I left Burundi at the crack of dawn yesterday morning, and am now writing from Kampala, Uganda. I’m gutted to have left, I miss the country already, with its tiny town centre, its beautiful beaches, its brochettes, and of course my friends, Burundian and Muzungu, who made the country so special.

I feel so privileged to have worked with some great people, Pierre Claver from Survivor Corps and Eric from CEDAC, and I hope that the work I have done with them will prove useful in future – and that they will be able to continue it with blogs, the flip, and profiles. I will look forward to reading about the great work that I’m sure they will be doing, and I hope to come back to Burundi soon and visit them (note to any readers: if you hear of any jobs going from about August next year, let me know!).

Having said all of this, I’m utterly exhausted and in need of a break, which I hope I can get in Uganda. I finished my school work at about 3am on the day I was flying out to Burundi, then hit the ground running, and I’ve only had a couple of days off since. Once I get back to the UK it’ll be a bit hectic sorting out the move to Boston – so I plan to take the opportunity to chill out and catch up on sleep while I’m here, as well as curling up with a book from the lovely Aristoc – the one thing I’ve been craving while in Burundi!

If you’ve been enjoying reading the blog, then fear not! I will be continuing to post with accounts of my travels to and around Uganda, and thoughts on Burundi vis-a-vis the rest of East Africa.

img_2330-a

I have heard a lot about Arcade Habiyambere before I meet him. A former member of the FNL, he is the leader of CEDAC’s latest member organisation, AJIEC, representing most of the former FNL fighters Eric Uwimana told me about – those who were neither incorporated into the regular army, or demobilised receiving demobilisation packages.

Arcade joined the rebellion in 1997, when he was just 13. His father had been killed by Tutsis, and he feared the same fate. But he ended up committing atrocities of his own – killing people and burning homes. He saw friends killed, including in a disastrous attack on the airport when they attacked with 4,000 men and left with only 2,700. He was also wounded several times – he shows me the scar on his leg. Gradually he realised that it was the population who were suffering, and that the movement’s objectives no longer existed. As a result, the movement began to see the need for peace, and moved to join the peace.

For Arcade, however, this participation is seen as a failure. As the government pleaded limited means, only 3,500 soldiers were integrated into the army, and 5,000 demobilised; the unlucky, such as Arcade, received only a pair of sandals, their clothes, and 100,000 Francs – which wasn’t always paid. As he says himself: how could they return to their families like that – if they even had a family to return to. The money should have been divided fairly, he says, or not at all. This situation is exacerbated for those, like him, who began fighting as children; they have had no opportunity to gain education or skills (see that piece of Blattman research again!).

Arcade was motivated to act when he realised the treat this situation posed to peace, when he and other former comrades were approached by politicians and asked to destabilise their communities for political purposes. He refused, and formed AJIEC to advocate for better options for his members – including training, help in returning to school, and help in starting small businesses. Without this, he says – probably accurately – that the ranks of disillusioned, optionless former FNL, is a time bomb.

His organisation has existed for only two months, but has already acquired more than 11,000 members and some media exposure – the day before he talks to me Arcade was on Burundian Television talking about his organisation. Talking to him, there are some issues for concern – the complete lack of funding makes it difficult for him to do anything; even organising a football match is a financial strain, and even more worryingly, he talks about being an ‘adherent of the FNL’ in the present tense, before correcting himself! But the grounds for optimism are stronger; even someone with not even a bus fare to their name refused to destabilise his country’s future for money – and has found an awful lot of people who feel the same way and are prepared to do something about it – and taking action to improve their position while they do so. His association with CEDAC is still in its infancy – they signed an agreement at the same meeting where he talked to me – but Eric is clearly thrilled at the new partnership, and their model and organisation should be highly valuable in helping the members of AJIEC to access the training and opportunities that they need. And Arcade is ambitious; as we finish talking, he says that he hopes that his movement can be an inspiration to young people in other countries. Given Eric’s general modesty, AJIEC could be a good complement to his work.

In the last few days I’ve talked to a lot of people who were, in one way or another, affected by the war. Their stories are different and each is deeply affecting in its own way, but one thing I have been struck by is the loss of skills resulting from combat or displacement; many of the people I’ve spoken to have said that, when they returned from war or displacement, they found that they had missed out on years of education that others had had access to, or other skills training. This makes it very difficult to find work, an important way in which these people are vulnerable. Linked with this is the general disdain for the political class who, they say, stirred up ethnic hatred then left others to fight the war while they enriched themselves. This is somewhat unfair in the case of the current President, former leader of the FDD, but regarding many other politicians, many of whom have been members of several consecutive parties in order to ensure access to jobs and the perks of office, they have a point.

