wfn.org | Burundi Refugee Aid, Peace Hopes

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3021 notes).

Note 3016 by UMNS on June 18, 1996 at 16:32 Eastern (4356 characters).

SEARCH:   Burundi, refugees, massacre, peace, Ndoricimpa,
               Tanzania

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Contact:  Joretta Purdue                       302(10-31-71){3016}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           June 18, 1996

Bishop seeks peace for Burundi;
church aids those who have fled

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- As reports of new massacres emerge from
the East African nation of Burundi, the United Methodist Church of
that country works mainly with refugees in the surrounding
countries and the bishop has articulated a dream of peace.
     "Although our missionaries have been forced out of Burundi,
we are still working with the Burundian refugees who have fled to
Zaire and Kenya," related the Rev. Clyde A. Anderson, area
executive secretary of the World Division, United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries, here recently.
     He said the primary work with the refugees is filling basic
survival needs by providing food, shelter and clothing.
     "Unfortunately, the ethnic wars will continue in Burundi
because both sides are after absolute power, the government is
corrupt, and the citizens who are the victims of all this often
seem to have reached a conclusion that the only solution to their
problem is death," Anderson said.
     He added that the church is trying to minister to people's
souls as well as to their physical needs. Donations for this work
are being received by the Board of Global Ministries through the
Bishops' Appeal for Africa, Advance Special No. 101275-4.
     Burundian Bishop J. Alfred Ndoricimpa and missionaries to
that country now conduct their work from Nairobi, Kenya. The
bishop has vowed to continue efforts to reconcile the Hutus and
Tutsis of Burundi.
     In a speech to a panel of the International Peace Academy
meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, May 29-June 2, he said his
dream is that Burundi "should be a country where all citizens
could live in justice, unity, peace and with security for all."
     Founded in 1970, the International Peace Academy is an
independent, international, not-for-profit institution dedicated
to facilitating political settlements of conflicts between as well
as within states.
     Ndoricimpa lamented the massacres inflicted on innocent
populations since July 1, 1962, the day Burundi attained
independence from Belgium, and the lack of arrests for these
crimes and political assassinations.
     "We believe that as long as the judicial system is mono-
ethnic Tutsi as it is now, there will be no justice in Burundi,
and our country will not become a country ruled by the law," he
said.
     He asserted that the army is also mono-ethnic Tutsi, and that
is a source of trouble. Both systems need to become ethnically
inclusive, he urged.
     "Officers and rank soldiers in Burundi have never understood
that their duty is to defend the international borders of Burundi
from would-be invaders and not to kill innocent people to
subjugate them in an oppressive rule of the gun," Ndoricimpa
contended.
     When resistance movements attack the army in Burundi, the
army retaliates against Hutu civilians, and these acts sometimes
prompt the Hutus to turn on their Tutsi neighbors, he added.
     Ndoricimpa stated his belief that "Hutus and Tutsis can live
together just like any other tribes elsewhere in the world live,"
but said creation of a constitution with appropriate checks and
balances to protect majority and minority rights is necessary.
     He concluded with an appeal to the International Peace
Academy to use such people as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
and former Tanzania president Mwalimu Julius Nyerere to negotiate
a settlement that would avoid further tragedy.
     "But if proposed solutions ... cannot hold or become
impossible to realize," Ndoricimpa added, "I would propose as
final and lasting solution the federation of Burundi with Tanzania
after a popular referendum."
     He said Tanzania has been a good neighbor to Burundi and the
people of the two countries have much in common.
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