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Cadette Nshimirimana is shy and softly-spoken, but speaks passionately about her work with CEDAC and Burundi’s future. She is a student who has just finished studying humanities, and is now training as a car mechanic. Unlike many of the other people I have spoken to, who, once asked a question, lingered over their experiences, she talks only briefly about the war. She tells me that members of her family were killed, which shocked her, and she thought about participating – but felt she had nothing to contribute. She still feels terrible grief for her family, and even now if she sees a person with a gun her immediate reaction is to think of them as a killer. But there are millions of killers, and the problems touch everyone.

CEDAC has been vital in helping her adjust to this reaction, and she is now determined to spread their message to everyone in her community. She tells me about how she goes to talk to others in the area, giving them information and training – on AIDS, conflict resolution, human rights, their own legal rights, the election, and everything. The information is generally well received – it is relevant and useful, and she sees CEDAC as a huge influence in promoting the rule of law and working against violence against women in the quartiers. She sees CEDAC’s work as vital to bring young people together, helping them get over the terrible things they have experienced and avoid violence in future.

Talking about the future, she admits that there are dangers; she is worried that the elections will bring problems. But, she says, that shouldn’t prevent CEDAC’s work – they can work to solve these problems, and she believes that, in the end, the elections will go well. She tells me that her ambition is to work with others, explaining CEDAC’s vision and promoting development in the country – something that she is already doing, but hopes to build on.

Cadette est timide et parle doucement, mais elle parle passionnément sur son travail avec CEDAC, et l’avenir du Burundi. Elle est étudiante qui vient de finir ses études des humanités, et qui s’entrainent maintenant comme mécanique. En comparaison avec la plupart des gens avec qui j’ai parlé, qui ont décrit, parfois en détail, leurs expériences, elle parle peu de la guerre. Elle me dit que les membres de sa famille ont été tués, qui l’a choqué, et qu’elle a considéré de participer – mais elle s’est sentie qu’elle n’avait rien à contribuer. Elle se sent encore un deuil terrible, et si elle voit quelqu’un avec un fusil sa réaction est d’en considérer comme tueur. Mais il y a des millions des tueurs, et les problèmes touchent tout le monde.

CEDAC a été important en l’aider d’adapter a ce réaction, et elle est maintenant déterminée de disséminer sa message a tout le monde dans son commune. Elle me dit qu’elle va parler avec les autres dans le quartier pour les donner les informations et les entrainements – sur le SIDA, la résolution des conflits, les droits humaines, leurs droits légales, l’élection, et tous. L’information est normalement bienvenue ; elle est relèvent et utile, et elle croit que CEDAC a un grand influence en consolider le règle du droit et en opposant la violence contre les femmes dans les quartiers. Elle le trouve aussi vitale pour faciliter les contacts entre les jeunes, les aident de récupérer de leurs expériences terribles et éviter la violence dans l’avenir.

Quand nous parlons de l’avenir, elle avoue qu’il y a les dangers ; elle s’inquiète que l’élection peut créer les problèmes. Mais elle dit que ça ne peut pas empêcher le travail du CEDAC  – ils peuvent travailler pour surmonter ces problèmes, et elle croit que, quand tout est fini, les élections vont aller bien. Elle me dit que sa ambition est de travailler avec les autres, pour expliquer la vision de CEDAC et aider le développement dans le pays – quelque chose qu’elle fait déjà, mais qu’elle espère de le continuer, et connecter avec plus de gens.

Jeanvierre Nibafasha

Since the war, reactions to what she did have been mixed; some people called her a killer, while others congratulated her. But she has not faced significant problems, especially as she protected people – she is insistent that the information she passed related in the main to proposed attacks on civilians. But she felt like a former combatant, and felt that her skills could help CEDAC’s mission to build a better Burundi, so she joined the organisation and is now the Executive Secretary of its women’s programme. She uses this position to help other women ex-combatants, many of whom suffered in the field, and are in vulnerable positions; they may have been rejected by their husbands, or their husbands may have been killed, and their children may be in an awkward position, particularly those born in the bush, whose fathers may not be identifiable. Their problems are exacerbated by widespread illiteracy among women, making it difficult for them to access and understand their rights.

CEDAC can help these women through advice, legal and otherwise, and assistance in claiming their rights. They are helping women understand how to take themselves through life without their husbands, by forming support groups of women. Through this, they help them develop means of supporting themselves without turning to prostitution, something that is common among ex-combatant women, and is linked with rising AIDS infection rates, particularly in the cities*. She says that this work appeals to both sides of her character; her lawyer’s wish to promote justice, and her wish to support other women. Asked about her hope for the future, she says that she hopes that women ex-combatants can live like others, with the ex-combatant spirit extinguished, and expresses her belief that CEDAC can make a huge contribution to peace, showing that it is possible to make a difference with neither money nor power; nothing except a vision of peace.

* The wife of a friend works on the World Bank’s AIDS programme in Burundi, and tells me that current infection rates are around 2.5% in the country, and 9% in Bujumbura, but particularly the latter figure is rising fast.

