he peace ‘doves’ of this Easter, in Burundi, may have blue emblems of the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council gave the ‘go ahead’ to the Secretary General Kofi Annan for a peace mission in Burundi: over 5-thousand international soldiers to bring security to the nation in view of the October elections. As soon as the news was hung up on the bulletin of the ‘Kamenge Youths
Center’, dozens of young people rushed to read it.
“If this were true it would be a great step forward”, commented cautiously Father Claudio Marano, one of the two Xaverians that since 1990 – together with Fr. Martino Bettinsoli – animates this community – an actual laboratory of inter-ethnic cohabitation – in the northern neighborhoods of the capital, Bujumbura.
“In these days the parishes fill with people preparing to participate in Easter rituals”, added the Italian missionary over the phone to MISNA. “There is an incredible will to celebrate… but it is only hope. Because if you look around, you realize that there is little to celebrate and things are not going well. After 11 years of war, they say that the conflict is over, but it is not at all true”, he added.
There is an incredible will to celebrate… but it is only hope. Because if you look around, you realize that there is little to celebrate and things are not going well. After 11 years of war, they say that the conflict is over, but it is not at all true.
“It would be ideal if someone, like the UN, came to give us a hand”. Official estimates indicate the victim toll as 300-thousand of the decade-long confrontation between the Tutsi military elite and Hutu rebel groups, that – aside from a faction – signed an accord with the government of Bujumbura, to come to new elections before the end of the year. But the accord did not entirely silence arms nor did it restore that security attended for so many years.
“In reality the former rebels continue to preside vast zones of the nation, constant threats of coups continue arriving from military commands, there is not enough talk about the return of the refugees and no one is taking care of social justice”, explained the Xaverian. In these days the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide are echoing also in Burundi: “Do we also want to come to such a tragedy? Here, with the tension accumulated by so many years of war, a mere spark could unleash everything”, warned the missionary. For this reason the peacekeepers – literally “those who keep peace” – are welcome.
When the South African soldiers sent by Nelson Mandela arrived (in 2000), there were some improvements”, commented the representative of Kamenge, the center that in 2002 received the ‘Right Livelihood award’, the so-called Alternative Peace Nobel. The youths – thousands frequent the center each day – learned the news of a possible UN mission in Burundi with a pinch of pride, even though Fr. Marano does not admit it.
A few weeks ago, it was the ‘Kamenge Centre’ that launched an appeal and organized a collection of signatures sent to Kofi Annan to request a UN intervention in “the war of silent incursions, in which the population is the common enemy” of Burundi. Now, on the verge of Easter, comes the first ‘yes’ of the UN Security Council. Maybe the long Passion of Burundi is coming to an end and it could be the international community, for the first time, to bring this relief of ‘resurrection’ and peace.
(From MISNA)