It
is an honour to take the floor at the sixty-fourth session
of the General Assembly.
At the outset, on behalf of His Excellency
Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of
Burundi, and our entire delegation, we join preceding
speakers in warmly congratulating you, Mr. Ali
Abdussalam Treki, on your election to the presidency
of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session.
Your election is a tribute to you and to your country.
My delegation and I personally wish you every success
in your noble mission. Our congratulations go also to
the other members of the Bureau. We also take this
opportunity to pay a well-deserved tribute to your
predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, for his commitment and for the quality of
the work accomplished during his mandate.
Here, we wish to reaffirm our support for His
Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Once
again, we wish him every success and assure him of
the full cooperation of the Republic of Burundi in
seeking peaceful and courageous solutions to the
problems facing today’s world. We hail him in
particular for his devotion to the cause of peace and
development, which he has continued to demonstrate
for the world in general and for Burundi in particular.
Finally, our gratitude goes to the international
community, the Peacebuilding Commission, the United
Nations Integrated Office in Burundi, the European
Union, the Regional Initiative for Burundi and the
Republic of South Africa for their efforts to restore
peace, which is now a reality and which we hope will
be irreversible in Burundi. We urge all States in the
Great Lakes region to continue to engage in dialogue
and cooperation to ensure comprehensive political
stability and development in the region. We take this
opportunity to request that consultative status in the
General Assembly be granted at this session to the
International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
The present session of the General Assembly is
taking place at a time when the Burundian people are
welcoming the progress made on the path of peace.
Indeed, the war in Burundi is now over. The last rebel
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movement, the Forces nationales de liberation, has laid
down its weapons and has become a political party that
is actively participating in the country’s democratic
life. The movement’s top leaders have been appointed
to posts in the area of public administration. Some
former combatants have joined the army or the police,
and the others have been demobilized and are
benefiting from the process of reintegrating into
normal socio-economic life. We wish to thank all our
partners for their support for Burundi’s considerable
peacebuilding and democratization efforts.
With the return of peace and democratically
elected institutions, the Burundian people are
beginning to regain confidence in the institutions of the
Republic. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are
returning to their former villages, and Burundian
refugees who were in neighbouring countries have
returned. However, the reintegration of former
combatants, IDPs and refugees is not taking place
without difficulties or constraints.
Indeed, Burundi, as an African country with one
of the highest population growth rates, has an acute
land-shortage problem, which has given rise to
property disputes. In order to preserve social harmony,
a commission for land and other assets has been
established to resolve all disputes arising between
repatriated persons and their fellow citizens who have
remained in the hills, where land is considered a
unique treasure.
Burundi is facing the problem of financing the
professional reintegration of thousands of men, women
and even children who have served as combatants. The
international community’s support is thus essential to
assist us in the process of socially reintegrating those
sectors of the needy population so that the gains of
peacebuilding will not be undermined.
Furthermore, the Burundian Government
recognizes that illegal firearms in the hands of the
civilian population constitute a serious threat to peace.
In order to address that problem, the Government has
established a commission to encourage people to
voluntarily turn in their weapons. As the commission
has a time-bound mandate, the Government has
launched a large-scale programme to recover all
weapons and clamp down on crime linked to firearm
use. A decree regulating legal firearms possession has
just been signed by the President.
Judicial reform is being carried out to ensure
equitable justice and combat impunity. The
Government welcomes the support of the international
community in this area. To further consolidate the
peace dividend, we must meet the challenges of
knowing the truth so that we can achieve national
reconciliation. It is imperative that the Burundian
people succeed in the transitional justice process. That
will enable them to bury the hatchet of war and build
their future on a solid foundation of peace and mutual
trust.
Mindful of the fact that it would not enjoy peace
for long in a troubled Africa, our country has
responded positively to the international community’s
appeal to contribute to peacekeeping in countries at
war. Thus, Burundi is participating in the United
Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, to restore peace to
Côte d’Ivoire; the United Nations Peacebuilding
Support Office in the Central African Republic, in
Chad and the Central African Republic; and the African
Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, in
Darfur and Somalia. Unfortunately, our contingent
deployed in Somalia as part of the African Union
Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has, over a two-year
period, been the target of three suicide attacks that
have claimed the lives of 25 soldiers and left 35 others
wounded. To that grisly toll, we must add three victims
of the crash of an Ilyushin aircraft into Lake Victoria in
March this year.
