S/PV.6691 Security Council

There were 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2027 (2011). I now give the floor to the representative of Burundi.

Allow me, at the outset, to thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this meeting to adopt the resolution on Burundi. I would in particular like to thank the delegation of France for its efforts to organize informal consultations on the text of the resolution. I also thank all delegations for the spirit of understanding and flexibility they demonstrated during the negotiations in order to arrive at a more or less balanced text. Burundi is country emerging from an armed conflict that ravaged it for 10 years. Its aftermath has manifested itself in extreme poverty, youth unemployment, the proliferation of weapons, crimes involving weapons, the repatriation of refugees from land disputes and the absence of moral and political ethics, which has led certain opposition politicians to attempt to plunge the country back into crisis, with a view to reaping the dividends produced by the chaos. Those are among the many challenges that the Government of the Republic of Burundi, under the leadership of His Excellency Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, must overcome. In the face of those enormous challenges, the Government of Burundi has rolled up its sleeves. We have considered security as the cornerstone of the Government’s efforts. The Government therefore first embarked upon reforming the army and the national police, as well as on the disarmament and demobilization and reintegration of former combatants into normal civilian life in their villages and communities of origin. As Special Representative of the Secretary-General Karin Landgren clearly indicated in her report dated 7 December, peace and security prevail throughout the country. Having put in place institutions to ensure the country’s functioning, the Government adopted a national anti-corruption and good governance strategy, established a national commission to address land and other asset disputes and pursued the reform of the country’s security sector. Recognizing that good governance requires an independent voice in order to avoid complacency, the Government has set up solid political safeguards through establishment of the National Independent Human Rights Commission, the Office of the Ombudsman and transitional justice mechanisms. Freedom of expression and association are part of the reality of my country, which has surprised representatives of the international community in Bujumbura, notwithstanding the concerns raised in the eleventh preambular paragraph of the resolution regarding the Government, which must, from time to time, reprimand certain journalists or representatives of the private media who have acted unprofessionally in allowing themselves to justify hatred, civil disobedience and even disinformation, either directly or by providing a microphone to the opposition, who often hide, unfortunately, in political organizations disguised as civil society organizations. The eleventh preambular paragraph of the resolution also refers to an absence of political dialogue with the extra-parliamentary opposition, pointing a finger at the Government as if it were the Government that opposed such dialogue. Yet, without even waiting for the Security Council to request such action, the President of the Republic has made several appeals to the extra-parliamentary opposition for a frank, direct dialogue. However, there has been no response to any of those appeals. The Government of the Republic of Burundi thanks the Security Council for having indicated in the twelfth preambular paragraph of the resolution, the existence of unidentified armed elements that have attacked security and defence forces and civilians. The Government adds that, even among the ranks of the National Police, there are elements that have at times been found guilty of criminal acts and have been severely punished. By way of illustration, as was indicated in the statement of the Government of Burundi on 7 December (S/PV.6677), when the annual report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Office in Burundi (S/2011/751) was presented to the Council, 223 police officers have been punished. Some have received prison sentences, while others were expelled from the police ranks. Here, the Government of the Republic of Burundi has been surprised by, and indeed regrets, the fact that the Security Council has not shown its appreciation of the measures that the Government has taken. Paragraph 10 of the resolution referring to extrajudicial killings allegedly orchestrated by the authorities is in contrast with the draconian measures taken against the security forces, which had earlier been encouraged by military dictators to commit such crimes against innocent civilian populations. The Government of Burundi is not discouraged. On the contrary, it has committed itself to continuing to combat that culture of impunity until peace and security, for all Burundians and all foreigners in the country, prevails. The Government welcomes the fact that the Council has noted significant progress in several sectors of national life, the encouragement the Council has provided and its willingness to continue to provide support, in particular the appeal to the international community to maintain its support to Burundi towards peacebuilding and long-term development. Those accomplishments, particularly in the area of peace and security, would not have been possible without the extremely welcome support of the Security Council and the international community in general. The Government of the Republic of Burundi wishes, with great sincerity, to thank the Security Council for its wise advice and recommendations set out in the resolution and commits itself to include them promptly in the road map that is guiding its efforts, in order to respond to the needs of its population and the concerns of the international community.

I thank the representative of Burundi for his statement. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.