Burundi - Peacewatch: Spot Stories

UN Chronicle, Summer, 1997

Security Council President Park Soo Gil of the Republic of Korea told the press on 14 May that Council members were concerned at the acts of violence committed in Burundi by armed elements against the civilian population and at the policy of forced resettlement pursued by the Burundian Government.

On a positive side, Council members took note of the dialogue conducted between the Government and the armed opposition which was "adding a new element". They also appreciated the continuing efforts of the leaders of the region, in particular the Facilitator of the Peace Process, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of the United Republic of Tanzania. Members also welcomed the Arusha decision to ease the sanctions on Burundi. Some delegations expressed a view that, perhaps, the Council should react to the improving situation by issuing a presidential statement.

On 16 April, a fourth Regional Summit on the Great Lakes Region had decided to expand the easing of sanctions to include all food and food products, all items relating to education and construction materials, as well as all types of medicines and agricultural items and inputs, in order to alleviate the suffering of the people of Burundi. It also declared its readiness to suspend all sanctions, with the exception of the arms embargo, once there is movement in the negotiations.

The Summit took place at the invitation of Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa. Presidents Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, and Prime Ministers Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Celestin Rwigyema of Rwanda participated, as well as the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim, and Mr. Nyerere. The President of Burundi, Major Pierre Buyoya, attended for the first time.

In a Joint Communique, the Regional Summit appealed to the rest of Africa and the international community to exert "full political, economic and diplomatic pressures on all the parties in Burundi to pursue a negotiated settlement". Such pressures, they said, should include an arms embargo, as well as the denial of visas to those who are deemed to be obstructing the peace process. The Summit also called on the Government to disband the "regroupment" camps and allow the people to resume their normal activities without any hindrance.

43 seminarists killed

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a statement on 2 May, expressed "profound dismay" at the death of 36 students and 7 staff members who were victims of an attack at the Petit Seminaire de Buta, a secondary school in the district of Bururi, in southern Burundi. The attack took place in the early hours of 30 April.

Mr. Annan called on Burundians to refrain from "such acts perpetrated against innocent populations" and urged dialogue and negotiation "to end the sufferings they have endured for so many years".

The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Federico Mayor, on 5 May called the attack against a place of learning "an unforgivable crime". It was, he said, "at once cowardly and suicidal - attacking a school, symbol of civilization and camaraderie, and killing students, the most vulnerable of targets who hold the key to the nation's future".