Those facts show that Burundi is paying a heavy
price in the international mission to contribute to the
quest for peace in Somalia. Because of this loss of life,
some in Burundi are calling for a troop withdrawal. We
believe that, in its current configuration, the Mission
can continue and be completed only with considerable
efforts by the international community.
To that end, the Government of Burundi believes
that AMISOM’s mandate should be changed to allow
contingents to protect themselves against deadly
attacks and to take the offensive or pursue aggressors,
if necessary, in accordance with Chapter VII of the
Charter. We believe that contingents must be equipped
with sufficient resources in terms of quality and
quantity. We believe that strike helicopters and funds
for information-gathering on the ground must be
provided. We also believe that additional troops should
be deployed without delay in order to make the
Mission truly continental in character. And we believe
that the long-promised sanctions against countries,
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organizations and individuals who support Islamist
groups should at last become a reality.
The Government of Burundi remains steadfast to
its commitments vis-à-vis AMISOM. However, we
would like to see the international community respond
as soon as possible to the concerns that I have
expressed here, which are well-known to all partners
who wish to see the return of peace in the Horn of
Africa.
This meeting is taking place a few months before
the holding of general elections in my country aimed at
reinvigorating institutions at every level. I would like
to underscore here that the Government is committed
to making sure that those elections are transparent and
that they are held in an atmosphere of calm. An
independent national electoral commission has already
been put in place, based on a political compromise
between the various parties. In addition, a new
electoral law has just been promulgated. The Ministry
of the Interior has also been strengthened in order to
support the commission. The partnership between the
electoral commission, the Government and donors has
just been formalized through an agreement between the
United Nations Development Programme and the
Government of Burundi on a project to provide support
for the elections.
In that regard, the Government will provide the
independent national electoral commission a $7 million
package for the entire endeavour. We are counting on
the varied support of the international community to
mobilize all the necessary resources to make the
electoral process a success. We welcome the
willingness expressed by the Secretary-General to
bring BINUB’s mandate in line with the electoral
environment. I need not recall that BINUB’s mandate
should be agreed between now and the end of
December of this year. A successful outcome to the
elections will enable us, in coordination with the
Secretary-General, to redefine the mission of the
United Nations in Burundi by focusing major attention
on programmes aimed at lasting development.
Burundi must make a success of its electoral
process if it is to be able to pursue its economic
development. Our strategic framework to combat
poverty, which is the point of reference for all efforts
in that regard, has been in the process of
implementation since 2007. An assessment of that
effort over the past two years reveals satisfactory
results overall, despite the fact that the performance
indicators we wanted to achieve with regard to certain
macroeconomic policies have not yet been realized.
In an effort to improve the effectiveness of the
assistance provided to Burundi, the Government,
working in partnership with donors, has put in place a
partners’ coordination group that provides a forum for
discussion in which development partners are
consulted on all technical and policy issues in
connection with the implementation of our national
strategy on development and peacebuilding. Today,
genuine dialogue and active partnership take place
throughout the process, from the planning to the results
assessment stages.
With the support of the World Bank, Burundi
hopes to hold a meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group
on Burundi next month in Paris, with a view to
mobilizing funds destined for sectors that have been
identified as having the potential for quickly
contributing to economic growth and playing a
catalysing role — namely, those of the energy,
agricultural, private sector, tourism, information
technology and communication infrastructure sectors.
We count on the existing partnership to provide the
necessary financing.
The Government has come to understand that, in
order to fully restart economic growth, it needs to
promote good governance in the management of public
affairs and further improve the business environment.
To that end, the Government, with the support of its
partners, has begun a series of reforms aimed at
improving public finance management and facilitating
private domestic and foreign investment in our country.
