Jobs and Livelihoods for a Peaceful and Resilient Burundi
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Jobs and livelihoods for a peaceful and resilient Burundi Jobs and livelihoods for a peaceful and resilient Burundi1 July 2017 The Country Burundi is a small, landlocked country in east-central Africa's Great Lakes region, covering a land area of 25,678 km2 (plus 2.150 km2 covered by water). The UNFPA estimates Burundi to have a population of 11.2 million people (2016). The population growth rate is 3.3 percent per year, more than double the average global rate. Burundi remains an overwhelmingly rural society, with just 12% of the population living in urban areas in 2015. One fifth of the population (19.2%) are in the age bracket 15 to 24 years. The population density of around 436 people per square kilometre is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 85% of the population are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% are Tutsi, and less than 1% belong to the indigenous Twa ethnic group (Pygmies). With a GDP per current of 286 US-$ current (2014) Burundi is one of the poorest country in the world; it’s human development index ranks 184th among 187 nations (2015). Two thirds of the population (68%) live below the national poverty line. The degree of inequality (42.4), as measured by the Gini coefficient, is relatively moderate compared to other countries in the region. The labour market in Burundi is characterized by the predominance of informal sector, low labour productivity, and low wages. The labour participation rate is very high (83%) for both women 1 This think Piece is authored by Jürgen Schwettmann, ILO Consultant with guidance and commentary by Mary Kawar, ILO Director for Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda 1 | Peace and Resilience for Burundi and men, meaning that almost everyone works because unemployment is not a real option. It is estimated that 95% of Burundians work in the informal economy, including small-scale agriculture. Burundi legislative system consists of a bicameral Parliament which comprises a Senate (49 seats in the July 2015 election23) and the National Assembly (121 seats in the June 2015 election 4). The members of both chambers serve 5-year terms. The President serves as both head of state and head of government and is supported by two vice-presidents. A brief History5 Burundi is one of the few African nations which emerged from the colonial period as a direct territorial continuation of a pre-colonial African state. The Kingdom of Burundi existed according to the traditional account from the 16th century until 1966, but it is now thought that the first king began to reign in 1680. Like the monarchy in neighbouring Rwanda it was led by Tutsi kings. In 1899 Burundi was colonized by Germany; in 1916 Belgian troops conquered the area during the First World War. In 1923, the League of Nations mandated to Belgium the territory of Ruanda-Urundi, encompassing modern-day Rwanda and Burundi. The Belgians administered the territory through indirect rule, building on the Tutsi-dominated aristocratic hierarchy. Following World War II, Ruanda-Urundi became a United Nations Trust Territory under Belgian administrative authority. On 20 January 1959, Burundi's ruler Mwami Mwambutsa IV requested Burundi's independence from Belgium and dissolution of the Ruanda-Urundi union. In the following months, Burundian political parties began to advocate for the end of Belgian colonial rule and the separation of Rwanda and Burundi. Full independence was achieved on July 1, 1962. In the context of weak democratic institutions at independence, Tutsi King Mwambutsa IV established a constitutional monarchy comprising equal numbers of Hutus and Tutsis. The 15 January 1965 assassination of the Hutu Prime Minister Pierre Ngendandumwe set in motion a series of destabilizing Hutu revolts and subsequent governmental repression. In October 1965, a group of Hutu carried out a failed coup attempt against the monarchy, which in turn prompted the killing of scores of Hutu politicians and intellectuals. On 8 July 1966, King Mwambutsa IV was deposed by his son, Prince Ntare V, who himself was deposed by his Prime Minister Capt. Michel Micombero on 28 November 1966. Micombero abolished the monarchy and declared a republic. A de facto military regime emerged and civil unrest continued throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Similar to 1965, rumours of an impending Hutu coup in 1969 prompted the arrest and execution of scores of prominent political and military figures. On April 29, 1972, there was an outbreak of violence in the south of the country, where bands of roving Hutu committed innumerable atrocities against Tutsi civilians. All civilian and military authorities in the city of Bururi were killed and the insurgents then attempted to kill every Tutsi they could, as well as some Hutu who refused to participate in the rebellion. A week later government troops moved in. Meanwhile, President Micombero declared martial law on May 30 and asked Zairean President Mobutu for assistance. What followed was not so much a repression as a hideous slaughter of Hutu civilians. The carnage went on unabated through the month of August. By then virtually every educated Hutu element, down to secondary school students, was either dead or in flight. From late 3 Of whom 34 members are indirectly elected by an electoral college of provincial councils; 4 seats reserved for former heads of state, 3 seats reserved for Twas, and 8 seats for women. 