

and deliberately decided to abandon the logic of war and to

choose political dialogue in which all the people of Burundi

could participate without exception, regardless of the

manner — peaceful or armed — in which they previously

had chosen to make their political demands. The armed

groups were a particular focus of this dialogue, and it was

mainly because of them that the negotiations were held

outside the country.

The goal is to reach a comprehensive peace agreement

and ultimately achieve full national reconciliation among

the entire population of Burundi, without exception.

Several obstacles continue to stand in the way of that

lofty goal, which will not be attained if timely efforts are

not made to overcome those challenges.

The first obstacle is the failure of the armed rebel

factions to participate in the negotiations. Differences of

opinion within those movements, where the armed groups

no longer recognize the authority of the political leaders

who are participating in the Arusha negotiations and thus

reject the outcome ahead of time, have resulted in a

situation in which the validity and viability of any peace

agreement reached without those parties would be in doubt.

The Government of Burundi believes that it is

imperative to set aside the formalities advocated by the

mediators and to invite the armed factions to participate

fully in the peace process. The Government of Burundi is

willing to consider any form of negotiation with them,

within or outside the process.

Mediation should take place immediately, because

we are working against the clock in this fragile peace

process, which could be jeopardized or brought to a halt

by events. If, after being invited, the armed factions or

other parties to the negotiations refuse to participate in the

peace process, we would agree with the mediators that

Burundi, in close and steadfast cooperation with its

neighbours, must isolate and neutralize the rebels or other

parties that are unwilling to participate in the negotiations.

The second obstacle is the continuing violence. In

other crisis situations, political dialogue for conflict

settlement is preceded by a ceasefire or a suspension of

hostilities. In the case of Burundi, however, that necessary

condition for negotiation has been neglected since the

beginning, as if it were optional. The Government draws

to the attention of the subregion and of the international

community the serious and continuing acts of violence

committed by the rebels despite the ongoing peace

negotiations. These unrestrained and cowardly acts of

violence, whose main target is unarmed civilians, have no

moral or political justification. No one even claims

responsibility; it is pure terrorism.

If the rebels were eventually to use as a pretext the

fact that they had wished to participate in the

negotiations, it would have no validity because, as I have

just stated, the Government is open to any initiative that

might lead to the cessation of the hostilities, which have

gone on for far too long. The situation is serious, and the

Government of Burundi requests the international and

regional communities to help it in the following ways.

First, through effective cooperation with

neighbouring countries in the area of security, including

with the Republic of Tanzania, with which cooperation

decisions were taken at the ministerial level on two

occasions, in February and August 1999; those decisions

have not been implemented. There is no doubt that if

those decisions were translated into joint action on the

ground, both external and internal rebel activities would

soon cease.

Secondly, it is necessary to disarm and neutralize

those Burundi rebels who are active in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, where they are able to obtain a

ready supply of arms and ammunition for their bases in

Tanzania, as they have not been able to re-establish those

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they lost in South Kivu in 1997 after the first war in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thirdly, the countries of the region must wage a

common struggle against transnational rebel movements,

arms trafficking and genocidal ideology. Those movements

have created alliances without borders. Among the rebels

who operate in Burundi are the Interahamwe, the former

Rwandan armed forces and Ugandan rebels, among others.

The Burundi rebellion has become regional in scope and

must be combated from that perspective. Intensified activity

has been noted on the part of the factions in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo since the Lusaka agreement, which

provided for their disarmament. The conflict is thus being

regionalized, with Burundi and/or Tanzania as its epicentre.

Prevention is better than cure. There is a real risk of

another regional conflagration resulting from the countries

concerned taking measures to protect themselves against

these widespread rebellions. In any case, the Government

will find it difficult to sign the peace agreement if it is not

preceded by an effective halt to the violence on the ground.

The population, parts of which are still being massacred,

would simply reject it.

The third — although not the least significant —

obstacle to the peace process is the extreme poverty that

threatens the people of Burundi with social and economic

annihilation. That poverty is not the result of a reduction in

agricultural production, which has continued somehow

thanks to the hard-working nature of our countryfolk. Nor

is it the result of the embargo imposed by the countries of

the region, since economic and financial cooperation with

those countries was and still is very limited. It results above

all from the freezing of bilateral and multilateral

cooperation by certain partners, countries and financial

institutions in line with the economic sanctions imposed by

the subregion. Those regional sanctions were suspended on

23 January this year, and Burundi expected that, mutatis

mutandis, our international partners would resume their

cooperation in conformity with the subregional action. That

has not yet happened, and some financial institutions, which

anticipate no practical problems, are blocked by their

shareholders at the political level. It is said that we will

have to wait for the signing, or even the implementation, of

the Arusha Agreement.

Peace and national reconciliation in Burundi will not

be restored through revolution. It is a process that will be

consolidated over time. Nothing spectacular will happen the

day the peace agreement is signed. It is progressive reform

activities, taking place as a result of courageous and

determined political will, that will stabilize the country

over the months and years following the signing of the

agreement. All the parties involved in the negotiations

agrees that peace will be not an event, but a process.

