Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-07-Speech-4-156"
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"en.20000907.6.4-156"2
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". – After last minute amendments and a nine-hour delay, the majority of the parties involved in the two years of talks signed a scaled-down peace agreement in Arusha on 28 August. The Commission welcomes the signature of the peace accord as an important preliminary step in the long and difficult process of negotiations to end the conflict between Burundi's majority Hutu and minority Tutsi population.
However, as has been said in this discussion, some very important questions are still open, such as that of the cease-fire, which is the main gap in the agreement, the amnesty, the composition of the national assembly, the duration of the agreement and the transitory government leadership – no minor issues.
In spite of the number and the importance of these questions, the signature does represent an important event which puts an end to the Arusha process but not to the negotiations as such. These will continue, mainly in Bujumbura, hopefully ensuring a higher ownership of the process by the Burundians themselves. This has been a problem in the long process on many occasions.
The refusal to sign the agreement by the extremist parties is of concern to the Commission and every effort should be pursued to urge them to do so. Two Tutsi parties added their signature to the agreement on the following day. Cease-fire talks are organised for 20 September in Nairobi. The regional presidents Moi and Thabo Mbeki stress their importance. Successful conclusion is seen as a prerequisite for the start of the implementation of the peace agreement, deployment of UN peacekeepers and full restoration of development cooperation.
The European Community, at this stage, is ready at the technical level to gradually resume a full-scale cooperation programme in coordination with other donors. Beyond a EUR 48 million rehabilitation programme whose implementation has started, the EC is finalising the procedures for the release of EUR 50 million STABEX funds to relaunch the rural economy. A strategy paper is being prepared by the Commission to support the peace agreement implementation concentrating on demobilisation, social and economic reconstruction of Burundi and state reform.
Finally, the Commission is going to hold an informal donor meeting at technical level in Brussels on 15 September. Its purpose is to report on the programme implementation, to improve coordination between donors, to prepare a common strategy to contribute to the peace agreement implementation and to prepare a high level round table of parties and donors which should take place in Paris this autumn.
We are organised to step up the actual cooperation. I can tell Parliament that we see this as a good case to try and demonstrate how to better manage the transition from the phase of humanitarian assistance to the building up and gradual introduction of forward-oriented long-term development cooperation. We are giving all the signals we can to organisations like the UNHCR, and also to other donors, to try and get well organised, as you can hear from what I have said.
Coordination is extremely important because we are still in a situation where the right balance and the right kind of signals to the parties in the process in Burundi are as important as the euros we are mobilising. This is a very focused effort, trying to do things right."@en1
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