|
|
Burundi: President Outlines Priorities
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Monitor (Kampala)
INTERVIEW
3 August 2007
Posted to the web 3 August 2007
Simon Kasyate
On July 25, 2007, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza granted an interview to Daily Monitor's Simon Kasyate on his country's politics, economy and positioning in the East African Community. Below are excerpts.
Your Excellency, two years now, you have been president; what have been your achievements and challenges so far?
I was elected in 2005. The first achievement was to form a new army and police force because when we started to rule this country, the army and the police were not integrated with the former combatants.
We now have those two forces enjoying the support of the population. That is why the security situation is quite okay. There is no curfew in the whole country and some activities that had long stopped have now resumed even in the night.
The second achievement was to create confidence in the international community. We have resumed relationship with other countries especially in Africa, Europe and America.
The UN has selected us together with Sierra Leone to receive funding to consolidate peace. Every year we receive support from the UN. It is important to remember that Burundi, which was not known in the UN, is now regarded as a model because of the success we have achieved.
We also host the Secretariat for the International Conference of the Great Lakes.
There are other achievements especially in the peace and reconciliation area. We released political prisoners and now there are around 7,000 former political prisoners who are back in their homes and there is no problem.
Another important achievement is improvement in good governance. For the first time, we have enacted a law for good governance and to fight corruption and other related abuses. We have also set up an anti corruption brigade and a court to try corruption and related offences.
There is improvement in using the money and corruption has decreased. There is free education for all in primary schools and we are now building around 200 primary schools in the country.
We have also decided to give free medical care for all children under five years and to pregnant mothers.
Another notable development is that after 10 years of applying to join the East African Community, we are now a full member.
We are also happy to say that our partners have increased their support to Burundi, especially the World Bank, the IMF and other countries like France, Belgium and even African countries. In June we organised the African Business round table.
In May, we organised a round table and got support for all the programmes for which we were asking to be supported, and even got more than we had asked for. Burundi will get enough support for its anti-poverty programme from 2007-2010.
We are also facing problems especially poverty. We need to create employment that is why our first priority now is to see how we can rebuild the country and the economy.
The other challenge is reconciliation. We shall start national consultations to see how we can set up a truth and reconciliation commission for people to confess their crimes and seek forgiveness.
Another challenge is maintaining regional security. That is why we have the Tripartite Plus arrangement of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and DRC to monitor stability, to enhance development and the unity of the people in the whole region.
You talk so passionately about your entrance to the EA Community, but while you are very welcome, what do you hope to get out of this association and what should other members expect from you?
The first thing we expect to see is unity between our people; Burundians, Ugandans, Rwandans, Tanzanians and Kenyans. If you are united, you can achieve more together. That is an opportunity to be opened to other countries, to develop our talents and exchange knowledge and experience. That is very important for us. We can see that now Burundi is densely populated, but we hope to be able to send Burundians to Tanzania, to Uganda and they can work there.
In the East African Community there are many economic opportunities for us. After more than 10 years of war, it is now time for Burundians to go to Kenya, Tanzania to explore business opportunities and learn many things from the other countries.
Libyan President Muamar Gadhafi has fronted the idea of a united Africa; and since you are very happy with the East African federation; what is your take on the idea of a united African state?
That is a very good idea; in principle it is very important to be united. We can see that the beginning is always very difficult but if you are together you have the opportunity to succeed in many areas. If we go ahead systematically we can succeed like the United States of America.
Your neighbours in Rwanda have for example chosen to speed ahead with information technology as a pacesetter. Have you also identified a lead sector to move at the fastest rate possible while the rest follow?
|
My first priority is education. Because now we are more than seven million Burundians in a small country, it's important to educate our people first and other things will move.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2007 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
