Situation “complex and intractable”, UN report says

The 12-member UN Security Council mission which visited the Great Lakes region earlier this month said it was struck by the “complexity and intractability” of the situation in Burundi and its serious potential for large-scale violence.

In a report on its mission from 15-26 May, the Security Council team detailed the discussions it had with the various sides in the Burundi conflict, stressing that it delivered a very strong message to all the players - namely that there could be no military solution to the conflict and peace should be found within the framework of the Arusha peace agreement, signed last August.

During talks in Kinshasa with rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye of the Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD), the mission underlined that any party which came to power through force could expect nothing but rejection. The FDD leader stated the movement’s desire to see Gabonese President Omar Bongo appointed as a co-facilitator of the Burundi peace process, along with Nelson Mandela. The Security Council encouraged him to discuss this with Mandela, the report stated.

Ndayikengurukiye also told the mission that he did not envisage a military solution to the conflict and that resistance to the army was “essentially spontaneous” on the part of the people.

His comments were echoed by representatives of the other main rebel group in Burundi, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL), who told the mission their aim “is not to seize power but to put pressure on the government and compel it to negotiate”. Stating its readiness to talk to Burundian President Pierre Buyoya, the FNL urged the UN to play a greater role in the Burundi peace process.

According to President Buyoya, the FDD has about 10,000 fighters based in DRC and Tanzania, while the FNL has about 3,000-3,500 based mostly in the Uvira area of the DRC. He stated that over the past few months, the security situation along the Burundi-Tanzania border had become so serious there was now “almost an open state of war”. “The situation could even lead to emergence of a new regional conflict, centred on Burundi,” he told the UN team. He said the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) should be extended to cover Burundi’s borders with the DRC and Tanzania.

For his part, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa stated that the armed groups outside the Arusha process should not be perceived “merely as negative forces”. They were “military expressions of political intent”, he said. Mkapa also warned there was growing anger within Tanzania towards the tens of thousands of Burundian refugees in the country and he was “seriously considering sending them back home”.

The UN mission concluded that urgent attention should be given to the situation on the Tanzania-Burundi border “which could ignite a serious deterioration of the crisis”. It also noted that the crisis in Burundi was closely linked to that in the DRC. “It is clear to the Security Council mission that no action that damages Burundi can truly assist the DRC,” the report said, referring to massive movements of rebel fighters eastwards from the DRC to avoid being disarmed in accordance with the Lusaka peace accord for the DRC.

“The Security Council will continue to support a global solution that can assist in restoring peace to both countries, and to the entire Great Lakes region,” the report said.