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95–635PDF 2015

THE UNFOLDING CRISIS IN BURUNDI

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

JULY 22, 2015

Serial No. 114–90

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

DANIEL DONOVAN, New York 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

DANIEL DONOVAN, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Michael Jobbins, director of global affairs, Search for Common Ground .... 4

Elavie Ndura, Ph.D., professor of education, George Mason University ............ 12

Ms. Alissa Wilson, public education and advocacy coordinator for Africa, 

American Friends Service Committee ................................................................ 23

Mr. Steve McDonald, global fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center 

for Scholars ........................................................................................................... 31

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Michael Jobbins: Prepared statement ............................................................. 7

Elavie Ndura, Ph.D.: Prepared statement ............................................................. 16

Ms. Alissa Wilson: Prepared statement ................................................................. 25

Mr. Steve McDonald: Prepared statement ............................................................ 36

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 58

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 59

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: 

Letter from Ambassador Ernest Ndabashinze .................................................. 60

Statement of Dr. Cara Jones ............................................................................... 63

(1)

THE UNFOLDING CRISIS IN BURUNDI 

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12 o’clock p.m., in 

room 2200 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. 

Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order. And we will be joined 

shortly by our distinguished ranking member, so we should just 

wait for her to begin opening comments. Thank you all for being 

here, and I especially want to thank our witnesses for their expertise and for the insights I know they will provide to the subcommittee. 

Our hearing today is extremely timely as events are unfolding in 

real time in Burundi, a small nation that is often overlooked by the 

international community, including those of us here in the U.S. 

House and Senate. 

Many are familiar with the horrific genocidal violence that 

gripped Rwanda in the 1990s, as Hutu and Tutsi butchered each 

other in outgrowths of ethnic hatred. Few knew, however, that Burundi was also going through a protracted Tutsi versus Hutu ethnic struggle that also amounted to genocide in the 1990s. 

Few knew that Burundi, without much fanfare and without the 

largess that the international community showered upon Rwanda, 

overcame its divisive civil war and, following a peace brokered by 

Nelson Mandela solemnized in the Arusha Accords of 2000, has 

sought to heal the wounds of the past and rebuild a nation. 

Today, however, this peace is under the threat of unraveling. The 

sitting President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza, in apparent defiance of the term limits set forth in the Arusha Accords and memorialized in the Constitution, is seeking a third term. While the constitutional issue is complex and unsettled, the rising political violence and tension—not to mention the roughly 160,000 people displaced and seeking refuge in neighboring countries—is easy to understand and serves as the canary in the coal mine. There are real 

problems, and again we need to be ahead of this, not behind, in trying to mitigate a crisis. 

There is a window of opportunity for action, where immediate 

and sustained action can prevent the situation from escalating out 

of control. As in the case of the Central African Republic, about 

2

which we held two critical hearings in our subcommittee in the last 

Congress, timely attention and targeted interventions can stop an 

incipient conflict from metastasizing. Burundi is now approaching 

a tipping point, though it has yet to topple over. 

There is still time, and we in Congress have a role to play in 

sounding the alarm and prodding the administration to take action 

followed by oversight. We also need to avoid the temptation to be 

penny wise and pound foolish. As several of our witnesses will explain, by spending a small amount to further democracy and governance efforts in fragile states such as Burundi, we can avoid 

much greater cost down the road, and of course the mitigation of 

the loss of life. And I mean not simply by the dollar and cents expense, but more importantly, like I said, the blood lost and the 

lives shattered. 

In Burundi, the administration must do more. While often-lonely 

voices such as that of Samantha Power have called attention to the 

need for atrocity prevention, too often the administration policy has 

been one of, if not malign neglect then certainly non-benign neglect. 

We saw this, for example, in the foot-dragging that accompanied 

the appointment of a Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of 

Africa. In January of this year, then Special Envoy Russ Feingold 

announced that he was stepping down. This subcommittee called 

on the administration to find a replacement as soon as possible, as 

the circle of violence was beginning to widen in Burundi. 

In May, for example, I stated that a failure to do so signaled a 

‘‘disengagement when lives are at stake.’’ I was afraid that we 

would see a repeat of the administration’s inaction with respect to 

the Middle East, where to date it has yet to appoint a Special 

Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the 

Near East and South Central Asia despite Congress having created 

that position last August, almost 1 year ago. 

I look forward to the comments and the testimony of our distinguished witnesses. I yield to Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for calling this meeting 

and to giving us an opportunity to discuss the current state of affairs in Burundi amid the election violence and the refugee crisis. 

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet with President 

Nkurunziza and I voiced concerns around the stability in the region and feared the current situation. We had a frank conversation 

around it, and he told me at that time that he felt that there was, 

because of how he took office, that there was a reason and a rationale for him to run again. And we expressed our concern that the 

situation that is occurring right now is what would happen if he 

pursued that course. 

I want to offer my appreciation to today’s witnesses for agreeing 

to participate in the hearing. And I can’t help myself, but I have 

to acknowledge the presence of Steve McDonald, who we haven’t 

seen in a while, and I am really happy to know that you are here 

today and look forward to your testimony. 

I want to close quickly because I know we have a short period 

of time before we are going to be called to vote, but I do want to 

say that in your testimony I hope you will also give reference to 

the surrounding countries, the impact on those countries, and then 

3

just the outright fear that this could really expand into a regionwide war. With that I yield. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much. Mr. Donovan? 

Mr. DONOVAN. Mr. Chairman, I will yield my time too. I will be 

very interested to hear what the witnesses have, and as Ms. Bass 

said we have a short period of time. So thank you, sir. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. I will do abbreviated introductions. 

Beginning with Mr. Mike Jobbins who is director of global affairs 

at Search for Common Ground, a conflict transformation organization that has worked on supporting media, community dialogue, 

and collective actions for peace and reconciliation in Burundi for 

more than two decades, he has covered the Great Lakes Region for 

10 years, most recently a senior program manager for Africa at 

Search. 

Mr. Jobbins previously lived in Burundi and the DRC and 

worked on the region as a program associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He previously testified before our committee on the 

Central African Republic. 

We will then hear from Dr. Elavie Ndura who is a tenured professor of education and immediate past academic program coordinator of the multilingual/multicultural education program in 

George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development. She was a 2010–11 fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and recipient of the Peace and Justice 

Association’s 2011 Peace Educator of the Year Award. Dr. Ndura 

was a Fulbright Scholar, and the recipient of the British Council 

Scholarship. She is the founder and coordinator of the Burundi 

Schools Project and author of several books on peacekeeping in Africa. 

Then we will hear from Ms. Alissa Wilson who is public education and advocacy coordinator for Africa for the American 

Friends Service Committee where she covers peace and security 

issues. Prior to this, she was researcher in Ethics and Human Development at Tufts, and an affiliate at the Global Equity Initiative 

at Harvard University. 

Ms. Wilson has served as a long-term election observer with the 

National Democratic Institute in Nigeria and as a Jane AddamsAndrew Carnegie fellow at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana 

University. She has conducted research at the U.N. and the Carter 

Center and facilitated peace education trainings in the U.S. and 

Nigeria. 

We will then hear from Mr. Steve McDonald—again welcome 

back—who is currently the global fellow of the Woodrow Wilson 

International Center for Scholars, freelance writer, and international consultant. Until recently he was director of the Africa 

Program at the Wilson Center. He helped to design, initiate and 

manage the Wilson Center’s leadership and building state capacity 

and post-conflict resolution programs in Burundi and other countries. A specialist in African affairs, Mr. McDonald has lived in and 

worked with Africa for 45 years and focused primarily on democracy and governance, human resource development, conflict resolution and transformation, peacebuilding, and policy formation for Africa. 

Mr. Jobbins? 

4

STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL JOBBINS, DIRECTOR OF 

GLOBAL AFFAIRS, SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND 

Mr. JOBBINS. Members of Congress, thank you so much for having us here and convening this meeting at a timely moment, and 

inviting us from the civil society groups who have been involved in 

Burundi over the years to join and share what we see happening 

in the country at this critical moment. I ask that my written testimony be entered into the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, yours and all the distinguished 

witnesses, and any other materials you want to include. 

Mr. JOBBINS. Thank you. The Search for Common Ground has 

worked in Burundi since 1995 to prevent violence and support social cohesion in the media, working with communities, and supporting dialogue processes. Today we support youth, religious, and 

community leaders to prevent violence on the ground, support radio 

programming with the stations that are broadcasting at the moment, and we continue to support efforts focused on land reform, 

youth and women’s empowerment, and post-conflict education. I 

will begin by speaking briefly on recent developments, make three 

observations about the current crisis, and conclude with next steps. 

