NEWSDESK
This media release is also available in French.
Nairobi/Brussels, 30 July 2009: The peace process in Burundi has made considerable progress in recent months, but its further consolidation is necessary for successful presidential elections in 2010 and to put a permanent end to the threat of armed conflict.
Burundi: To Integrate the FNL Successfully,* the latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the peace process and what could still threaten it. There have been encouraging developments. Since last December, the former rebels of the National Forces of Liberation (FNL) have met legal requirements by dropping the ethnic reference “Hutu” from their name. They have integrated some of their combatants into the security forces, demobilised others and registered as a political party.
There are, however, reasons for concern. Burundi is not yet free of violence. The former rebels have not turned in all their arms, and like the party in power, the CNDD-FDD, they seem ready to use any means, including violence, to win the 2010 elections. The government accuses the FNL of abusing the population, while the former rebels say the authorities subject them to persecution and arrest.
To preserve the peace process, the FNL must stop levying illegal taxes, mistreating civilians and using violence against local officials. For their part, the authorities must end arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions and improper treatment of FNL supporters.
“If the peace process is to continue and the elections in 2010 to be held successfully, both the FNL and the government must renounce violence and respect the individual and political rights of others”, says François Grignon, Crisis Group’s Africa Program Director. “Moreover, they must play by the rules and not resort to illegal means to bolster their political position”.
Recent positive developments are in part linked to the involvement of regional states and the broader international community. The Partnership for Peace in Burundi, a new mechanism, chaired by South Africa and including the UN, the African Union, Uganda and Tanzania, can play a key role in keeping the peace process moving forward. It should take responsibility for mobilising regional states and the broader international community and for proposing sanctions or other corrective measures as needed.
“The Partnership is an appropriate mechanism for playing a key international role in helping the Burundian parties to consolidate the progress to date”, says James Yellin, Crisis Group’s Central Africa Project Director. “But, of course, the Burundians themselves bear the fundamental responsibility for both the progress and problems and for ensuring that the peace process remains on track”.
