Burundi: Peacebuilding from the Ground Up

Danielle Renwick contributed

Armed violence derails development. According to the UN, 22 of the 34 countries farthest from reaching Millennium Development Goals are in or are emerging from armed conflict, suggesting that armed violence is both cause and consequence of underdevelopment. This is especially true of Burundi, one of the world’s poorest nations that is still recovering from 12 years of civil war. Home to 8.5 million people, Burundi's civil war took 300,000 lives.  There, life expectancy is a mere 51 years for men and 54 for women.

Today, a range of organizations in Burundi are dedicated to peace-building and violence prevention, approaching the issues through reconciliation, the creation of job opportunities, women's empowerment, gun control and demobilization. They work to lower risk factors that shape armed violence, such as: weak public institutions, systemic inequality, the persistent exclusion of minorities, highly unequal gender relations, lack of education, high unemployment, illicit markets for firearms. Comunidade Segura profiled four organizations, whose members tell a story that goes beyond regular news coverage. Each organization shares complex challenges, and provides lessons that can be replicated in other communities.

Healing Through Reconciliation

Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are three nations where a legacy of violence is being addressed by the Trauma, Healing and Reconciliation Services (THARS). For the past ten years, the organization has helped locals make peace possible by strengthening the foundations of community life and healing psychosocial trauma. According to Jean Marie Nibizi, THARS’ executive director, one important tool in reducing armed violence is to start victim support groups. “We help female and child victims of armed violence and domestic violence.

We also reach out to former rebels, demobilized fighters and perpetrators of violence,” said Nibizi. THARS runs workshops and campaigns to promote, peace, reconciliation, recovery from trauma, as well as to raise awareness on small arms and light weapons. “THARS has also created Listening Rooms for victims and perpetrators, and once they are reconciled, mutual support groups,” said Nibizi.

“In our mutual support program for victims of violence, we help them create small groups, we train them in group management, development and group dynamics. Victim’s groups also have access to smallscale savings and loans programs, where they can use weekly savings to qualify for revolving and small group loans. It’s a way to start them generating their own income,” according to Nibizi.

THARS has reached over 200,000 people through local campaigns; they have trained over 100 community leaders to replicate the program, held 20 workshops and started 10 mutual support groups.

The continuing presence of guns however, concerns Nibizi, who alerts to challenges posed by illegally owned guns and weapons, the fact that demobilized fighters are still armed and likely to commit crimes with their weapons. “It is a poor country and people are fearful of what they see as increasing insecurity and criminality,” contends Nibizi. “That is why our work concentrates on awareness, education, voluntary disarmament and generating mutual support between victims and perpetrators,” said Nibizi.

My brother, my enemy, now my best friend

At times events that take place in the field that show the lasting effects of reconciliation. For Jean Marie Nibizi, one case illustrates the urgent need for healing in a community. It happened after they gave a three day seminar in Tubirengere ( inthe Great Lakes Region), on trauma, conflict resolution, human rights and the damage that small arms do to families and the community:

“Minani Jean and Ndikumana, two brothers, attended our workshops. They were both former rebels in two different fighting groups in the bush. They planned and tried to kill one another. After our workshops, they each approached THARS facilitators in secret, asking how to forgive and how to ask for forgiveness from the other brother. After being guided in the two aspects of healing, they forgave each other and asked for each other’s forgiveness and also announced they had decided to give away their weapons to the police. The entire community rejoiced at the news, since they were all afraid of the two former fighters.”

Creating a culture of peace

What is left after civil war? Psychological trauma, ruined infrastructure, pervasive violence, and a devastated economy are just some of the lasting effects of internal conflict.

The Ministry of Peace and Reconciliation under the Cross (MI-PAREC), a nonprofit founded in 1996, is working toward recovery in Burundi, where the country’s 12-year civil war killed 300,000 civilians and left the country in tatters. The organization’s Demobilization, Disarmament, and Recovery (DDR) program seeks to help rebuild Burundi through a series of programs centered on weapon collection, vocational training and trauma counseling.