A new investment law has therefore been promulgated,
which the Government has adapted to bring it in line
with the East African Community’s model. A value
added tax is already in place and an agency to promote
investment will soon become operational.
Burundi aims to meet the challenge set at the
international level to achieve the Millennium
Development Goals, as underscored in the Outcome
adopted at the September 2005 World Summit of heads
of State or Government (resolution 60/1). We are
pleased to inform the Assembly that, thanks to our
policy of free primary education and health care for
children under the age of five and pregnant women,
Burundi is achieving results that merit support. For
instance, thanks to that policy, the number of pregnant
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women giving birth in hospitals or health centres
increased from 22.9 per cent in 2005 to 56.3 per cent in
2008.
In July 2009, the Government of Burundi decided
to provide free malaria treatment and mosquito nets for
its entire population. The Government has also decided
to take responsibility for the medical treatment and
follow-up for women beginning in the first month of
pregnancy, with a view to better protecting the health
of mothers and children. That policy includes an
information campaign aimed at curbing the number of
births. A national body will soon be established that
will be responsible for providing health insurance for
people living in rural areas or working in the informal
sector.
Education for all is another of the Millennium
Development Goals that the people of Burundi are
working to achieve. Thanks to community development
efforts, our people built more than 700 schools and
health centres in the course of 2008, so as to allow all
school-age children to benefit from free primary
education, as decided in 2005 by our country’s
President. However, we still face the ongoing problem
of providing the necessary financial resources to equip
those schools and health centres, provide them with
drinking water and pay their staff. I need not point out
that these exceptional steps have been taken to
contribute to our country’s progress in the run-up to
2015.
Moreover, the Government would like donors to
mobilize additional resources to ensure the
sustainability of our achievements. We would like to
take this opportunity to heartily thank partners that
have already supported the implementation of our
policy to provide free primary education and health
services for pregnant women and children under the
age of five. We appeal to those who are still hesitant to
come to our assistance in order to help us to overcome
the numerous challenges to which I have referred here.
The global financial crisis has not spared
Burundi. While the cost of raw materials has dropped
in general, the decrease has been especially sharp in
the price of coffee, which is our main export product.
The Assembly will of course understand that, when our
gross domestic product and our economy’s
macroeconomic indicators perform poorly, they
undermine the social protection efforts undertaken by
the Government.
The volatile market for petroleum products also
has a destabilizing impact on Burundi’s economy, as it
produces external shocks that are difficult to bear.
Despite the economic policy interventions that have
been taken to counteract the negative effects of
disturbances in international markets, the economies of
developing countries must nevertheless reiterate the
appeal for restoring order with regard to such current
issues as those pertaining to the stability of
international financial markets, the implementation of
trade agreements, technology transfers and the need to
increase assistance and investment in Africa.
Given the situation, we would like once again to
invite developed countries and the Group of Eight in
particular to translate into action the commitment they
undertook to raise official development assistance
contributions to 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2015, as well
as to honour the promise made in Scotland to increase
development aid by $50 billion per year starting in
2010, with half of this sum allocated to Africa.
Climate change constitutes a threat to peace and
food security in Africa and around the world. We
therefore call for the adoption of courageous measures
to limit the production of greenhouse gases and for
incentives to encourage reforestation policies, the
protection of equatorial forests, the responsible
management of water and energy resources, and the
use of clean and renewable energies. Burundi endorses
the common African Union position that was set out by
the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and will be reaffirmed
at the Copenhagen Conference. We welcome measures
announced by President Barack Obama, the European
Union and Japan to considerably reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, manage toxic waste responsibly and
provide financial and technological resources to least-
developed and landlocked countries.
Burundi renews its pledge to the United Nations
to continue working to ensure that the peoples of the
entire world cooperate in peace and defend the values
of freedom, solidarity and tolerance. These values must
guide the international community in resolving the
bloody conflicts that threaten some parts of Africa, the
Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, and will help us to
fight terrorism and other forms of transnational crime
effectively.
I cannot conclude my address without reaffirming
the commitment of my country to multilateralism,
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which represents our single best hope for responding to
all threats to peace and security in the world.