This problem is, however, far from unique to Burundi. While listening to all these stories, I have had in my head Vera Brittain‘s poem The Lament of the Demobilised (see bottom of page), in which she talks of the difficulties of returning to civilian life as a student at Oxford after working as a VAD in the First World War, and the resentment she feels to those who have “just got on” while they were away. To give an example closer in both time and space, in his work on child soldiers, mainly carried out in Northern Uganda, Chris Blattman (whose blog anyone interested in Africa should read) has shown that the single greatest long-term problem former child soldiers face results from missed years of education, training and work experience that put them at a disadvantage relative to their peers when it comes to finding employment. In a context where poverty is rife and jobs scarce this is a major problem; especially when guns are widely available, it can easily lead to banditry (which is widespread in Burundi).

This is why schemes to train former soldiers and give them access to land and microcredit schemes are particularly urgent, work such as is carried out by CEDAC for adult soldiers, and a centre for training former child soldiers, street children, orphans and otherwise vulnerable children that I visited the day before yesterday. Here children aged 14-18 are trained to become auto mechanics, furniture makers, IT specialists, hairdressers, plumbers, electricians, and various other trades, with a mixture of theoretical training and on-the-job experience. The Director tells me that many of the students go on to be employed in the businesses where they worked, and that over 80% of them find work. Eric, who is involved with the centre through CEDAC’s work with child soldiers, tells me that they have plans to expand nationwide, either by expanding in Bujumbura and building a boarding house, or by building centres around the country. Evidence that demobilising people, convincing them to hand over their guns, and sensitising them to reject violence isn’t enough; you also need to give them a choice.

IT class at Bujumbura Training Centre

Woodwork at Bujumbura Training Centre

Training Centre in Bujumbura

The Lament of the Demobilised

By Vera Brittain

‘Four years,’ some say consolingly. ‘Oh well,
What’s that ? You’re young. And then it must have been
A very fine experience for you !’
And they forget
How others stayed behind and just got on -
Got on the better since we were away.
And we came home and found
They had achieved, and men revered their names,
But never mentioned ours;
And no-one talked heroics now, and we
Must just go back and start again once more.
‘You threw four years into the melting-pot -
Did you indeed !’ these others cry. ‘Oh well,
The more fool you!’
And we’re beginning to agree with them.

Jean-Baptiste Simbo is gregarious, smiling and open. He is happy to admit his past as a member of the FDD, one of Burundi’s many rebel groups, for four years ‘dans le forêt’ (in the bush), between 1999 and 2003. He is 26 now, only one year older than me, meaning that he was 16 when he was abducted from his secondary school in Guyanza and forced to join the rebels. Asked why he didn’t try to escape, he tells me that his parents had been killed in 1993, and that he had thought about joining the rebellion ever since, but his family had always stopped him. And then, little by little ‘his spirit changed’ and he ‘found the rhythm’ of rebel life. But, he says, there was always a part of his spirit that said ‘no’, and he always longed for civilian life. With a few close friends he discussed leaving, but was never able to carry through his plan; there was always a risk, and he feared that should he return to the community the friends of the movement would turn against him. But in 2003, when he was given the choice of integrating into the army or demobilising, he jumped at the chance to demobilise.

Jean-Baptiste

However, returning to civilian life was not a panacea. The demobilisation centre helped to address hatred, as former rebels and members of the army passed through together, and he is on good terms with many of those who demobilised at the same time as him. They make jokes about ethnicity together; overcoming years of conflict that, he says, was stirred up by politicians. However, although he felt reconciled with his former enemies, he struggled to adjust to civilian life and did not regain his sense of self-worth until joining CEDAC, when he was inspired by Eric’s vision. He argues that the situation was caused by politicians – who, having stirred up the hatred that started the war, enriched themselves while others fought.

Through CEDAC, he realised that he could be more than just a destroyer, and could change his life. He realised that it was up to him and people like him – those who committed human rights abuses during the war – to work to prevent them now. Through this and other initiatives he saw the importance of working to help rebuild what he had helped destroy, seeing it in terms of making reparations for the damage he had done in the war. He is now a member of CEDAC’s organising committee, trying to reach out to other former rebels and encourage them to join the organisation, helping to organise peer support meetings, and training sessions, and helping coordinate CEDAC’s microfinance programme. He is also closely involved with the Peaceful Elections Campaign, which aims to sensitise former combatants to be committed to peaceful elections and give a positive example of this commitment. Although reintegration never went smoothly; as he points out, it “is not automatic”, he is now a prominent youth leader in his community, consulted on many issues, and works to promote CEDAC’s vision to other former combatants, especially those from the FNL who are only just demobilising.

CEDAC is an umbrella organisation for former combatants’ associations led by the dynamic Eric Niragira, who founded the organisation with little more than a hope and a prayer in 2005. Although this is a period of his life about which he is reticent, Eric is himself a former combatant with the FDD, experience he brings to his work with CEDAC’s members, and after demobilisation he had the idea of founding an organisation in which former combatants from all sides could come together, promoting mutual understanding and reconciliation. Since he felt that former combatants were the most likely to restart the war, he saw this as a crucial step towards establishing peace. CEDAC now has 20,000 members across the country, working together in microfinance projects, support groups, and campaign groups, and receiving livelihoods training, something particularly important for former child soldiers, who have missed much of their schooling during the war.

