The Burundi peace process: From civil war to conditional peace

This monograph focuses on the role peacekeeping missions played in the Burundi.

This monograph focuses on the role peacekeeping missions played in the Burundi peace process and in ensuring that agreements signed by parties to the conflict were adhered to and implemented. An AU peace mission followed by a UN mission replaced the initial SA Protection Force. Because of the non-completion of the peace process and the return of the PALIPEHUTUFNL to Burundi, the UN Security Council approved the redeployment of an AU mission to oversee the completion of the demobilisation of these rebel forces by December 2008.

On 18 April 2009, at a ceremony to mark the beginning of the demobilisation of thousands of PALIPEHUTU-FNL combatants, Agathon Rwasa, leader of PALIPEHUTU-FNL, gave up his AK-47 and military uniform. He said, “My demobilisation officially means the end of the war in Burundi; it is a sign that the country’s peace process is progressing.”

On 22 April, when the chairperson of the Joint Verifi cation and Monitoring Mechanism confirmed that the FNL had handed in its weapons, the FNL was registered as a political party. This technically ended the peace process in Burundi.

This monograph is accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM, actual documents that were collected during the process and are copies of original documents or translations. None of them were edited and reflect the documents originating from the process. There could be documents not covered in the collection because it was not available or not distributed for public use. To access the CD-ROM,click here 

About the authors

Henri Boshoff is head of the Peace Missions Programme at the Institute of Security Studies.

Waldemar Vrey is currently deployed in the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration section of the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

George Rautenbach was the First Secretary for Burundi in the South African Embassy in Rwanda before an embassy was established in Burundi.