Burundi, 2008

At

the outset, I would like to join previous speakers, on

behalf of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President

of the Republic of Burundi, and our entire delegation,

in offering our warmest congratulations to Mr. Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann on his outstanding election to the

presidency. We congratulate the other members of the

Bureau as well.

We would also like to pay well-deserved tribute

to his predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the skill and

wisdom with which he guided the work of the General

Assembly at its sixty-second session. We also take this

opportunity to congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-Moon once

again on the skill and dynamism with which he is

guiding our Organization. We would also like to pay

special tribute to his tireless devotion to the cause of

peace and development in Burundi as we attempt to

consolidate peace and stability.

Finally we wish to thank the United Nations

Integrated Office in Burundi.

The sixty-third session of the General Assembly

is taking place at a time when the people of Burundi

are at last enjoying the end of the war between the

Government army and the Parti Libération du Peuple

Hutu-Forces nationale de libération (PALIPEHUTU-

FNL). The representatives of both parties have been

sitting at the same table since May, seeking to identify

the ways and means to implement the Comprehensive

Ceasefire Agreement signed in Tanzania on

7 September 2006. Allow us to also thank the

international community, the United Nations, the

African Union and the Regional Peace Initiative on

Burundi for their participation in the return of the

leaders of the PALIPEHUTU movement to Burundi.

We also take this opportunity to call on that movement

to commit itself resolutely to the peace process, in

particular by ending its practice of forcing local

populations to supply its fighters. For its part, the

Government of Burundi reaffirms that it will spare no

effort to ensure progress in the peace process.

This session is taking place three years after the

establishment of democratically elected institutions in

our country, and it is the first time in our history that

an elected Government has lasted more than three

years. This is an important stage in democracy. The

people in general and the Government in particular

welcome that milestone.

Thanks particularly to the support of the

Peacebuilding Commission, the Government of

Burundi has just launched, throughout the country,

dialogue frameworks between the socio-political

partners of Burundi: the leaders of political parties,

members of Parliament, civil society and the media.

They exchange views on the current challenges to our

country in order to reach a consensus on the way

democracy should function in Burundi. In the

framework of promoting a sound justice system and

national reconciliation, the Government will soon

organize nationwide elections on the machinery for

transitional justice.

Our Government is firmly committed to

respecting human rights in all their forms. That is no

easy task in a country that recently emerged from a

civil war that lasted more than 15 years. Nevertheless,

a number of measures have been taken and others are

under way. An independent national human rights

commission and a national children’s forum will soon

be launched. Additionally, a new criminal code

providing for severe punishment for gender-based

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violence is before Parliament, which is now up and

running normally. In the same vein, the Government

has established human rights focal points in all

ministerial departments and is providing training in

that area and in peace education.

I note that in Burundi, security is generally good

throughout our national territory, but we are

encountering certain forms of insecurity linked to

attacks and killings as a result of armed robbery and

land disputes. In order to control that phenomenon, the

Government has begun to disarm the civil population.

That is a very important and difficult measure,

particularly because there is a large number of weapons

in private hands. We are convinced that, unless those

weapons are taken out of circulation and destroyed,

peace and security will always be under threat. We

therefore count on the support of our development

partners to recover all weapons and munitions,

particularly once the PALIPEHUTU-FNL combatants

have completed the integration process.

Indeed, although our country is arduously

recovering from the devastating effects of civil war, its

gross domestic product remains among the lowest in

the world. The purchasing power of the population has

fallen and inflation has risen apace, particularly given

the international phenomenon of the generalized

increase in the price of food and oil products.

In a different vein, we recently organized a

national housing and population census that will

provide us with reliable data, without which it would

be difficult to carry out sustainable development

projects. The results of the census will allow the

Government to improve the drafting of school and

health policies, to which we pay particular attention, as

evidenced by the measures already taken to establish

free health care for children under the age of five and

women at childbirth, as well as free basic education.

The Government has negotiated and launched

macroeconomic and structural reforms that our

development partners support. Those reforms are

aimed at macroeconomic stabilization, the privatization

of State enterprises, and bank and monetary

management that is compatible with sustainable

growth.

The Government is determined to fight corruption

and tax fraud, and to promote real transparency in the

management of public wealth. Allow me to recall that

an anti-corruption law has been enacted and that an

anti-corruption brigade is now operating. The public

oversight body is playing its role and we welcome the

considerable contribution made by civil society

organizations.

Burundi welcomes the ratification of the Pact on

Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes

Region by nine members of the International

Conference on the Great Lakes Region. We will, of

course, pursue measures to ensure that all member

States ratify the Pact.

We recall that Burundi joined the East African

Community (EAC) in July 2007. As I address this

Assembly, nine Burundian members of Parliament

represent my country in the Legislative Assembly of

the Community. That integration represents certain

challenges for the people and Government of Burundi,

particularly with respect to the imminent creation of a

common market and a customs union, to culminate in

the establishment of a political federation. We take this

opportunity to express our gratitude to the States

members of EAC, which understand the difficulties

facing a country emerging from conflict, such as

Burundi, and have implemented measures to assist our

integration. Of course, we also count on the support of

our development partners to help us in all areas of

integration that we consider to be strategic for the

political stability and development of the countries of

the subregion.

Maintaining peace and security is a multidimensional

task subject to the many challenges that our Organization

is called upon to address. These include conflict

prevention and resolution, combating terrorism,

combating the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons and combating poverty, hunger and disease,

including the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The United Nations is mobilizing many efforts

and resources to meet those challenges. While it is true

that considerable progress has been achieved, our

Organization still has much to do, because the way

forward is still long. We should also point out that

bloody conflicts and hotbeds of tension remain,

including in Somalia, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and the

Middle East, et cetera. Terrorism is gaining ground all

the time and is causing more death than conventional

war. But we should not be discouraged. On the

contrary, our Organization must demonstrate the

capacity to prevent this type of conflict and provide

effective remedies for the ills threatening humanity.

11 08-52272

In the name of international solidarity, Burundi

has decided to make its modest contribution towards

resolving some of those crises, by providing military

observers and police officers in Darfur and Côte

d’Ivoire, and to military peacekeeping contingents in

Somalia in the framework of operations established by

the African Union.

Burundi enthusiastically welcomed the global

challenge represented by the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs), which were adopted in 2000 and

reaffirmed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome

Document (resolution 60/1). We are pleased to report

that, through its policy of free primary education and

health care for children under five years and women in

childbirth, Burundi is achieving successes that deserve

support. While thanking those countries and peoples

who have been of such great help to us since the launch

of the policy in 2005, we would like to call for

international solidarity, because the policy requires

considerable Government resources that our country

cannot acquire on its own.

Indeed, the World Solidarity Fund for the

promotion of social and human development and the

Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

do exist, but unfortunately, despite those initiatives the

results are still modest. We therefore appeal to

developed countries that have not yet done so to keep

their promise to allocate 0.7 per cent of gross national

income to official development assistance.

Special attention should be given to problems

including putting order into the international financial

markets, the need to increase investment in Africa, the

rational management of water and energy resources,

technology transfer, international trade agreements,

climate change and the management of toxic waste.

It is more urgent than ever to harmonize the

procedures and instruments for achieving our common

objectives, including efforts to counteract hunger,

reduce poverty worldwide and to ensure peacebuilding.

Otherwise, we will witness the persistence of

phenomena including the tragedy of clandestine

emigration, the brain drain, heightened crime and other

ills.

In closing, I wish to say that we hope that a

minimum of political will and strengthened

international solidarity will enable the United Nations

to find appropriate solutions to the scourges affecting

our era. Long live international solidarity. Long live

the United Nations.