Gov't, UN form cooperation committee

The Burundian government and the United Nations have set up a joint committee to spearhead efforts to strengthen mutual cooperation in order to consolidate peace and security as well as undertake post-conflict reconstruction, a UN official said on Thursday. "Both delegates will hold technical discussions within the coming two or three weeks to make concrete proposals for the UN to assist Burundi," Gilbert Fossoun Hungbo, the UN under secretary-general and assistant administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said in the capital, Bujumbura, at the end of a four-day visit to the country. Hungbo, who is also the director of the agency's African regional office, said discussions between him and President Pierre Nkurunziza, as well as other government officials, focused on the duties of the joint UN-Burundi government committee. The committee is supposed to plan how the UN will continue to help Burundi at the end of the mandate of the UN Operation in Burundi, known by its French acronym ONUB. ONUB deployed in June 2004 to help to implement efforts undertaken by Burundians to restore lasting peace in the country that is emerging from 12 years of civil war. The mission's mandate ends on 31 December 2006. ONUB's disengagement has started, with the progressive withdrawal of its troops. During talks with Nkurunziza, Hungbo gave the president a report of activities worked out by UN delegates and Burundi government officials on ways of strengthening mutual cooperation. Within three weeks, he said, a final report by the joint committee would be sent to the UN Security Council for review. "We really appreciate the way the UN has always been at our side," Nkurunziza said. "What we need now is the rehabilitation of the health, justice and education sectors." Nkurunziza said the Burundi needed UN support in its reconstruction. Government spokesman Karenga Ramadhan said on Monday that the government wanted support in peace and governance; the boosting of the security sector; disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration; human rights and the boosting of the judiciary, ahead of the setting up of a truth and reconciliation commission and a special court, as well as support to information and communication, given the role of the media in the electoral process. Karenga said the government and the UN would, before 31 December, agree on major areas of cooperation on which to focus. Hungbo said: "Burundi needs to have peace consolidation in an effort to undertake socioeconomic activities for its development. A country in post-conflict situation like Burundi needs support."