Yesterday, Burundi held its Presidential elections. Search assembled a pool of 150 journalists from the media organizations able to 

report on voting throughout the country. While results are expected 

tomorrow, early signs are trickling in and President Nkurunziza is 

widely expected to win those elections. 

They took place against the backdrop of a political crisis, which 

began on April 25, with the ruling nomination, as expected, of 

President Nkurunziza to run for a third term. That triggered protests, as you alluded to, from civil society and opposition parties 

who felt it was unconstitutional, violated the Arusha Agreement 

and was a betrayal of the process that ended the civil war. 

While the constitutional court upheld Nkurunziza’s candidacy, 

protests have continued. There was an attempted coup in mid-May, 

and serious fighting has unfolded in Bujumbura periodically over 

the last few weeks. Despite mediation attempts, the impasse continues and will continue after the elections. The crisis has caused 

an estimated 100 deaths so far, and more than 100,000 to flee into 

neighboring countries. 

There are three critical things that we need to understand this 

situation right now. First, the underlying, most critical issue is 

maintaining the social compact that is enshrined in the Arusha 

Agreement. Beyond the words that were agreed to, Arusha laid the 

bedrock for political order that was based on dialogue, political 

inclusivity, and tolerance. The Constitution may have set out the 

rules for governing the country, but Arusha enshrined the social 

compact in the same way that the Magna Carta serves in the 

United Kingdom or the Declaration of Independence does here in 

America. 

During the peace process, all parties committed to move beyond 

a sense of winner-takes-all politics and to build a Burundi where 

all Burundians could live in peace. That peace process forced a culture of dialogue and the question is now, after this polarization, 

can that social compact be restored? The answer will depend on the 

actions of the next government over the next few days as well as 

5

how bodies like the Land Commission, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Human Rights Commission handle 

some of the most contentious issues that will be put before it. 

Second, we need to recognize what the crisis is not. Despite the 

political crisis, the Burundian people have put the ethnic dimension to the crisis behind them. The overwhelming majority of Burundians across the country reject violence, support tolerance, and 

want to see a consensus to end the crisis right now. The fact that 

ethnic identity has not played a role in the crisis is a testament 

to the Burundian people but also to the effectiveness of international cooperation. 

It has been with USAID and State Department support that the 

interethnic reconciliation through people-to-people approaches has 

taken place. And it is with concerted effort from the U.S. and its 

international partners that the military integration was able to 

proceed so successfully. And if we haven’t seen either an ethnic dimension to the crisis or the security forces splitting into interregional or identity factions is due in large part to the support that 

they have received. 

Third, we have to remember that the crisis comes against one of 

the most desperate poverty situations in the world. Burundi is the 

size of Maryland with a population of 10 million and nearly everyone is a farmer. In some areas, the average farm yields enough 

food for just 3 months out of the year to feed a family. As a result 

it is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the world, with 

young people moving to the cities with little future and little economic hope. 

If you look at projections from IFPRI, the research center down 

the road, childhood malnutrition scenarios will drop from 45 percent to 40 percent over the next 35 years. You cannot have a situation with 40 percent malnutrition for the next 35 years without expecting a series of both political and humanitarian crises to continue to unfold. It is unthinkable that this situation can persist and 

that there can be a solution without international assistance both 

to the democratic governance consolidation in the country as well 

as to regional economic integration and growth. 

The appointment of Tom Perriello as Special Envoy is an opportunity for the U.S. to play a positive role in the short- and longterm solutions, and thank you to the subcommittee for advocating 

strongly for that. At the same time, there is reason to hope that 

the talks will resume following these elections and that there can 

be confidence built between the different political factions operating the country right now. 

But we have to remember that American attention to Burundi 

has historically lurched from one crisis to another. We talk about 

elections, we talk about democratic governance and justice now, but 

over the last 5 years the DG and justice budget was zero. USAID 

has not made Burundi one of its resiliency priorities and there 

hasn’t been concerted accompaniment of economic integration in 

the region, even though it is one of the poorest countries, if not the 

poorest country in the world. 

And so as I conclude my remarks, I just want to focus on the opportunity that we have for the U.S., with Perriello’s leadership, to 

make a broad, strategic commitment to preventing the crises of 

6

today as well as the crises of tomorrow, and using all of the instruments that are available—development, cooperation, diplomatic engagement—to see through the Burundian people to a peaceful solution to this crisis. Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jobbins follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much for your testimony and your 

recommendations. 

Dr. Ndura? 

STATEMENT OF ELAVIE NDURA, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF 

EDUCATION, GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY 

Ms. NDURA. Thank you. I am very grateful to be here. I am 

grateful for this initiative to get more information about Burundi 

in order to hopefully shape and frame policies and actions that will 

be able to help the Burundian people build a peaceful country and 

peaceful communities. 

I was asked particularly to focus on ethnic relations in Burundi’s 

struggle for sustainable peace. Just like my friend Mike, here, I request that my testimony be included in the official record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. NDURA. Thank you. Let me begin briefly by stating that I am 

quite honored to sit here as a Burundian woman, as a Hutu Burundian woman who was severely victimized by ethnic conflicts in Burundi as I was forced to leave a life of single motherhood, of a political asylee, an immigrant in the United States, thankfully, after 

my husband who was Hutu was assassinated by the Tutsi-dominated government. 

So when I talk about ethnicity, it is real. It is real. I have focused 

my entire livelihood, my entire professional career on education in 

the hopes of contributing to the education and the supporting and 

the sustaining of a new generation that will be able to work together across ethnic lines to really engineer, co-engineer a sustainable future for Burundi and for the African Great Lakes Region. 

In terms of background, the history of Burundi can be divided 

into four main stages, what I call phases. First, the pre-colonial 

era, because people always wonder what is this ethnicity thing? 

People are all the same in Burundi. They speak the same language. 

They have, really, very much the same culture. 

So what is going on in Burundi? It is very difficult to understand. 

So many scholars agree that in the pre-colonial era ethnicity was 

there as a marker, but not as a major source of conflict. But during 

the colonial era, the Belgian colonialists in many ways divided the 

communities both in Burundi and in Rwanda, geographically and 

politically, and really very much created what we have come to 

know in academia and in daily life as Tutsi hegemony. 

Education was made a privilege that mostly Tutsi aristocrats 

were able to access and that continued even after the independence 

that Burundi acquired in 1962 as the structures were never 

changed. Hutus who have always constituted the majority of the 

country, about 84 percent, while Tutsis as Mike mentioned are 14 

percent, we also have a very small minority of Twa as some people 

call them the Pygmies. We have Twas in Burundi and DRC, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Rwanda. They are very much 

a forgotten and an underserved part of the population, and yet 

which has always been exploited by both the Tutsis and the Hutus, 

especially during the war because they have been given weapons 

and asked to fight on whichever behalf. 

So this post-colonial era is itself divided in three phases: The 

1962 to 1992, 1993 to 2005, 2005 to the current day in 2015. The 

13

first phase of the post-colonial era really continued, without interruption, the colonial divisions where the Tutsis were in charge, had 

control over the military, the economy, education. If you really 

wanted to get through any door during that time you had to have 

been connected to a Tutsi somehow. Some of us barely survived. I 

have more information in my most recent book, which opens with 

my story as a Hutu woman, for reference later. 

Nineteen ninety three saw Burundi turning the corner and becoming, attempting at least to become a democratic country by 

holding Presidential elections, which for the first time had many 

parties that were represented, which led to the election of Melchior 

Ndadaye, the very first Hutu and civilian ever to become elected 

President of Burundi. Unfortunately, hardliners within the Tutsi 

military assassinated him after only 100 days in power, and that 

set off the killings and the civil war that lasted 12 years. 

Let me back up first and mention that many in the international 

community including the United States, when they talk about 

genocide they always refer to the Rwandan killings of 1994. Very 

few people realize that in 1972, next door Burundi, also had a 

genocide, this time of the Hutus by the predominately Tutsi government and the military. So Rwanda and Burundi have always 

fed on each other’s history and present all the time, so it is very, 

very difficult to tell them apart. 

The third phase of the post-colonial era, which is why many of 

you are interested today, the 2005 to 2015, it is a period that has 

been framed in many ways by the Arusha Accords that everybody 

probably will be talking about here, because the Arusha Accords 

that got all the parties together, even civil society, the international community together, to create a framework that would 

allow Burundi to move forward not just as a democratic country, 

but as a diverse country, as a country where everybody was going 

to be able to have a voice, everybody was going to have opportunities open to them. And I believe that is what all the Burundian 

people, both within Burundi and outside of Burundi, were hoping 

for, here is the Arusha Accord, finally. 