One of DDR’s foci is on improving community infrastructure and livelihoods, many of which were destroyed during the civil war. This involves the construction of schools, health centers and transportation infrastructure as well as financial literacy and vocational training.

The organization also works to prevent future conflicts. MI-PAREC trains communities in conflict management and convenes youth groups from disparate backgrounds to ensure that the next generation lives in peace. As many as 6,000 youth between 15 and 18 have participated in workshops to discuss children’s rights and other policy issues.

“We established a permanent platform for children to meet other children and adults to discuss issues affecting their everyday life,” said Dieudonne KibinananwaI, MI-PAREC’s country representative. “Now children have the feeling that they can change their living conditions by working together.”

Bringing grass roots to the national level

Burundi’s 12-year civil war killed as many as 300,000 people. It also left a legacy of violence and an abundance of illegal arms.

CENAP (Centre d’Alerte et de Prévention des Conflits), founded in 2001, is working to consolidate peace and reduce gun violence in Burundi through community-based disarmament campaigns. The organization liaises between the national government and community grassroots organizations to recommend policies that address the needs and concerns of Burundian citizens.

One way CENAP is doing this is through improving relations between citizens and police officers. The organization forms community groups who serve as “neighborhood watch” committees, and who have regular dialogue and contact with the officers serving their neighborhood. “The population is encouraged to work hand in hand with the police and the administration to prevent criminality and banditry,” says Serge Ntakirutimana, a researcher for the organization.

CENAP worked with the government on a national disarmament campaign, which, between 2006 and 2009, collected more than 80,000 small arms. The organization has partnered also with international organizations like Interpeace (based in Switzerland) and the Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace in Rwanda and the Puntland Development Research Center in Somalia to produce research papers highlighting best practices on disarmament.

In addition to working with international organizations, much of CENAP’s research is done at the grass-roots level. Recently, CENAP researchers filmed interviews with community members, law enforcement, and former combatants on their experiences. They then produced a video and written report on the findings to be presented at the national level. A participant in a CENAP research group explained the importance of involving communities in the national peace process: “One cannot start by plowing the top of the hill.”

Let’s support each other

When one combatant decides to lay down his weapons, he sets a precedent that can reach thousands. This is what Eric Niragira (left) did, in Burundi. When he founded the Training Center for the Development of Former Combatants, (CEDAC) in 2005, he helped 25,000 other former combatants leave armed conflict and transition into peace. Eric’s vision: to harness the energy used to destroy the country to rebuild it.

Since then, “CEDAC has grown to become the largest former combatants’ umbrella organization in the country, with peer support groups for former combatants and victims of war, micro-projects (some funded by donors, some funded as mutual support and self-help projects), that support for their members, including a training center for young people in Bujumbura”, said Laura Gordon, a UK researcher in Burundi for the Advocacy Project.

Among its many activities, CEDAC campaigns for the voluntary hand-in of guns and ammunition, provides training in conflict prevention and management, and monitors the activities of former combatants.

Its work with female ex-combatants has reached a group that is often overlooked by similar initiatives. Women take part in conflict in many roles, from direct engagement with military weapons to being forced into becoming cooks and sex slaves. They are often excluded from Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programs for a variety of reasons. Often they are barred because they do not have a military weapon to hand in, or were involved with rebel groups. They may also have children, be illiterate or have been rejected from their own communities because of previous sexual involvement with rebel groups, all conspires against them.

“Whether they chose to fight or were forced to, or did not fight directly, women involved in conflict often have more difficulty in adapting to peace,” according to Niragira. CEDAC’s “Dushigikirane” project (which means “let’s support each other”) has equipped hundreds of female ex-combatants with rice seeds, micro credits, and small grants, having reached several
hundred women so far.

Photos courtesy of CEDAC and MI-PAREC