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Letter
about Burundi to BBC
By
Jan
Oberg - TFF director
Lund, Sweden - October 27,
2005
Dear friends at BBC
I am the director of the
Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
TFF. I have just returned from Burundi where I have
worked on and off since 1999. I believe it is fair to say
that, so far at least, the Burundian peace process is
remarkably positive and promising - while it is also true
that it can still go madly wrong. With the exception of
the FNL that keeps on fighting, all other movements in
the bush have, as I am sure you know, gone civilian and
joined the political process - president Nkurunziza being
the foremost example.
If the present government should
engage in a full war against the FNL, it would be
catastrophic for the country. Elsewhere, warlords and
other military actors have been successfully disarmed by
tough UN peacekeepers - such as Eastern Slavonia, Croatia
in the 1990s.
May I add that I think you are
completely right that Liberia and Burundi are good
examples. I have never understood why, in general,
Burundi has so little media attention worldwide while
Rwanda gets it all. It is my experience that people also
want good news, and that's indeed what the story of
Burundi the last 2-3 years is.
Finally, with 7 million people
wanting peace, democracy and development, NOW is the time
for the international community to support Burundi. It
needs a new thing - peace aid. Countries who want to
start wars get arms aid, others get humanitarian or
development aid, but we don't even have the concept of
peace aid: human assistance with peace education,
reconciliation, training in nonviolence, economic
development that also promotes trust-building, etc. The
world's big organisations are not geared to it - far too
little institutional learning.
The UN and its organisations does a
marvellous job in Burundi - that's by the way the real
UN, not that in New York - but it is appalling to see
that its Consolidated Humanitarian Appeal for Burundi - a
tiny 130-150 million dollars - year after year is being
met by rich countries to less than 50 per cent. How on
earth should Burundi's government and people EVER succeed
with peace if we don't help them to make peace more
attractive - also to demobilised soldiers - than
war?
If there is a new genocide in
Burundi in the future, it will mainly have been caused by
the neglect and wrong priorities of the international
community. Burundi needs our help today, not
tomorrow!
And if we do it right, the last
guerilla movement will also see it in their own interest
in peace rather than continuing the killing.
Sincerely
Jan Oberg
PhD, TFF director
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