There is something that has happened in my research. I travel 

to Burundi a lot. My entire research agenda is dedicated to Burundi and the African Great Lakes Region. There is something 

good that has come out of the Arusha Accords—voice. The people 

of Burundi have reclaimed their voice. They speak up. The question 

that I ask then, do we listen when they speak up? 

And I think that is my major contribution today, because in 

terms of moving forward for Burundi and in efforts to avoid the recurrence or renewed violence based on ethnicity or any other 

intergroup dynamics, voices, the voices of the people must be 

heard. So I propose that we, the Burundian people, the current 

government, the opposition, everybody get together in order to really hold some honest conversations. Conversations where people express themselves, but also are willing to listen. 

I think my major concern ever since April of this year, my major 

concern has been the lack of spaces for those kinds of conversations. People have been saying many things. People have been talking. But as a researcher and a person who loves Burundi and has 

14

been invested in Burundi for many years, I have constantly been 

wondering if anyone is listening. 

Is President Nkurunziza listening? Is the current government listening? What are they hearing when people say ‘‘no’’ to the third 

term bid? Is it just about the third term bid or is it something else 

that is complicating the current situation? But we cannot unearth 

all those reasons unless we listen with compassion. Listening with 

compassion, in my mind, means listening, knowing that everybody 

talks in good faith, and that is what I hope. But then that is a 

question. As a researcher, I have more questions than answers. So 

are all the people who are talking, talking in good faith? Do they 

have some kind of ulterior motives, something that they stand to 

gain or that they stand to lose? 

Let us go back to ethnicity. Yes, the government is mixed. Yes, 

even the Imbonerakure, the renowned youth militia. In some strategic areas in Burundi even the Imbonerakure is ethnically mixed. 

So, when some people go to those mixed areas they don’t talk about 

ethnicity. However, it has emerged that when they go to talk in the 

campaign in promoting agendas in places that do not have Tutsi 

members among the Imbonerakure, the conversation shifts to, 

‘‘Hey, remember.’’ Remember you have to support us, otherwise the 

Tutsi will get you again. 

So for me, I am sitting here confused and wondering, so where 

is Burundi? Is it really post-ethnic? I argue that Burundi is no 

more post-ethnic than the United States is post-racial. Ethnicity, 

even on the surface, we think that ethnicity, people have made 

peace with ethnicity. Tutsi, Hutu, Twa are ready to work together 

and move forward together. I consider it a neverending undercurrent, almost a convenient divider that can be brought in at any 

time to advance some kind of agendas, wherever the agendas are 

coming from. 

So how do we deal with that then? I focus on the common good. 

When you walk into Burundi and travel across the country, one of 

the most striking things that you would notice is the major difference between people who have access to resources and people 

who have no access to resources. From big houses and big hotels 

and big cars and several employees in the house, to the villages 

where people have no food, where people have no shelter, where 

children walk around and run around in coats that have become 

so oversized and so brown because they can’t even afford soap to 

wash them. 

So where is Burundi going, and how is violence contributing to 

worsening the situation of the real Burundian people beyond the 

politicians, beyond the policymakers? That is a major question for 

us to ponder because that is where the work needs to be done. 

Let us go back to education. I consider education to be a key path 

forward toward the reconstruction of the communities of Burundi, 

these communities that have been shattered by endless conflicts 

and violence. We do have the framework culturally. You know 

Ubuntu is not South African only. The ethic of Ubuntu is actually 

African. We have an author, Kayoya, who wrote a book and talked 

about Ubuntu the same way as Desmond Tutu framed Ubuntu for 

the future of South Africa. I propose that education be grounded 

again in those traditional mechanisms and philosophies that rekinVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:58 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\072215\95635 SHIRL
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dle the spirit of interdependence that really has always defined the 

Burundian people and the Burundian communities. 

Reflective citizenship. I propose that investments be made to 

build the capacity of the Burundian people, especially the youth, to 

become reflective citizens. Those citizens who don’t only vote because they stand to gain from the one who wins, but the people 

who run for office because they are convinced that if they win, the 

livelihoods of the people in those poor villages will actually be improved. Otherwise, for me, it doesn’t matter who wins and who 

loses. It really doesn’t matter. 

I guess you can tell that I don’t stand here to gain anything. 

That is the beauty of being an academic. Tenured, too, so I can say 

what I want as long as it is constructive. So education for reflective 

citizenship. Education that promotes youth peaceful engagement 

and reflective citizenship. Burundian people love children. We sing 

to them all the time. We have amazing lullabies that even my 

grandsons adore. To go to sleep when they visit with me, they ask 

me to sing the lullaby which states how special they are and how 

loved they are and how we will always be there to protect them 

against the enemy. 

How can we rekindle the spirit that treasures the youth through 

education instead of arming them as child soldiers, instead of arming them as militias who kill even one another, sometimes resorting to killing even their own relatives? For what purpose? To get 

some money, to get some food, to get some clothes. 

So you are powerful policymakers and that is why I am trying 

to tell the truth here, because we cannot focus on Burundi as yet 

just another troubled and troublesome country and a region of the 

world where we cannot do anything. We can do something, but we 

have to be honest with ourselves and our policies. And, in fact, develop and implement policies that will actually empower the people 

of Burundi to change their livelihood from the roots, not at the surface. 

When we go in to do peacebuilding we are already in trouble. 

They are fighting, so we need to go in. Yes, it is good to go in, but 

what if we were to say we are going in to start educating the Burundian people from the bottom, from the roots? From the grassroots, so that when they graduate from school, or even if they drop 

out from school they have the spirit of unity, they have the spirit 

of interdependence, they have the spirit of reflective citizenship, instead of thinking, when I graduate I want to be able to build the 

biggest hotel and charge the most money that I can. How can we 

change this kind of thinking so that we reconstruct the Burundians 

to say this? Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Ndura follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Dr. Ndura. Despite your personal loss, and again let me convey on behalf of our committee our 

condolences because I am sure that has to be an ever-present 

source of agony for you, but despite all that you continue to fight 

hard for a durable peace and reconciliation with an emphasis on 

education. So thank you for sharing and the history as well, which 

I thought was very fascinating. 

Ms. Wilson? 

STATEMENT OF MS. ALISSA WILSON, PUBLIC EDUCATION AND 

ADVOCACY COORDINATOR FOR AFRICA, AMERICAN 

FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE 

Ms. WILSON. Thank you. Thank you to Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and the members of this subcommittee for holding this important hearing. My name is Alissa Wilson, and as you 

have heard I serve as the public education and advocacy coordinator for Africa with the American Friends Service Committee, or 

AFSC. 

The AFSC is a Quaker organization working in 56 locations 

throughout the world. Founded almost 100 years ago, we promote 

lasting peace with justice as a practical expression of faith in action. We were co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of all 

Friends in 1947, and have worked in Africa for over 50 years. 

AFSC has worked in Burundi for over a decade, and like many 

Quakers before us we work with the belief that there is that of God 

in everyone. We have brought together people across lines of identity, ethnicity, religion, gender, and experience during war to heal 

and restore bonds of community. Our work with Burundian partners has yielded strong examples of communities resolving differences through inclusive dialogue and increasing self-reliance 

through livelihood approaches. We have also engaged actors at the 

sociopolitical level, on dialogue and exchange programs and on 

peacebuilding issues such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission design and implementation. 

Currently, the AFSC is supporting the Friends Church of Burundi on an emergency response project that has brought together 

leaders from different faith communities. At the local level, pastors, 

imams, and priests are encouraging congregations to take action 

for peace. These congregations come from all over the country and 

represent an array of political backgrounds. And at the national 

level, a small committee of religious body representatives will reach 

out to different sociopolitical actors to advocate for dialogue. 

Our decade of experience working in Burundi leads us to three 

recommendations. First, help to revitalize the mediation process. 

Second, create a long-term U.S. strategy for Burundi that includes 

sustained funding for peacebuilding, democracy, rights, and governance programs. And finally, support regional actors in contributing 

to peace. Revitalizing the mediation process needs to be the top priority for the U.S. and other donors to help Burundi move past this 

very real crisis. 

We welcome the appointment of Special Envoy Tom Perriello, the 

Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. We hope he 

will support increased coherence to the mediation process by coordinating with the mediation team, East African Community, AfriVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:58 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\072215\95635 SHIRL
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can Union, and other key actors. Attention should also be paid to 

civil society at this moment. A range of nonpolitical Burundian organizations has been working on trust building and good governance issues since the Arusha Peace Agreement. They should be 

consulted by the mediation team and be included in post-mediation 

planning. Their inclusion makes these processes more accountable 

to citizens and strengthens transparency and credibility. We recognize that civil society participation should be negotiated with all 

actors to ensure that their ideas have a voice balanced appropriately with the role of political actors. 