Clairance Mpawenimana

The whole time I’m talking to Clairance Mpawenimana, I’m struggling not to cry. Not because of what she says, but because of what she’s not saying. She has been introduced to me as a survivor of Gender Based Violence, but although we talk at length about the war and her experiences during that period, GBV remains the elephant in the room; as we approach the subject, she looks away, and I can’t push her further.

Introducing herself, she tells me that she has just finished secondary school, and hopes to go to university next year to study humanities. She was only a child in 1993, but children remember things and the images return. She was living in Kinaba at the time, one of the most affected areas, and she remembers seeing people killed because of their ethnicity, something she didn’t understand at the time (this is common in Burundi; many survivors relate that the first time they knew their ethnicity was when they lost relatives in one of the various periods of massacres). Because there was war in the quartiers, they fled to the mountains, and when they were bombarded there, to Congo; you have to be pretty desperate for Congo to seem like a safe haven. Life there was difficult, but they survived, and, eventually, they were able to come home.

On their return, they found that the family was dispersed, with many dead. She felt wounded, angry and defeated, and was depressed about hers and the country’s future. However, through involvement with CEDAC, she was given six months of training by Search for Common Ground. This was vital in helping her heal her body and spirit, and helped her finally to forgive her former enemies. They were trained to promote unity and be a good example in their communities, something she has tried to do through her work with CEDAC,where she participates in peer support meetings and tries to spread CEDAC’s message in her wider community. Turning back to the war, she says that she still finds it hard to understand what happened, but says that the priority must be to ensure that they never return to that position. She says that the future will be better if all Burundians changed their ideas. She has high hopes for the elections in 2010; although there are obstacles, she feels that only a few have bad ambitions and she hopes that the majority will prevail. She hopes to be a part of changing these ideas, and in helping CEDAC’s work of using the forces use for destruction to rebuild her country.

Listening to Clairance share her story and her hopes for the future has been humbling. She is younger than me, but has faced more than I can imagine, and has picked herself up, and is now trying to help others in her community do the same. Talking to her, I desperately want to wave a magic wand and make this whole country better, but, unfortunately that isn’t an option. Instead, I hope that by empowering young people like Clairance to claim peace and rebuild their country, we can contribute to ensuring that no more young people have to go through these things – in this country at least.

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.

To say that Burundi isn’t well understood would be something of an understatement. Even as a long-term Africa specialist I had to look up the capital before my interview for The Advocacy Project. So, just so everyone knows what I’m talking about….

A potted history of Burundi:

Following independece and a coup by the Tutsi-led military in 1973, ethnic tensions gradually increased, culminating in the murder of the democratically elected President in 1993. Although the coup was officially called off, the constitutional crisis took months to resolve – and just as agreement had been reached, the new president died in the same plane crash as Rwandan president Habyarimana, sparking the Rwanda genocide. These events sparked massive massacres of both Hutu and Tutsi, and a myriad of armed groups emerged in the ensuing war. Peace talks in Arusha in2000 produced agreement, but it was not until 2006 that this was fully implemented, when the final rebel group joined the peace process. Since then, demobilisation has been underway, but violence has not been eliminated. Elections are scheduled for 2010.

The country is often compared with neighbouring Rwanda; both countries have undergone decades of ethnic violence between Tutsi and Hutu – but whereas Rwanda’s civil war ended fifteen years ago, Burundi’s only came to an end in 2006, when the final rebel group agreed to join the peace agreement. While Rwanda has been flooded with aid (and it shows in the state of the roads), Burundi is still very much ‘off the map’ – something that also shows in how little it has been studied. Rwanda is seen as an important US ally in Africa, while Burundi isn’t very important to anyone. And while Rwanda’s war ended in military victory for the RPF under current president Kagame, Burundi’s ended in a negotiated peace, and the country is taking steps to restoring democracy. I’ve studied Rwanda a lot in the last few years, and I’m pretty familiar with the history and the issues there – but I know very little about Burundi. Finding out more so that I can compare the countries better is going to be part of the adventure!

Where do I fit in?

I am travelling to Burundi as a Peace Fellow for The Advocacy Project, where I will be working with Survivor Corps Burundi. Survivor Corps are active all over the world, primarily working with disability rights and on campaigns to ban specific weapons, but in Burundi they are widening their reach to work with female ex-combatants who have been victims of gender based violence. This fits in with loads of stuff I’ve studied in my degree, especially the ways in which women can be marginalised by donor communities, and the extra difficulties female ex-combatants face in reintegrating into their communities, so I’m really excited to be working with an organisation that tries to make their voices heard. I’ll be profiling some of these survivors on this blog, as well as some of the community organisations that Survivor Corps work with, and hopefully I’ll be able to tie it in with some wider issues to do with aid management, post-conflict reconstruction, and donor priorities.

Please feel free to come back or make comments; pour les gens de IHEID, ce blog est un éspace bilangue, donc les commentaires en français sont bienvenues!