Furthermore, the rate at which negotiations proceed will

not be subject to the Government’s control; it will be

linked to the procedures followed by the mediators and to

the willingness of the 17 other parties to the negotiations

to place the national interest above all else, to distinguish

between what is essential and what is of secondary

importance, and to realize that the true road to peace will

begin after the signing of the Arusha Agreement, among

the citizens of Burundi themselves.

The Government of Burundi calls on its partners to

reassess the situation and consider the realities on the

ground as a matter of great urgency. The extreme stress

under which the population has been suffering for six

years is pushing it towards a popular uprising. The

responsibility lies with the international community,

which is committed in this respect. The Government has

provided all it can: proof of its irreversible political will

to negotiate until a peace agreement is reached.

The Great Lakes region has become a real powder

keg because of the persistence of insecurity. With regard

to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi

welcomes the signing in July of the Lusaka Peace

Agreement. We call on all the parties to that conflict to

continue to make efforts to restore a climate of dialogue,

trust and reconciliation, so that energy can be

concentrated on actions aimed at economic recovery and

development.

Burundi is not a belligerent in the war that is pitting

the Democratic Republic of the Congo against some of its

neighbours. The Government of Burundi has already had

the opportunity to explain that fact to the international

community on several occasions in various forums,

including from this lofty rostrum last year; in Lusaka,

where it participated in all the meetings as an observer

and as one of the countries neighbouring the Democratic

Republic of the Congo that were concerned about the

security of their common border; and in meetings of the

Organization of African Unity.

Listening to the statement made in this Assembly by

the Chairman of the delegation of the Democratic

Republic of the Congo on 29 September, I was astonished

by his confusion and the degree of malice he expressed

towards my country, Burundi. I should like to respond by

making several comments.

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First, Burundi is not at war with the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, either individually or in alliance

with any other party.

Second, Burundi has no reason to be at war with the

Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is true that it is poor

and that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is rich. But

Burundi has never wanted, does not want, and will never

want to live off the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It

will develop a policy of normal cooperation with that

country, as has always been the case, in particular within

the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries.

Furthermore, the trading arrangements that exist between

the border towns and border provinces do not cause

Burundi any problems and should continue.

Third, Burundi has no political ambitions in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, at either the central or

the provincial level.

Fourth, Burundi had just signed an agreement for

cooperation on border security when war broke out.

Fifth, Burundi has adopted an attitude of strict

neutrality with regard to the conflict, and has no interest in

it.

Sixth, several months after war broke out Burundi was

informed of the presence among the Congolese troops of

the armed Burundi rebel movement, the FDD. Burundi’s

assessment was that the FDD had a threefold objective:

first, to obtain arms and munitions to strengthen their bases

in Tanzania; secondly, to cross Lake Tanganyika and

recover the bases they had lost in south Kivu facing the

capital, Bujumbura, and the provinces of Bubanza and

Cibitoke, where the civil war broke out in 1994; and,

thirdly, to obstruct trade on Lake Tanganyika to and from

Burundi through the port of Mpulungu in Zambia, which is

the only import-export corridor remaining following the

economic blockade imposed by the region in an attempt to

suffocate the country.

Seventh, Burundi had to defend itself, and decided to

adopt necessary border defence and security measures on

land and on Lake Tanganyika in order to counter-attack the

FDD rebels. It was a question of life or death. Those

measures will remain in place as long as the threat of

insecurity caused by the FDD, and coming from the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, remains.

That is the absolute truth. The allegations made by the

delegation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that

Burundi is acting aggressively towards their country, are

groundless and based on invention and misinformation.

Burundi is ready to do all it can to help to resolve the

conflict. It welcomes in particular the fact that two

military observers were sent to Burundi in the framework

of the pre-deployment exercise decided upon by the

United Nations.

Burundi cannot fail to welcome the prospects for a

final resolution of the crisis in the Democratic Republic

of the Congo, which would immediately remove the threat

of insecurity at the common border and, we hope, involve

the FDD rebels in the peace process in Burundi.

At this final General Assembly session of the

millennium, my delegation hails the giant steps taken by

mankind in science and technology, information and

communication, democracy and development —

especially during the twentieth century, which is now

drawing to a close. At the same time, we deplore the

scourges that have marked this century, such as all

manner of wars and conflicts and a range of evils and

natural or man-made catastrophes. Our greatest wish is

that the new millennium will bolster our achievements

and add new triumphs for the well-being of the whole of

mankind. We want to see in the next millennium a world

in which peace will prevail over conflict, justice over

injustice and impunity, freedom over oppression and

generosity over selfishness.

We seek the creation of a world in which the gap

between rich countries and poor countries will be bridged;

a world in which all men and all women will live decent

lives, work in peace and eat their fill; a world in which

the concepts of freedom, democracy, brotherhood and

development can have true meaning in every corner of the

earth.

For all peoples and all nations to set about attaining

these purposes, the United Nations must play the role of

vanguard and catalyst to generate and maximize all the

necessary energy. The key to such success is, first and

foremost, peace. The peace that we desire for Africa we

also want to see benefitting all mankind everywhere on

earth.