The Atrocity Prevention Board is to be commended for ensuring 

U.S. attention to Burundi over a year ago. However, an engagement strategy with Burundi should focus on long-term engagement 

not flashpoint prevention. Sustainable peacebuilding and development progress happens in the daily work between elections. And as 

Mr. Jobbins mentioned, democracy, rights, and governance funding 

for Burundi needs to increase. If we maintain these funding levels 

and continue to provide military assistance at significantly higher 

levels, what message are we sending to the people of Burundi? 

An investment in long-term accounts shouldn’t come at the expense of those for crisis prevention and response like the Conflicts 

Crisis Fund, or CCF. Flexible funds for unexpected challenges are 

still important. Unfortunately, for Fiscal Year 2016, for the second 

year in a row, the House budget did not allocate money for the 

CCF. The Senate passed a budget that included CCF but with only 

$30 million to cover efforts worldwide. 

Finally, the history of the Great Lakes Region includes conflicts 

that have spilled across borders. Countries have also provided support or safe harbor to armed groups from their neighbors, and we 

urge the U.S. to use good offices with Burundi’s neighbors to create 

a setting where each country supports peace processes and refrains 

from involvement in armed activities within or across borders. We 

also encourage the U.S. to remain committed to collaboration with 

the EAC, AU, U.N. and others to respond with rapid, high-level 

diplomatic engagement in case of heightened violence. 

AFSC has worked in contexts of conflict across the globe for 

nearly 100 years and we understand that there is rarely an arrival 

in peacebuilding processes, there are cycles of challenges and opportunities for breakthrough. At this moment, Burundi once again 

faces a very real choice between reignition of conflict or a recommitment to building and maintaining sustainable peace and development. Regional actors, the U.S., and the global community at 

large must do all we can at this time to support the conditions for 

the latter to win the day. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Wilson follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so much, Ms. Wilson. 

Mr. McDonald? 

STATEMENT OF MR. STEVE MCDONALD, GLOBAL FELLOW, 

WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS 

Mr. MCDONALD. Thank you very much for inviting me to testify 

today, Congressman Smith, and thank you very much for your 

warm remarks, welcoming remarks, Congresswoman Bass and 

Congressman Donovan. I appreciate the opportunity. 

Batting cleanup is sometimes a disadvantage, sometimes an advantage because it allows me maybe to pick up on some points that 

I might have noticed that were not emphasized as much as I 

thought they should be. I was very involved in Burundi in 1993–

94 during the election period then, and from 2002 to 2008 with a 

former colleague of yours, Howard Wolpe, one of your predecessors, 

Mr. Smith, in doing exactly the kind of work we have been talking 

about here in terms of reconciliation, trust building, capacity building amongst the key leaders of the country including working with 

the integration of the armed services there, the newly formed national army coming from the former armed rebel groups and the 

existing National Army. 

We had quite a measure of success at that time working through 

the 2005 elections and the ceasefire in 2004 through the 2005 elections and beyond in terms of the demobilization, disarmament, and 

reintegration process. I mention this not to burnish my credibility 

but because it has been done. The kinds of things that my colleagues, particularly Alissa and Elavie and Mike, have referred to 

in terms of getting involved in long-term ways with democracy and 

governance and trust building, capacity building, education work 

has worked in the past. It is important to know that the crisis that 

we are facing now is a real one, but it is not ethnic in nature at 

this point, but it could become. 

The basic rivalry here is a political one. The basic rivalry is a 

Hutu-Hutu rivalry as a matter of fact. The primary opposition 

members who are challenging Nkurunziza and challenging the 

third term issue are Hutu. That doesn’t mean the crisis can’t grow 

and take us back to the days of old and pick up on that underlying 

ethnicity consciousness that Elavie was referring to, which is certainly there, and therefore we have to be very, very conscious of not 

letting it get to that point. And I am glad to see that the United 

Nations, the African Union, the East African Community, and the 

United States have realized this and made statements to this effect. 

The elections of course that we have just finished, we will know 

something about the results hopefully tomorrow. The elections commission in Burundi is saying that we had a 74 percent turnout. I 

personally think that is probably a very high figure, probably higher in the countryside than it was in Bujumbura. The feedback I am 

getting from people I know is that this is an exaggerated figure. 

We will see. 

But the point is that the election has occurred. The opposition 

members who boycotted the election, although three of their names 

remained on the ballot, are now speaking out of a possibility of a 

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vestigate, stay conscious of, that there may be still strands of dialogue and unity that we can bring together. You are all aware of 

course of the effort initiated by President Museveni to start a dialogue amongst the parties, again very late in the game. This was 

commendable but failed at the time, but there is no reason why 

that can’t be picked up. 

But another thing that is very important to realize is that the 

third term issue, the political issue that set this off, was only a 

trigger for the violence. As I think Mike was outlining for us, there 

are much, much deeper issues here. As we know, the country is extremely poor. Eighty percent of the population live in poverty, $420 

a year GDP, soaring inflation. 

I don’t know if you are even aware that there were in July, early 

July and earlier in the year, protests around petrol and food prices 

and et cetera, and a strike was actually called at one point in time. 

The unemployment rate is 40 percent, much higher amongst the 

youth. Youth issues are extremely important. Malnutrition rates 

are very high. Chronic malnutrition. The vast majority of the population is rural and there are immense land pressures due to the 

high population density to begin with, but the returning refugees 

and displaced persons. 

So the numbers of issues that have gone unaddressed by the current government that has been in power for 10 years have led to 

a very, very unsatisfied, dissident population. Ironically, and I 

point this out in my written testimony but I won’t elaborate here, 

Nkurunziza has been a popular President with the rural population, overall, and my own private opinion is that he could have 

easily won this election doing it without any kind of manipulation, 

and it is a shame that what has occurred, has occurred. That it 

really didn’t need to. The third party issue should have been solved 

by the constitutional court and been just a legal issue that Burundi 

solved in and of itself. 

But it is important to know that the tensions in the country are 

real. The Imbonerakure youth gangs that Elavie mentioned are organized and active. They have been around actually since 2012 or 

maybe even before. They are often uniformed. They carry weapons. 

They operate mostly at night. They intimidate. They harass. They 

even kill. People often sleep outside their homes in rural areas for 

fear that the Imbonerakure youth gangs might show up. Even with 

the flow of refugees out of the country, Imbonerakure, according to 

information I am getting particularly in the north part of the country in Kayanza, have been intercepting refugees as they are trying 

to leave the country to go into Rwanda, taking away their belongings and even raiding in their houses in the evening to take furniture and stuff out of it. 

So they are continuing to intimidate population. The government 

has said of course that it is trying to disarm the Imbonerakure. 

That effort is moving very slow. Again, an issue that we may not 

all be aware of is the fact that since the ceasefire in 2003 and 2004, 

the efforts to get guns out of the population’s hands, out of civilian 

population have been basically a failure. Some estimates estimate 

that as high as 300,000 weapons still exist out there in the civilian 

population. 

33

Weapons of choice are grenades. Grenades are plentiful. They are 

easy to hide, put them in your pocket, throw them into a group of 

people quite easily. We see that all the time. The most egregious 

one was in Gatumba in 2011. You remember when 40 people were 

killed in a bar. 

And then we have the refugee flows. I am sure you are aware 

that recent reporting by MSF says 1,000 people a day are crossing 

into Rwanda right now. Aljazeera was just reporting yesterday 

from the camp there, where there is 70,000 refugees now in Rwanda, up to 170,000 total including Tanzania. So these are very, very 

real situations. There was fighting on July 10 in Kayanza which 

reportedly was with the armed forces and a group of rebels, who 

probably are former armed forces or involved in the coup, and they 

are well armed and they are staging in the Kibira forest area. 

So those tensions occur, continue to occur, and will be real for 

the time being and into the future, so it is a very tense situation 

that we are faced with. Undoubtedly, in a few days’ time or by August 26th, we will, the West will be faced with a Nkurunziza-led 

government. Not happy with the way he got there possibly, but he 

will be there. We will have to deal with him. And while many countries are withdrawing their security assistance, other forms of aid 

including, as you well know, some of the aid that was coming in 

for the election process itself was withdrawn by three donors. 

Short of breaking diplomatic relations and cutting off ties, what 

is it that we can do to help to bring Burundi to a peaceful, sustained peaceful future? My colleagues have already named a number of things with which I agree. I think it is really important that 

we remain, first of all, we remain outspoken, which we have been 

doing. The new Special Envoy is good to have in place. We, along 

with the United Nations and the African Union, have said the right 

things recently. We need to push publicly and strongly for upholding democratic principles, the rule of law, freedom of press—extremely important. As we all know the press was shut down. A lot 

of the press was shut down during the crisis—but also for independent judiciary and independent elections commission. 