4 Of whom 100 members are directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote and 21 co-opted members – 3 Twas and 18 women. 5 This section relies largely on various Wikipedia entries. 2 | Peace and Resilience for Burundi April to September 1972, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Hutu were killed. About 300,000 people became refugees, with most fleeing to Tanzania. In 1976, Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza took power in a bloodless coup. Although Bagaza led a Tutsi- dominated military regime, he encouraged land reform, electoral reform, and national reconciliation. In 1981, a new constitution was promulgated. In 1984, Bagaza was elected head of state, as the sole candidate. In 1987, Major Pierre Buyoya overthrew Bagaza in a military coup d'état. He dissolved opposition parties, suspended the 1981 constitution, and instituted his ruling Military Committee for National Salvation (CSMN). During 1988, increasing tensions between the ruling Tutsis and the majority Hutus resulted in violent confrontations between the army, the Hutu opposition, and Tutsi hardliners. During this period, an estimated 150,000 people were killed, with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries. Buyoya formed a commission to investigate the causes of the 1988 unrest and to develop a charter for democratic reform. In 1991, Buyoya approved a constitution that provided for a president, non-ethnic government, and a parliament. Burundi's first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, of the Hutu-dominated Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) Party, was elected in 1993. Ndadaye was assassinated three months later, in October 1993, by Tutsi army extremists. The country’s situation rapidly declined as Hutu peasants began to rise up and massacre Tutsi. In acts of brutal retribution, the Tutsi army proceeded to round up thousands of Hutu and kill them. The Rwandan Genocide in 1994, sparked by the killing of Ndadaye’s successor Cyprien Ntaryamira, further aggravated the conflict in Burundi by sparking additional massacres of Tutsis. A decade of civil war followed, as the Hutu formed militias in the refugee camps of northern Tanzania. An estimated 300,000 people were killed in clashes and reprisals against the local population, with 550,000 citizens being displaced. After the assassination of Ntaryamira, the Hutu presidency and Tutsi military operated under a power-sharing political system until July 1996, when Tutsi Pierre Buyoya seized power in a military coup. Under international pressure, the warring factions negotiated a peace agreement in Arusha in 2000, which called for ethnically balanced military and government and democratic elections. Sporadic violence continued until 2006, when the powerful Hutu rebel group FNL finally signed a peace agreement with government. In February 2007, the UN shut down its peacekeeping operations in Burundi and turned its attention to rebuilding the nation’s economy, which had suffered severely during 12 years of civil war. The UN had deployed 5,600 peacekeepers since 2004, and several hundred troops remained to work with the African Union in monitoring the ceasefire. The Arusha Peace Agreement mandated that local and national elections be held before the ending of the transitional period on 31 October 2004, but transitional institutions were extended. On 28 February 2005, Burundians approved a post-transitional constitution by national referendum, with elections set to take place throughout the summer of 2005. After local, parliamentary, and other elections in June and July, on 19 August 2005, the good governance minister, Pierre Nkurunziza, became the first post-transitional president. He was re-elected in 2010 with more than 91% of the votes amidst an opposition boycott. In April, 2015, Nkurunziza announced that he would seek a third term in office. The opposition said that Nkurunziza's bid to extend his term was in defiance of the constitution, as it bars the president from running for a third term. However, Nkurunziza's allies said his first term did not count as he was appointed by parliament and not directly by the people. On April 26, 2015 police clashed with demonstrators protesting Nkurunziza’s announcement that he would seek a third term in office. At least six people were killed in the first two days of ongoing protests. The government shut down multiple radio stations and arrested a prominent civil society leader, Pierre- 3 | Peace and Resilience for Burundi Claver Mbonimpa.