Author (s):
Pyt Douma and Jean Marie GasanaDate:
October 2008Publication:
A publication of Clingendael: Conflict Research Unit (CRU) of the Netherlands Institute of International RelationsAbstract:
The current case study on Burundi offers an overview of the reintegration process in the contemporary setting of a poor, land-locked, post-conflict country. Burundi has little in the way of natural resources, which makes the country almost completely dependent on foreign assistance. Burundi has witnessed a long period of civil war characterized by a process of militarization of the state, control by a minority group, and armed opposition from various rebel groups operating from the rural outback. Protracted negotiations brought periods of unstable peace. Burundi eventually benefited from the Multi-country Demobilization and Reintegration Programme (MDRP), set up with a trust fund under World Bank coordination to assist a number of countries in the Great Lakes Region to implement Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programmes.This study aims to provide a succinct overview of the reintegration component of the MDRP programme in Burundi to date, noting the major successes and shortcomings. The authors present a number of suggestions about how in the near future a prospective reintegration process could be initiated. A description is given of the main outcomes of the DDR process in Burundi, before turning to the reintegration component. The institutional set-up of the reintegration programme and a number of important conceptual issues will be discussed, followed by a description of the urban and a rural dimension of reintegration. The following sections deal successively with associations of ex-combatants and self-help groups, the issue of vocational training, the role of the private sector and alternative approaches to reintegration. The review of the past reintegration programmes is rounded off with a paragraph on successes and failures, and this is followed by a section setting out a number of major conclusions.