Part of the problem with the third term issue was the doubt cast 

upon the constitutional court’s validity and so we need to push 

hard for that independence of the judiciary. We need to revive and 

strengthen the efforts of local NGOs, and NGOs like the international ones that are working there that are represented at this 

table. Community groups and religious organizations, we need to 

restart efforts to promote reconciliation and peace efforts across political, community, subregional, religious, and ethnic lines. 

And again I refer to those efforts that led us up to the 2005 elections and through that which did have success. They can be done. 

We need to push and assist, which we can do, in this disarmament 

effort. The government says it is working on the disarmament effort. Let us hold it at its word. Let us push for that. Let us offer 

resources for that if we can. 

I think it is important that we mobilize and continue to mobilize 

greater national attention to the rising political and ethnic threat 

that Burundi represents to the country and to the region. Congresswoman Bass, here, asked about the region. We know tensions 

exist in the region. We know the relationships with Rwanda and 

34

Burundi are problematic and have been for some years going back 

to 1994 and before. We know that some staging of rebel groups, 

Banyamulenge and others, are rumored to be happening in the 

DRC. We know the FNL itself, one of the opposition parties has 

done some staging there. 

So we need to work with the regional group countries and to, as 

I said, push strongly to see that they do nothing to exacerbate the 

tensions in Burundi. Make it clear to President Nkurunziza and his 

closest allies and associates that they have violated international 

agreements and norms in their actions and that they bear the 

greatest responsibility for the current political crisis. They will be 

held responsible to the international community for any breakdown 

in the future in law and order and any mass violence that should 

occur. 

I think in this context that, Alissa mentioned this, that we 

should push for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation 

Commission, which is of course an Arusha Accords mandated body 

and has not yet come into effect. A little goes a long way to getting 

toward questions of justice. There should be no immunity for violent deeds by youth militias like Imbonerakure, the police, or any 

other party that is engaged in violence and loss of life because this 

isn’t all just one-sided obviously. It is important to realize that this 

crisis did not catch the world unaware. 

Since 2008, when preparations for the 2010 elections began and 

in subsequent years, international funding for democracy and governance, as Mike as talked about, and reconciliation and 

peacebuilding has fallen away. The work with political party reconciliation, leadership development and integration and capacity 

building of the armed forces that was done through those years 

needs to be continued. 

The issue of making sure we have long-term commitments has 

been mentioned by everybody at this table, and it just seems to be 

something that never, ever gets through to policymakers. You 

never get a grant for more than 18 months to 2 years anyway no 

matter what you are doing, and as soon as you have done it then 

you have done that and the donor moves on to something else and 

somebody else. And just when you are beginning to establish yourselves and beginning to be effective and have impact, whether you 

are local, whether you are international NGOs, that gets withdrawn. 

Then another thing that I want to mention, just in closing, which 

Burundi officials will not like, and that is we often say to ourselves, 

and you hear this from the U.S. Government officials, that, well, 

we have such limited leverage, what can we do; how can we push? 

Well, it is true. We don’t want to be in a position of taking away 

humanitarian aid and assistance and et cetera that is so badly 

needed. We don’t want to break diplomatic relations. We don’t want 

to do those things. 

But remember that there is one point of leverage that should be 

borne in mind. I am not threatening anybody, but in terms of Burundi’s role in international peacekeeping in Haiti, Central African 

Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Sudan, where it has over 7,200 troops committed, nearly one fifth of the standing armed National Army is 

committed to peacekeeping. They have a wonderful reputation, 

35

laudable contribution to international peace and order. However, 

Burundi is reimbursed by the U.N. $1,028 for each soldier deployed, or a return of $45 million annually, along with salaries of 

$750 a month received by each individual soldier, 7,200 soldiers. 

You can add all that up. The Burundi Government should be 

warned that mass violence in Burundi and any human rights perpetrated by the security forces domestically could jeopardize their 

ability to serve in future peacekeeping operations. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. McDonald follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. McDonald. Let me say for 

the record, Tom Perriello as well as Secretary Linda Thomas 

Greenfield were invited. They had things that they are doing overseas. We have invited them at a date when they can make themselves available. I think that will happen. So part two of this hearing will be to hear from them, and probably more from the NGO 

side as well, sometime in September. 

We also submit for the record and unanimous consent, a statement by Assistant Professor Cara Jones and a letter from the Ambassador of Burundi to the United States. Without objection, so ordered. 

I thought since we have a series of votes coming, I, my good colleague Ms. Bass, and Mr. Donovan will ask questions and then we 

will see if we have time for a second round, if there are anything 

you didn’t answer or we want to elaborate, we will do it that way. 

Let me begin the questioning, first, with July 2, 2015, just a few 

weeks ago, days ago, the State Department announced that they 

were going to suspend security assistance programs to Burundi. 

What do you think needs to be done to resume that money? As specific as possible would be appreciated. What role have neighboring 

states played in either fomenting or addressing Burundi’s crisis? Is 

Kagame playing a role here? We have heard that. I would appreciate your thoughts on that. 

Mr. Jobbins, you went into great detail and appropriate detail 

about the impact in your part, backdrop of desperation that USAID 

funded research in 2010, 45 percent of the children under 5 are 

anemic, and NGO’s report stunting rates of 57 percent. As you 

know, Burundi signed up to the scaling up program in February 

2013, which is this herculean effort on the first thousand days of 

life from conception to the second birthday. If you get that right, 

the next 25,000–30,000 days of that child’s life into adulthood will 

be exponentially enhanced in terms of immunity, strength, stunting 

pretty much goes away, but that prenatal care, mother and baby 

of course, maternal healthcare is absolutely transformational. They 

signed up in 2013; how well or poorly are they doing, if you can 

speak to that. 

Let me also ask about, Ms. Wilson, you emphasized the importance of the faith community. Maybe all of you might want to 

elaborate how they are being on all sides, all faith community leaders into the peace efforts, the mitigation of ethnic animosities. Is 

that working? Do they utilize the faith community as effectively as 

they could? 

Ms. Wilson, you talked about how revitalizing the mediation 

process should be the top priority for the United States. Is it? Are 

we doing it? If not, are we about to do it? And I do have other questions. And the 150-plus journalists, did any of them encounter any 

threats, pushback? Were they unfettered in their ability to report 

on and to ascertain what is truly going on? 

Ms. BASS. Sure, I just have a couple of questions really focusing 

on the U.S. and what more we can do, in particular with the IDPs 

and the concern about people being in the surrounding countries 

and what more that we can do on the human rights side, on the 

humanitarian side, but also on the security side. 

45

And then the AU has taken a position that they will not recognize the results of the election which, although they haven’t been 

announced, everybody knows what the results are going to be, and 

so I wanted to get a sense as to practically what that means. Will 

the President not be allowed to participate in the AU? Will he be 

kicked out? How do you see that in whether or not you see that 

is going to have any impact on him? Those are my two questions. 

Mr. DONOVAN. I, as is the chairman, very concerned about the 

children. And I met with a group yesterday, we were talking about 

preventable diseases that we have medicines and inoculations for, 

and also about the malnutrition that you spoke about, Mike, and 

wondering if the aid being provided, first of all, is it being provided 

for the children? 

Doctor, I have a 2-month old and I am so glad to hear you say 

about the children, how they are cherished in your country. 

So, one, is aid being provided? Is medication being provided for 

these preventable diseases, and is food being provided to help with 

this malnutrition? And two, if it is being provided, is it getting to 

the children or is the government allowing the aid to be received 

by those who are in need? So those are my two issues. 

Mr. JOBBINS. Thank you so much. To take first perhaps the 

cross-cutting question of nutrition and food security. We have seen 

some progress with a lot of different assistance programs to ensure 

food security, but what we haven’t seen is that the fundamental 

underlying mathematics is broken of this agricultural society that 

doesn’t have enough land with the agricultural techniques to feed 

its people. And so the question for the long term is not how do we 

ensure food security right now, but how do we set a path for 

growth? And that is only through regional integration, it is only 

through an education system that prepares people for the modern 

economy and through dealing with this urban class. And so I think 

to us that is the biggest gap. Certainly emergency feeding is needed, but setting people up for a path for growth is what we haven’t 

seen a lot of progress on and what is absolutely critical. 

But to come to terms with Mr. Smith’s question about the media, 

we did feel that with the journalists who we worked with—we 

worked with six radio stations as well as our own journalists—we 

were able to document what happened on voting day. However, this 

is a current against the backdrop of, like Steve said, a number of 

radio stations are off-air. We have in principle the President as 

well as certainly the media themselves want to get back on air, but 

there is a lot of very deep issues about the pre-conditions for those 

to get back on air. 