Eric Niragira

Survivor Corps will be working with CEDAC on their work on Gender Based Violence, where they seek to prevent Gender Based Violence by providing healing services and support to survivors, as well as attempting to tackle its causes by educating those who spread it as a weapon of war to become advocates against it. This work has many aspects; the ubiquitous support groups and microfinance groups, as well as provision of legal assistance (in collaboration with AFJB), but also campaigns to hand in weapons, and anti-GBV campaigns targeted at men and aiming to address views of women and definitions of masculinity that contribute to GBV.

CEDAC also works on a dynamic project, in which Survivor Corps will also be partnering them, in which they are harnessing former combatants to engage with other former combatants to promote peaceful elections in 2010. It is hard to overstate the importance of this; former combatants are involved in widespread violence and banditry across the country, are often armed, and are liable to take up arms when the political struggle goes against them. Almost every Burundian I have spoken to has told me that they are afraid of what might happen during and after the elections – but that the elections remain the focus of their hopes for peace. CEDAC are working on demonstrations for peace, the first to be held this Sunday, organising public meetings of former combatants to educate them on the importance of peaceful elections, and working the Radio Publique Africaine to produce radio programmes promoting peace. Many of their members are even standing as local candidates, promising to be conciliatory and moderate in their rhetoric. In line with Survivor Corps’ traditional focus on disability rights, they will also be campaigning for accessible polling stations.

I will be contributing to Survivor Corps’ work with CEDAC by profiling Eric and several of his members, drawn from different rebel groups, as well as some of the survivors of Gender Based Violence involved with CEDAC projects, and some of the former child soldiers in CEDAC training centres. I will also be helping Eric to develop CEDAC’s web presence, and covering events such as weapons collections and the demonstration for peace.

The first organisation Survivor Corps Burundi works with is the Associations des Femmes Juridiques du Burundi (AFJB). They are an umbrella organisation including many of the countries women’s organisations, and exist to provide support to vulnerable women around the country, ensure that they are able to exercise their legal rights, and lobby for better legal protection of women. When I meet the Programmes Officer, Patricia Ntahorubuze, she talks about the ways in which women can be doubly marginalised; in a general sense of being poor, displaced, or traumatised by war, but in the second place due to the attitudes their families take to them, and the failure to recognise their specific needs.

She talks of the many types of women who are vulnerable; widows, former combatants, former child soldiers, those who have been raped, and girls who are head of their households. These women often struggle to integrate in their communities; if they have been raped, they may face rejection by their families and communities. Similarly, former combatants who are women have violated many strongly-held gender norms, and will struggle to reintegrate for this reason. Unfortunately, these two categories will often overlap; many women who have participated in the war will also have been subjected to gender based violence. Many of the women the AFJB exists to help also have problems relating to property, particularly in the case of widows, who risk being “chased from the house” as their husband’s family tries to claim their property and “manage” the widow – a violation of numerous rights including the rights to property, privacy, and family.

Perhaps the most serious problems however, in that that they combine the two, are faced by women who have had children as a result of rape or who during their time “in the bush” (i.e. with the rebels). In these cases it will often be impossible to identify the father, and even when he can be identified he will often not accept the baby. The mothers of these children often face rejection by their families, while their children will be unable to inherit from their fathers (as would traditionally be the case) or their mothers (as they have been rejected by the family); this is an issue that has arisen in similar terms in Northern Uganda, where it has been studied in some detail by the Justice and Reconciliation project. At a psychological level, the children affected will often suffer from identity crises, and as a result have behavioural problems; these children are also survivors, and will need help if they are to claim their rights and integrate successfully into their communities.

The AFJB is able to help these women in a number of ways; in the first place, echoing The Advocacy Project‘s goal, by simply listening to them and allowing them to tell their story. The importance AFJB places on this demonstrates clearly the importance of disempowerment *as such* in creating problems for these women; when they feel excluded, and not listened to, they are less likely to feel confident enough to claim their rights against substantial social pressures to acquiesce in their marginalisation. Listening therefore constitutes an important first step in AFJB’s work. It does not, however, stop there; as an organisation of lawyers, they are in a strong position to offer practical help to women whose legal rights are being violated, ensuring that they can retain access to their property and any services owed them – this is particularly important given the large number of land claims resulting from the return of tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons. Finally, they are lobbying for changes in the law to better protect women, in particular a proposed law against Gender Based Violence. I will be helping AFJB by profiling some of the survivors they are working with, helping them develop their web presence, and helping them use the profiles and other materials in their campaigns to improve women’s rights in Burundi.