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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

BURUNDI: UN team pledges to lobby for aid to Bujumbura

BUJUMBURA, 25 November 2003 (IRIN) - At the end of a six-day mission to Burundi, members of a delegation of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) pledged on Tuesday to lobby donors to resume aid to the country, saying peace had been restored.

"Burundi needs help, help for cantonment, help for health and help for the people who are returning from other countries; and this help is now possible because now we have a global agreement, now we have peace," Shadrack Kumalo, ECOSOC representative for South Africa and head of delegation, said.

He told reporters in the capital, Bujumbura, that during their visit, the delegates had met senior government officials, civil society representatives and other stakeholders who all said the transitional government of Burundi urgently needed aid to help it stabilise.

"We promised that we will go back to the friends of Burundi, the ones who used to give aid to Burundi and stopped because of war, and convince them that now the situation has changed; there is peace almost everywhere in Burundi, and the government is ready to receive the aid now that the people are returning from exile and from refugee camps," he said.

He added that aid promised to Burundi by Paris and Geneva conferences in 2000 and 2001 had not been forthcoming, because there was no peace agreement that incorporated many Burundian groups.

The aid was not released because the country's largest rebel faction, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces nationales pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) led by Pierre Nkurunziza had not been incorporated into the peace process and the Arusha Accord for Peace and Reconciliation had not been enforced as it is being enforced, Kumalo said.

He added that the situation had since changed, and the government was now facing several challenges, including the issue of cantonment of former rebel combatants, their integration into new security forces and dealing with the return of thousands of refugees.

"The problems that Burundi faces cannot be solved by this government alone, they cannot be solved by the people of Burundi alone, Kumalo said. "The fact that the FNL [Forces nationales de liberation rebel faction of Agathon Rwasa] may still be out there shouldn't stop anybody from assisting this country."

Rwasa's FNL is the only group out of four rebel movements that has refused to enter peace negotiations with the government, and continues with sporadic attacks mostly in the capital and in the surrounding hills of Bujumbura Rural Province.

On Monday, FNL rebels shelled the residential suburb of Kiriri, east of Bujumbura. The army reported that there were no casualties.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict, (IRIN) Economy

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