And in terms of where, places where there could be found common ground, certainly every political actor in Burundi has been the 

victim of hate speech at one point or another in their careers and 

everyone has benefited from the opportunity to have a fair shake 

through the media. And so to the extent that that can be an opportunity to get those stations back on air to meet the concerns of the 

government, get them back on air can help create the conditions for 

a dialogue to be successful. It is a key confidence building measure 

and one where we feel that there is a decent chance at least of beginning to set things on the right course in supporting that dialogue and social compact. 

46

To touch just rapidly on the two questions of the faith communities and the displaced. The faith communities have played a heroic role particularly on the aspect of preventing violence. We have 

worked with interfaith groups throughout this crisis. I was meeting 

with them the day before protests broke out about how you talk 

about violence to your parishioners or to your congregations. And 

the number one message that they focused on was the principle of 

individual accountability, the story of Cain and Abel in the Christian tradition. 

At the end of the day, you alone are accountable for your acts 

before the law and before God. It is not your commander. It is not 

your neighbor. It is not your political leader who is going to be rendering an account for the judgment, but in fact it is going to be you 

yourself who have to justify your own actions. That has been something that has been particularly empowering and something that 

needs to be reinforced. That principle does not group collective 

blame but rather every individual has the right and the responsibility to for their own actions, and the faith community has been 

very instrumental in communicating that as a moral message. 

And then the last question on the displaced people, we see that 

there has been a slow increase in assistance. Right now the capacity is still overwhelmed particularly in Tanzania and Rwanda with 

the reports of the latest, there seems to be signs it is being overwhelmed. And in Congo, of course refugees are fleeing into an area 

that is profoundly unstable and risks destabilizing further the context of the Ruzizi Plains on the Congolese side. 

But what we hear from our colleagues—we work in each of those 

countries. What we hear from our colleagues are two other needs 

in addition to the humanitarian needs. One is access to information, media programming and information that can help prevent 

those populations from being manipulated. We have seen in past 

crises in the region how refugees have been instrumentalized, have 

been manipulated into worsening the violence back home, and that 

is something that will absolutely be critical. 

And then the second is the issue of protection. We hear particularly our colleagues, from talking with the Tanzanian Government, 

there are a lot of concerns in how the government themselves can 

ensure protection for these vulnerable populations, for victims, for 

women, for children who are fleeing, how you ensure their security, 

how you ensure their wellbeing in this crisis. It is something that 

in those areas the government hasn’t had a lot of experience and 

capacity and resources for. 

And so to the extent that we can focus on the protection of 

women, children, victims of violence in those refugee settings is a 

key point that has been underlined to us by the humanitarian community and by the governments of those neighboring countries. I 

think I will let my colleagues speak to those points, and then also 

about the regional actors. 

Ms. NDURA. Let me focus on children’s issues. I can say that I 

am a grandma. I always start with the children and I end with the 

children. It is almost like when you travel across Burundi, it is 

very much as if it’s two worlds ‘‘juxtaposed’’ to each other. Even 

within the same provinces, you go to an area in the city centers or 

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thing they need, even more than they need. They are spoiled to 

death even, sometimes, and have a great education. They are multilingual, sometimes in French and Swahili because they have the 

best schools. And then you walk a mile or two to just see children 

who are in the dirt, many times with not even the basic clothing 

on, honestly, naked in the street in the water puddles after it rains. 

And then of course with all the germs or the illnesses that that 

brings to them. 

So when I travel and work across Burundi I always ask myself 

that same question, where is all the assistance that all these multinations are saying they have poured into Burundi? I personally 

have not seen it. I am being honest. I really have not seen it. Because I was able to travel to Burundi for the first time in 2006, because I was a political refugee I had to wait for my U.S. passport 

for which I will forever be grateful. That is what allowed me to go 

back to Burundi to do the work that I currently do. 

But you don’t see, I have not been seeing. In 2006, I thought this 

is normal. The country is barely emerging from armed conflict so 

it is normal that everybody is hungry, that everybody is poor. But 

how about today, 2015? I was there in March. The conditions have 

not changed. So I don’t see where the support is going. So what do 

we do? Do we stop? Definitely not. Because if we were to stop the 

assistance, then many more children, many more expectant mothers would die. 

I would say expect accountability. How do we do that? Burundi, 

it is very difficult to operate and to collaborate with people from 

different cultures, because if we ask for reports about how the assistance has been spent and we get the reports but that is not always how exactly how things were done, and we proclaim that 

things were done because we have a report. The report is not always the reality. 

So I suggest that not only we continue the assistance to the children and to the mothers, but actually increase it. But also monitor, 

more effective monitoring practices from people who have a greater 

conscience. I don’t want us to do like one country in Europe did. 

They gave cows to a community, three cows, and then they sent 

three consultants, one per cow. And one consultant per cow and 

they were paid $15,000 to watch over the cow. No, that is not what 

I am proposing. 

But we surely need a more effective monitoring process that 

would ensure that the assistance gets there, that it is distributed, 

so that we can increase it. There are very responsible people in Burundi, we just need to find them. There are people who are compassionate in Burundi, we just need to find them. Because most of the 

time those that we reach immediately because they have access to 

us, they have access to these important people with whom they 

have been working for years, sometimes you may be surprised that 

they may not be the best. 

Moment of truth here. Seriously, I did research on NGOs, community based peacebuilding programs and practices a few years 

back, and one of the lessons I learned was that oh, how come all 

the NGO heads and Presidents, how come they are all Tutsis? I noticed, but they still talked to me and I appreciated the work they 

did. But as a researcher I still have to ask myself. So who has acVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:58 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\072215\95635 SHIRL
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cess to us and whom do we have access to has to be reconceptualized to make sure our good work really produces the impact that 

it is meant to have. 

Now beyond children there is youth. Children are not the same 

as youth. Let me go back to the youth. Until we invest in sustained 

opportunities to provide the youth with the means to produce their 

own food, their own money to take care of themselves, to go to the 

clinic when they are sick, to take care of their wives and children 

when they get married and have families, until we show them that 

they do not need to depend on biased and self-serving political 

party leaders—there must be a category for enhancing and developing the capacity of youth to productively engage in the affairs of 

Burundi—I am sitting here to say the troubles of Burundi will continue. Because when those young men, young women are hungry, 

they will do whatever they need to get food. We are just talking 

about food. We are not talking about cars and houses and boats. 

We are talking about basic needs, food, medicine, shelter. The 

youth. There must be a category—yes, the children. We need to 

help them grow in a safe neighborhood. But there must be a new 

emphasized category for the youth. Until we listen, we are not 

helping Burundi and the Burundian people. 

Ms. WILSON. Two quick points. First, on the mediation. So as you 

mentioned before, we had not had as robust a presence as we 

might have in this process because we didn’t have a Special Envoy 

appointed. And so I would say right now we have a hopeful moment that someone is there and can really be the U.S. point person 

on collaborating with these partners. But I would say that two mediators were dismissed from this process and now we are on to a 

new process. 

And I would say that it has been harder to see how and whether 

the Burundian NGOs that we mentioned, that Steve has mentioned, will be consulted and what that consultation will look like. 

And if it happens in a black box, to come back to the Burundian 

people and explain what has happened will be harder than if there 

was a process that did involve these kinds of organizations. 

Also on the role of faith, someone said to me that people are believers before they are political beings, and I thought that was just 

a really salient point. Because there is a reach that faith communities have that others don’t have just because of the moral authority often that faith leaders play. And it is not always easy, and it 

is not always that faith leaders are apolitical beings, but that there 

is a higher sense that they are trying to work toward. 

And as Search for Common Ground as done, as we have done, 

I think, in supporting the faith leaders who really want to come together and ensure that both at the local level and at the national 

level, these messages for dialogue are really being heard in the 

community. And as I mentioned, it is happening across the country, and I think as long as that continues we have a hope line for 

what can happen both within civil society and at the sociopolitical 

level. 

Ms. NDURA. And may I add that even with the faith community 

we cannot go in without thinking and asking critical questions? 

One of the things I noticed when I traveled to Burundi is that 

many of the guests at hotels, sometimes large numbers, are always 

49

missionaries, mostly from the United States. So there are financial 

advantages for many Burundians for connecting with those missionaries because they bring dollars. 

So are we practicing faith because we are called by the Almighty 

to improve the wellbeing of the Burundian people or are we preaching and praising the Almighty because He, or She—who knows? I 

haven’t seen Him. I believe, but I don’t know. Are we praising the 

Almighty because He has helped us connect with somebody who 

would help us complete the foundation for our new home? 

Do you know that President Nkurunziza is one of the most practicing faithful people? He prays a lot. He even dances for the Lord. 

