A little enticement here and there to compel the belligerents in Burundi to
"negotiate"
for peace, can, so to say, come in handle, I reckon.
The question is: by "bribing" the belligerents in Burundi, do members of the
International Community really hope that they will somehow bring peace in
Burundi?
Matek
Donors Promise US $905 Million for Burundi
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
December 2, 2002
Posted to the web December 2, 2002
Nairobi
A two-day international donors' conference on Burundi ended on Thursday with
a promise of US $905 million to support war recovery efforts, the UN
Development Programme reported.
Burundi's budgetary and balance-of-payments-support needs for 2002-2005,
tabled at the Geneva conference, amount to $787.5 million, including the
current debts for the period, estimated at $173.9 million. The country's
remaining deficit to be cleared amounted to $340 million, in terms of
budgetary and balance-of-payments aid.
Burundi's planning ministry said $1.2 billion was needed for the country's
social programme, a part of which should have been covered on the basis of
pledges made at the December 2001 round-table conference in Geneva. This
contains previous programmes for humanitarian aid, reconciliation,
rehabilitation and reconstruction, the fight against HIV/AIDS, and debt
reduction.
The UNDP said Burundi's economy was largely agricultural on which 90 percent
of the country's 6.1 million people lived. The country ranks 171 among the
poorest 175 nations in the world, according to the UNDP's World Human
Development Index. The agency places life expectancy at 40.6 years, and says
13 percent of the population between 15 and 49 years are HIV positive. Debt
service has reached 106 percent of the value of exports, compared to 98
percent the previous year. The country registered a drop of 20 percent in
Gross Domestic Product, in real terms, during 1993-2001.
