DATE=2/18/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=MANDELA / BURUNDI
NUMBER=5-45480
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S President Bill Clinton said (eds. Feb 17)
at the opening of a Washington summit on Africa that
bringing peace to the continent rests first with
African leaders. Nelson Mandela has taken up the
challenge of ending Burundi's ethnic violence. The
former South African President reopens peace talks
next week (Eds: Feb. 21 for one day) in Arusha,
Tanzania. As V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports, one of
the biggest challenges is deciding who gives and who
gets amnesty for the deaths of more than 200-thousand
people, mostly civilians, in Burundi.
TEXT: It is hard to think of forgiveness when
government troops are still battling rebels outside of
Burundi's capital, Bujumbura. It is a measure of Mr.
Mandela's leadership that amnesty is even an issue at
talks divided among 18 different Burundian
delegations.
If there is any chance of building the will for some
sort of amnesty, regional diplomats say it must follow
formation of a commission of inquiry into years of
violence. Delegates to Burundi's peace talks are
still debating the scope and purpose of that
commission - whether it should consider all of the
country's post-independence (1962) history, or just
the period since 1993 when paratroopers killed the
president (Melchior Ndadaye).
Burundi's army is run by ethnic minority, the Tutsi.
The slain president was from the majority Hutu and was
the first leader democratically elected in Burundi.
Hutu make up the bulk of the force now fighting the
military government. Human rights groups say
civilians are most often the casualties in both rebel
raids and government operations.
Some senior officers resist a commission of inquiry
because they believe the army will be unfairly
persecuted. For an amnesty to work in Burundi, Mr.
Mandela knows he must calm fears among minority Tutsi
that they will be victims of reprisal under a majority
government.
/// FIRST MANDELA ACT ///
The process of amnesty is intended to cut the
boil open and to clean it. And it is not a
vendetta against any individuals.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mandela knows first hand the importance of making
the ruling minority part of a new majority-led
government. The peaceful transition to democracy in
South Africa gives Mr. Mandela a moral authority
already felt at these talks in the Tanzanian town of
Arusha.
The South African experience may also provide the
model for Burundi's amnesty. Regional diplomats speak
of building an institution similar to South Africa's
truth and reconciliation process. That group pardoned
individuals it found had broken the law as part of the
political struggle. Mr. Mandela told Burundian
leaders last month that they must find the good will
to put some of the past behind them.
/// SECOND MANDELA ACT ///
The amnesty committee does not necessarily mean
that everybody who committed atrocities will be
brought before the courts.
/// END ACT ///
But that does not mean no one will be punished. Mr.
Mandela says there have brutal acts of violence in
Burundi that can not be excused.
/// THIRD MANDELA ACT ///
Of course, we can not excuse the case of people
who just see a person there and then they say,
"He is a Tutsi. And then they say, he is a Hutu.
I must kill him." No, that cannot be excused.
Criminal acts have to be differentiated. If
there has to be any amnesty for such people,
that is something that should be exercised by a
democratically elected head of state or
institutions.
/// END ACT ///
Part of what is blocking the commission of inquiry
into Burundi's ethnic violence is deciding who can use
the term "genocide." Both sides use it to describe
the killing. Hutu say they are rounded-up and hunted-
down as rebel sympathizers. Tutsi in Burundi say they
are threatened by the same ethnic hatred that fueled
neighboring Rwanda's genocide six years ago.
It is a mistrust these talks have never overcome.
Stalled since August, they re-open Monday still
divided by fundamental problems over new elections,
constitutional rights and making the army more
representative of Burundi's ethnic balance. (Signed)
NEB/SS/GE/KL
18-Feb-2000 08:37 AM EDT (18-Feb-2000 1337 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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