Is he listening more? Should he listen more? Is he growing from 

his faith that tells him to love all people and care for people, to actually develop and exact policies that will help him and his associates live by faith? I would just end with that question. 

Mr. MCDONALD. I want to respond to several of the questions, 

but I will start where Elavie and Alissa ended, first of all, just by 

saying quite simply that I have not been to a country in Africa—

and I have been to almost every sub-Saharan African country for 

an extended period of time in my life—that is more faith-based, is 

more religious than Burundi. It is a deeply, deeply religious people. 

But I absolutely agree with what Elavie said. President 

Nkurunziza has been here for the Presidential Prayer Breakfast. 

He has been wined and dined by all kinds of faith-based people and 

organizations, and we have got to be very careful how we approach 

this issue. That is all I will say on that. 

Mediation process, not a whole lot more to say than what Alissa 

said. I think it has not been a top priority, which was your question, Congressman Smith, but it should be and hopefully is being 

underlined even more now. I am aware of a process that is going 

on right now in The Hague where the Burundi Leadership Training Program, an organization that I had a lot to do with coming 

into being, and The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy are meeting with State Department officials from the Bureau 

of Conflict Stabilization Operations talking about exactly this effort. We need to encourage, we need to enlarge on that. It is an 

area in which we can have an effect. 

But also to your question on the regional role, regional states’ 

role, Uganda of course was doing, I think, a very honest mediation 

role in the past few days, so let us not ignore the neighboring 

states as potential players in the mediation process. As far as what 

we should be saying to neighboring states, I think it goes back to 

that old platitude, first of all do no harm, because that is possible. 

I am not an expert in this area, but there are certainly rumors 

about that Rwanda has possibly tried to instigate anti-Tutsi fears, 

and whether this is happening officially or not we don’t know. But 

certainly tensions are building, and as I said in my oral remarks, 

the tensions in the eastern DRC organizations and groups that are 

there, FDLR, Banyamulenge, et cetera, have got to be very careful 

that they don’t get involved in this. So we really need to be consulting with all the neighboring states at all times. 

In this security sector assistance, I think the United States has 

done exactly the right thing in terms of stopping that assistance 

right now. I think we have got a situation in some ways, and analoVerDate 0ct 09 2002 13:58 Oct 06, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00053 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\072215\95635 SHIRL
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gous to Nigeria now, we want to be helpful in Nigeria in the fight 

against Boko Haram, but how can you work with a military that 

is corrupt and ineffective and inefficient? So you have got to be 

sure you have some security sector reform before you can move 

back in there. It is not very easy. 

The army, as Mike said, has been one of the positive things in 

this whole crisis and transition and that is good, but they are not 

without their own divisions particularly from the intelligence unit 

which is very close to President Nkurunziza. But they are very well 

meaning, professional army officers of both Tutsi and Hutu backgrounds with whom we can work. What we can do is have a very, 

very effective well plugged-in defense attache there who is following these things very, very closely. 

And I am not quite sure what the status of that is with our Embassy. I am a very, very big supporter of Ambassador Liberi. I 

think she is doing a wonderful job, but I think she is limited in her 

staff and her outreach and her ability to get at some of these 

issues. So that maybe needs to be one thing we build up just to 

know more about those divisions within the army, and when the 

time will come when we can work with them again in terms of security sector assistance. 

In some ways that is the same thing I can say about the refugee 

issues. Mike has elaborated on that a bit. One thing is we need to 

be better informed. I don’t think anybody from our Embassy in 

Tanzania has been to the border yet to visit with those refugee 

camps. I know they haven’t gone yet to the Rwanda border because 

those camps have just popped up there, literally just popped up 

there overnight. Obviously we have got to work very closely with 

the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees on that, but our own efforts to inform ourselves need to be increased. 

The other thing was your question, Congresswoman Bass, on not 

recognizing this election and what happens next. I am reminded, 

I can pull my gray beard out on this and I am reminded of what 

happened after the Idi Amin coup in Uganda, and I was in Uganda 

at that time as a political officer in the American Embassy. And 

the OAU had a really tough time knowing who to seat at the 10th 

anniversary of the OAU up in Addis Ababa when Idi Amin and 

Milton Obote both showed up. It can be a difficult issue. 

But the AU is not the OAU. They operate by some pretty different rules and it is a much better organization. But still, I think 

the fact of the matter will be, as I said in my testimony we will 

be faced with a government that we will have to recognize. That 

it will be a de facto situation that we will have to deal with. How 

the AU handles that, how we handle it diplomatically I will leave 

to other people to sort out. But it is going to be a fait accompli. And 

in time, there may be some awkward moments over the next few 

months, but in time they will be accepted and we will have to work 

with him and with the Nkurunziza government one way or another. I think that is all. 

Mr. SMITH. We still have a few minutes before the votes, so just 

a couple of follow-up questions. Mr. McDonald, in your testimony 

you talked about a novel idea which would cost Burundi some $45 

million if they were disqualified from participating in peacekeeping. They have the deployments in Somalia, Cote d’Ivoire, 

51

Sudan, Haiti, Central African Republic, and the numbers are rather stark, $45 million and $750 per month for the soldiers as you 

point out, one-fifth of the standing army. And I do believe, and correct me if I am wrong, that that actually helps make them a better, 

not worse, military force because of the humanitarian work they 

do. 

But I remember when Mr. Jobbins testified on the Central African Republic almost 2 years ago, pointed out to our committee that 

the Burundi deployments were among the most professional, if not 

the most professional that you saw, which is a paradox. Is it the 

police that is really the problem, or the military? If you two might 

want to elaborate on that. Because I think I know what you are 

trying to get at, Mr. McDonald, and it is a laudable goal to try to 

have some impact on the government. But again I think those 

peacekeeping operations might be harmed. I am not sure enough 

could be raised up in any reasonable amount of time, but again 

they are among the most professional, which is a paradox. 

Secondly, on the issue of the first thousand days from conception 

to the second birthday, the numbers are not really coming down. 

And I am not sure with the big sign-up ceremony in February 

2013. In other places we have seen it—I was in Guatemala the day 

the Guatemalan Government signed on to the first thousand days 

program; with nutrition supplementation for mother and baby, 

both unborn and newborn, the stunting does come down. In Nigeria, 1⁄2 million kids died before the age of 2. 

Preventable deaths like few places in the world, and we are hoping—I raised it with President Buhari yesterday that this should 

be a singular issue that he says, for the sake of the children and 

the mothers, do you want to mitigate maternal death and morbidity, make sure that there is enough proper nutrition and supplementation for both mother and baby. And again stunting does 

go away if this were to happen. So if you could maybe elaborate 

a little bit on that issue, because I think that is a cost-effective initiative that has got a lot of rhetorical support but not a whole lot 

of implementation on the ground. 

And on faith leaders, my real focus is on the pastors, the bishops, 

the archbishops, the people who I have found, and I have been here 

35 years and I remember in Central America it was the church 

that played pivotal roles. Cardinal Obando y Bravo in Nicaragua, 

I remember meeting with him when he was under siege, frankly, 

but they tried to make peace. They tried for human rights to speak 

truth to power. 

And all over Africa, everywhere I go I meet with the faith community, whether Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, 

Evangelical and others, Friends, and everywhere I go I find they 

have that higher calling, as was mentioned, and they put their 

lives on the line like few people that I know. Now there could be 

politicians who brandish and wear their faith on their sleeve, but 

I find that the clergy, they are in it for the people and that is the 

way they serve God. 

And I am just wondering if the U.S. Department of State and 

USAID, because I have this argument with them all the time, sufficiently understands the asset that they pose? We have been pushing this in South Sudan to get the church more involved. They are 

52

ready and willing. I have met with bishops, my staff, Greg and 

Piero have, and they get put over to the side a little bit. Have a 

prayer service at the beginning, but they are not really integral 

parts of this whole process. So if you could speak to that one as 

well. 

Mr. JOBBINS. Thank you so much. I think to the first question 

about the role that the Burundian troops have played, for example, 

in the Central African Republic, I said, as you alluded to, several 

years ago, and it is still is the case that they are playing a very 

positive role and are certainly cooperating and contributing to protection in that country and in, as far as I understand, a number 

of the other countries where they are deployed. 

I think what I would take away is that you get what you pay for, 

and security sector reform and a focus on the army reform was an 

organizing priority and we have seen relatively good performance 

from the army. There was less of a focus on police reform and less 

of a focus on justice sector and less of a focus on a number of other 

elements of the security sector. They have been the groups that 

have been the most criticized, partially because they haven’t been 

supported through this process. 

