Abstract
Drawing on our past and current research endeavours, this chapter seeks to analyse how the implementation of Burundi’s 2000 peace agreement—mainly promoting consociational power-sharing among the segmental elites and marginally supporting community-orientated peacebuilding initiatives—has been evolving without creating functional links and mutually reinforcing frameworks to manage the successes and shortcoming of either approach to peacebuilding. We particularly highlight how the disconnect between the national and local levels in peacebuilding efforts affects peace-at-large in the long run—something that became obvious after 2015, when the country was once again confronted with the resurgence of political conflict at the national level. Our contribution is likely to expand the scope of understanding of post-conflict peacebuilding by placing our research in a broader (theoretical and practical) perspective that questions both the meaning and the relevance of the ‘local’ as territory, scale, zone of influence, and so on. Eventually, this chapter illustrates the extent to which, in a post-national peace agreement era, dominant political elites excessively embrace community-based peace infrastructures—more in their form than in their spirit—while at the same time alienating actors who participate in these infrastructures.
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- 1.
Schwartz (2019) has estimated Burundians living in the Federal Republic of Tanzania at 800,000. Added to refugees in other neighbouring countries such as the DRC and internally displaced persons in the country, we would end up with more than one million forcefully displaced people.
- 2.
For instance, during the 1993 massacres, in some localities only men and boys were targeted, while in others killings were indiscriminate.
- 3.
Ntega and Marangara are two municipalities in the northern Burundi, respectively, in Kirundo and Ngozi provinces.
- 4.
In 2015, a new political crisis emerged as a result of the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term. There was in fact a constitutional ambiguity as to whether he was constitutionally allowed to rule more than two terms or not, keeping in mind the fact that during his first term he was not directly elected through a ‘one man, one vote’ election, but through an indirect election. Yet, the APRA clearly states that no one should be allowed to rule the country more than two terms. Eventually, the constitutional court ruled in his favour, arguing that the legal ambiguity would benefit him.
- 5.
Interview with a former political leader, present during the negotiations in Arusha, May 2018.
- 6.
More information on the APRA reservations can be accessed at: https://www.uantwerpen.be/images/uantwerpen/container49546/files/Burundi/paix/280800RES.pdf, retrieved on 08 April 2019.
- 7.
Interview with Pierre Claver Nsengiyumva, researcher and transitional justice expert, April 2015
- 8.
Five members of the G10 parties (ABASA, INKINZO, UPRONA, PRP, PARENA, and AVE INTWARI) signed the reservations, which were arguably part of the agreement when it was signed.
- 9.
Interview with Alphonse Rugambarara, a Burundian political leader who participated in the Arusha peace negotiations and signed the reservations along with five other Tutsi political actors, December 2019.
- 10.
This is a Swahili word literally meaning ‘ten households’, that is a designated person who has an overall sight on the ten households located in the same neighbourhood.
- 11.
Estimates from a survey conducted in 2012 show that approximately 30 per cent of all the districts in Burundi have had local peace committees (Niyonkuru 2012).
- 12.
Interview with a trainer of trainers for the peace committees, October 2019.
- 13.
Interview with a civil society member, Gitega, October 2019.
- 14.
Interview with a former peace committee member, Ruhororo, Ngozi, October 2019.
- 15.
For instance, a former president of a peace committee in Gitega became the deputy speaker of the National Assembly between 2010 and 2015.
- 16.
Interview with a community member, Cibitoke, May 2018.
- 17.
Interview with a peace committee member, Gitega, September 2019.
- 18.
Interview with a staff working for a peacebuilding project, Gitega, October 2019.
- 19.
As of early 2020, many projects and stakeholders continued to support LPCs throughout the country.
- 20.
Interview with a political analyst, October 2019.
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Niyonkuru, R.C., Ndayiragije, R. (2022). Whose Peace Agenda First? Unravelling the Tensions Between National Peace Processes and Local Peacebuilding in Burundi. In: Allen, S.H., Hancock, L.E., Mitchell, C., Mouly, C. (eds) Confronting Peace. Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67288-1_9
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