DATE=1/16/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=BURUNDI / PEACE & MONEY
NUMBER=5-45255
BYLINE=CHALLISS MCDONOUGH
DATELINE=BUJUMBURA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The peace process in Burundi is getting under
way again, and there is widespread optimism that the
parties are close to an agreement. But a growing
economic crisis is threatening to destabilize the
negotiations. As V-O-A's Challiss McDonough reports
from the capital, Bujumbura, the success of Burundi's
peace process may well depend on the country's
economic revival.
TEXT: Years of international sanctions and civil war
have pushed Burundi's economic system to the verge of
collapse. The government has raised taxes, prices for
many food staples have doubled, and working people say
they are having trouble feeding their families.
/// SFX: MARKET SOUNDS-ESTABLISH, FADE UNDER ///
At Bujumbura's bustling central market (on a Saturday
morning), the frustration is evident. Shop-keeper
after shop-keeper says the same thing: the customers
cannot afford to buy anything.
Beatrice Niyanzoma stands behind a table selling tiny
dried fish called ndagala. A pile of about 20 of them
costs 400 Burundi francs, or about 540 [U-S] cents.
/// NIYANZOMA ACT IN KIRUNDI-HOLD BRIEFLY & FADE ///
She says, "We can't sell anything. There is no
business, and people here are starving."
In another part of the market, a man named Daouda
operates a clothing kiosk. He says business has been
bad, and it has become harder for him to buy food at
ever-increasing prices.
/// DAOUDA ACT IN FRENCH-HOLD BRIEFLY & FADE ///
He says, "Things used to be cheaper here but now the
prices are rising. When you tell people how much
something costs, they just move on." He says life is
hard, because someone whose job is selling things
cannot make enough money to feed his children.
People also complain that the value of the nation's
currency has plummeted. The Burundi franc has lost
about two-thirds of its value in the last three years.
Bujumbura has a thriving black market for foreign
currency. On the streets, the U-S dollar, for
example, trades at double the official exchange rate.
Civil servants and other workers are expected to walk
off their jobs Monday, in a general strike to protest
the skyrocketing cost of living. Although government
officials play down the seriousness of the strike, it
is not clear they can do anything to avoid it.
Observers worry that the strike, and the economic
crisis prompting it, could hurt the chances for a
peace agreement to end Burundi's six-year civil war.
Jan van Eck is a senior analyst with the Center for
Conflict Resolution:
/// 1st VAN ECK ACT ///
Because although the issue is supposed to be
just the lack of foods, the lack of money,
people who also oppose the principle of
negotiation are part of mobilizing the strikes
and the demonstrations that are supposed to take
place [on] Monday, Tuesday [and] onwards. So I
believe that at the moment, if the economy does
not pick up, you might have an internal
revolution against everything.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Van Eck says the international community could
help avert a political crisis by resuming aid to
Burundi, which was frozen after President Pierre
Buyoya seized power in a 1996 coup.
East African nations suspended their trade embargo
against Burundi about a year ago, but the United
States and the European Union have yet to resume
cooperation. This has deprived the country of
development aid and badly-needed investment money.
Mr. Van Eck says they should resume those ties before
it's too late. He says President Buyoya lost some
political support when he bowed to international
pressure and agreed to participate in peace talks, and
he says the economic crisis is eroding that support
even more.
/// 2nd VAN ECK ACT ///
We have to ask ourselves one question, you know.
And that is: Is the decline in economy and
grinding poverty that's taking place promoting
the peace process? I have to say categorically,
no. It is undermining the peace process.
Should the Buyoya government be overthrown in a
coup because of the unhappiness, whoever will
replace him will be less inclined to negotiate
for years.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Van Eck says all the Burundian parties have shown
their commitment to the peace process over the last
year and a half, but he says the country has received
no rewards from the international community, only
continued punishment. He says Burundians are losing
their hope that anyone in the world really cares.
(Signed)
NEB/CEM/WTW-T/WTW
16-Jan-2000 03:25 AM EDT (16-Jan-2000 0825 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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