Second, on the question of nutrition, one of the real achievements 

of the Nkurunziza’s administration and the Government of Burundi 

with its partners has been child survival. It has been the 

healthcare extension. It has been also a schooling extension to the 

rural population that is a source of the popularity of the current 

government, or one of the reasons that Steve alluded to. There is 

a lot more that needs to be done fundamentally. For me the challenge is looking at the optimistic scenario, if we are facing 40 percent malnutrition in 2050, it is not how you get from 40 percent 

to 35 percent, but how do you create the environment for an overall 

step change in the economy? Fundamentally we do need to work 

on child survival and agricultural livelihoods, but also how can you 

set a path for growth so you can get from 40 percent to zero percent? And that is going to be the big political challenge. 

Mr. SMITH. On that issue, now I understand immunizations, oral 

rehydration nutrition therapy, all the pillars of child survival, but 

are they also doing the first thousand days of life effectively? They 

signed on, it is just are they doing it? Do you know? 

Mr. JOBBINS. For that I am not sure. I don’t know the details of 

all the programs. There are certainly programs underway, but the 

details I don’t know. 

And I think the last is just on the question of the religious community. We are supported to an extent for our work with the religious community from the Department of State via the CSO Bureau. Certainly there is always a need for more and more support 

and particularly in other kinds of domains, but on this immediate 

question of how can the religious community work with their flocks 

and their followings to reinforce that message of nonviolence, that 

component at least is being supported at least to an extent by the 

Department of State. 

But in terms of the broader engagement and the engagement of 

the religious community as thought partners, I think Museveni’s 

meeting with the religious community as part of his mediation 

process was a positive one. And certainly as we look to see how 

53

that broader social compact could be reinforced beyond the political 

question of who gets to lead Burundi, but how can we try out a Burundi that people want, certainly the Burundi faith community as 

well as the media as well as youth groups and community leaders 

have to play a huge role in that. And so hopefully we will see their 

political involvement going forward as part of the solution. 

Ms. NDURA. The Catholic Church has been one of the most vocal 

and actively engaged faith groups in Burundi from the beginning. 

In fact, Le Conseil des eveques, the Bishop’s Council was instrumental in leading Burundi to the Arusha Accords in the 2,000 

years and before that and they have been very vocal. The only complication is that they have been very vocal against President 

Nkurunziza’s bid for the third term. 

So now what I wonder is how would collaboration return, because they do need each other. They need to work together. Burundi is almost 60 percent or so Roman Catholic approximately, a 

legacy of Belgium, so collaboration is a must between the government and the Roman Catholic Church. I am not clear yet how they 

will be able to renegotiate that. 

But on a smaller scale, my colleague here keeps saying we need 

to invest more, we need to invest more. George Mason University 

has had initiatives working to build the youth capacity for peaceful 

engagement, and we have been doing the work and the collaboration with the Archdiocese, Gitega Archdiocese Office of Education 

Supervision. And they keep saying we have more ideas, we need 

to do more work, we need to do more work. But we have yet to generate any kind of financial support that would help us to strengthen and expand the work that they have been doing. 

University of Ngozi, also in Burundi, which is interethnic, 

multifaith, and international, a private institution run by a Catholic priest, is also one of George Mason University’s partners. And 

through our work and collaboration in March, particularly this past 

March, they were able to organize a youth interfaith festival, therefore enhancing the consciousness of members of different faiths 

within the university community and beyond to work individually 

and collectively to promote nonviolence and peace in Burundi. So 

the faith communities are engaged, but as Mike keeps saying and 

reminding us, we cannot do the work we need to do without adequate financial support. Our energy can only go so far. 

Mr. SMITH. Before you answer, Ms. Wilson, because you might 

want to incorporate this, on Monday, the Department of State will 

announce their TIP ratings for human trafficking. And for the 

record, I wrote that law. It is called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. I wrote 2003’s and 2005’s expansions and reauthorization. 

Burundi has a Tier 2 Watch List ranking. And their recommendations—I don’t know what it will be Monday, but it might 

drop to Tier 3, which means a country is an egregious violator. Finalizing a draft legislation on trafficking is one of the recommendations that was made. There were a number of recommendations 

made by State. What is your sense about the trafficking situation 

in Burundi today? Because again, Tier 2 Watch List, child sex trafficking, forced labor on plantations, it is a huge problem and I am 

54

wondering if the government is doing enough on that, as you go 

and answer the other questions as well. 

Ms. WILSON. I cannot answer that question, but it is something 

that I will ask some of our colleagues about. And just a small footnote to say that I mentioned time to start planning now for the 

long-term engagement, because it is hard when you are in the middle of a crisis to think about what is going to happen at the end 

of a crisis, just as the faith community, as it is consulted by 

Museveni and others, should be consulted as the U.S. plans for 

that future part with State, with USAID and others. 

Mr. MCDONALD. On the faith leaders issue let me add just one 

little thing. And that is, in the work that Howard Wolpe and I were 

involved in and those years that we were involved with a cross section of leadership, we were sure to include the Archbishop of Burundi, several of the provincial archbishops, and Pentecostal and 

Protestant leaders as well. It is important not just to support the 

faith-based community and what they do with their flocks, but to 

be sure they are part of the national dialogue as you begin to build 

any kind of mediation effort or whatever. 

Mr. SMITH. Is State doing that now? 

Mr. MCDONALD. Not that I know of. 

Ms. NDURA. And sex trafficking, human trafficking, I have not 

presently collected any data on that but I have witnessed, as I 

travel a lot in Burundi, it all goes down to poverty. Poverty. People 

will do whatever they have to do to find food and to find shelter. 

I guess you realize we have the same problems here in the United 

States. In the most poor communities that is where we have the 

greatest problems, relevant problems. That is why I keep going 

back to the need to intentionally invest in the youth in order to impact any of these problems positively. 

Mr. JOBBINS. And I think just to complement on the TIP issue—

and thank you so much for your leadership on that and putting 

protection of vulnerable groups at the forefront of U.S. engagement—we, certainly on the regional sex trafficking, we have certainly heard reports, the extent, I don’t think, is documented. 

And I think one of the biggest questions both in terms of assistance to the Burundian side, as well as for international groups is 

understanding the extent to which these very real phenomena are 

there, but what I can say is that it is almost certain to increase. 

With one of the highest rates of urbanization in the world you have 

young, poor migrants moving into cities and to vulnerable situations and increases in street children and other kinds of people living at the margins of society, and so it is very foreseeable that 

child exploitation, the sexual exploitation of these vulnerable 

groups is going to increase both in the urban areas as well as many 

of the reports that we also hear about the artisanal mining communities, where it is not a huge trade in the region but there are 

artisanal mining activities, and we hear worrying reports about 

child protection and vulnerable group protection there. So it is certainly a very, very real risk and it is something that needs to be 

focused on as we focus on these broader issues, how do we really 

protect that vulnerable group? 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. McDonald. 

55

Mr. MCDONALD. Well, I will leave the trafficking, because I don’t 

have any statistical evidential thing to put forward on that except 

in just all of my years of being involved I have seen the trends that 

are being spoken about by Mike and Elavie, and including in young 

women and prostitution, Burundians both in DRC and other neighboring countries, so they get there somehow. 

On the peacekeeping question that you asked, let me add something there. There is a difference between the police and the military, the army, in terms of how they have responded and how they 

see their national mission, in my mind. In the work that Wolpe and 

I did with the military and the integration of the military armed 

forces, which lasted over a period of about 21⁄2 years with repeated 

workshops and ongoing efforts at creating a sense of interdependence and trust building, et cetera, none of that was ever done with 

the police. 

Police certainly got technical training from the Belgians and the 

French and others, but the police of course were transitioning from 

a gendarmerie to national police situation, old Belgium style, 

French style gendarmerie, in which sort of the role of them in 

terms of servants of the people and et cetera just is not quite understood. I think their sense of mission is very different than what 

the professional army has developed over these years, and that is 

why the army has performed so very well in its peacekeeping missions abroad. 

Now the individual soldiers who have been involved in those 

peacekeeping missions have been rotated. We are not talking about 

7,200 troops stationed over there permanently. So this permeates 

the army and they are very proud of the professionalism and the 

reputation they have gained and et cetera, so this is really something to build on. Although the numbers that are abroad at any 

given time are one-fifth of the armed forces, the entirety of the 

armed forces have been involved in one way or another in this 

whole peacekeeping process. And so it really is a point of national 

pride for them and we should keep that in mind. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very, very much for your testimonies, your 

expert guidance. Anything you think we have missed that you 

would like to add to the record and give us guidance on would be 

deeply appreciated. But thank you for your time, your expertise, 

your commitment. It really does make all the difference in the 

world. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:39 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

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MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, 

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SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS


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