Burundi gets $900m aid boost
2002-11-29 08:29
Geneva - International aid donors meeting here on Thursday agreed to provide the war-torn African state of Burundi with $905m over the next three years for an economic recovery programme, UN officials said.
A civil war in the central African state,one of the world's poorest, pitting a variety of Hutu rebel groups against an army dominated by the Tutsi minority, has cost the lives of more than 300 000 people since 1993.
Participants at a roundtable conference here appealed to Burundi's government to continue its efforts to achieve a complete ceasefire throughout the country, said a spokesperson of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which co-chaired the session.
Burundi's Vice President Domitien Ndayizeye told a press conference that donor states well understood efforts by the Burundian government to achieve a peace process and apply recommended reforms.
Participants appealed to rebel movements to sign peace accords, stressing that the civilian population must not be held hostage to a small number of armed movements.
Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Libya, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and the Vatican attended the meeting with representatives of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and United Nations agencies.
"All the economic indicators are practically in the red," said Ndayizeye: "A country at war cannot have a prospering economy."
In 1993-94 the US dollar was worth 230 Burundian francs. Now it was worth 1 070 francs.
"We are watching general social discontent," he continued: "We need budgetary support. It's almost a Marshall Plan we're asking for our country."
Burundi has estimated budgetary support at $787.5m, including debt servicing estimated at $173.9m, for 2002-2005.
Planning Minister Seraphine Wakana said requirements for the financing of an emergency social programme would amount to 1.185 billion dollars by 2005.
The 2002 UNDP world report on human development said Burundi has a gross national product of $591 per capita, life expectation of 40.6 years and a 48% adult literacy rate, making it 171st, or third lowest, out of 173 countries evaluated, ahead of only the west African states of Niger and Sierra Leone.
In Kampala, a human rights group, Human Rights Watch, called Thursday on the international community and regional governments to apply pressure on the parties in the conflict in Burundi to agree to a ceasefire.
"Recent army massacres of civilians and bombardment of the capital by rebel Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) have raised the risk of further widespread killing of civilians in tiny Burundi," it said:
"International donors meeting in Geneva and regional leaders meeting in Dar es Salaam this week must apply maximum pressure to get the Burundian government and the rebels to protect civilians and to agree to a ceasefire in the war."
The last round of direct talks between the FDD and Bujumbura's transitional government ended in deadlock on November 7.
Regional leaders are scheduled to meet for a summit on Burundi peace December 1 in the Tanzanian town of Arusha. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA