Burundi has recipe for peace
2004-01-14 12:12
Brussels - Burundi's President Domitien Ndayizeye called on Tuesday on international donors to help his country's transition to peace after a decade-long civil war that has cost 300 000 lives.
Speaking at a development conference, Ndayizeye also said he was "hopeful" that the last active rebel movement in the tiny central African country would soon begin peace talks with the government.
"The ingredients are in place for the establishment of a just and lasting peace," he told the conference, co-organised by the Belgian government and the United Nations Development Programme.
But Ndayizeye warned delegates that "the socio-economic situation is getting worse and worse" in Burundi, and called for some of the country's foreign debt to be cancelled.
In the Burundian capital Bujumbura, Ndayizeye's office said he would ask donors for $1.7bn in aid for a three-year period.
"Burundi is asking for $1 696 154 600 dollars to finance the relaunch of the socio-economic sector and security and defence reform," Germain Nkeshimana, Ndayizeye's top diplomat advisor, told reporters.
Restarting the economy
"To succeed in restarting the economy of this country, this programme must be planned to cover, at most, a three-year period," he said.
Belgium, Burundi's former colonial ruler, said at the conference it would extend €35m in aid to the country over 2004-2005. Ireland, which holds the European Union's rotating presidency, promised €3m.
France said it would release €20m in aid over three years and cancel another €20m in debt owed by Burundi.
Since the outset of the civil war in 1993, Burundi's gross domestic product has been halved, from $1.2b in 1991 to $620m in 2002, according to UN figures. The World Bank ranks it as the third-poorest country.
Hopes were raised last week, however, for a definitive end to the civil war, when the rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) said it would meet Ndayizeye in the days ahead.
The FNL is the last rebel group still active in Burundi, other rival groups having made peace with the government and even joined its ranks
Before leaving for Europe, Ndayizeye had said he might meet FNL representatives while in Belgium or France, where he is due to head next.
But the president told AFP on the margins of the development conference that no date or venue for any such talks had yet been fixed.
Like the other rebel groups in Burundi, the FNL is made up mainly of members of the majority Hutu ethnic group.
Ndayizeye is himself a Hutu, but the FNL had said it would only negotiate a ceasefire with the army, which it accuses of being still dominated by the minority Tutsi group.
The president is also due to visit the Netherlands before returning home.