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ABSTRACT
Ethnic and land conflicts have recently gained significance in peace and conflict resolution. It is imperative to understand both endogenous and exogenous factors and their relations towards the institutional, democratic, and state-building process to mediate the risks of class and land conflicts. This paper attempts to identify historical relations of land and class structure by analysing Burundi land and class conflict and its significance for peace and stability. We found that the imbalance of land ownership and class structure in a society leads to armed conflicts, leading to an outbreak of other social conflicts, including violence, forced displacement, paralyzed land governance, and power relations changes. Hence, there is a dire need to foster reintegration and reconciliation through balanced multiple diplomacies in Burundi, enhancing state legitimacy towards sustainable land tenure security, improving state capacity, and ensuring justice in the reconciliation process, in association with local and regional powers.
Notes
1 Tutsi was the minority in regards to population number but was the majority in regards to political power – holding the major positions in the government and military.
2 The “Efforts for Stabilization – Government Establishment” section below gives further details on this.
3 Ibid.
4 Kohlhagen, ‘Land reform in Burundi.’
5 Nkurunziza and Ngaruko, Explaining Growth in Burundi: 1960–2000.
6 United Nations Security Council. S/1996/682
7 Lemarchand, Rwanda and Burundi.
8 Oketch and Polzer, Conflict and Coffee in Burundi.
9 Ibid
10 Ndikumana, ‘Institutional Failure and Ethnic Conflicts in Burundi.’
11 The already existing research that has been used for this study includes but not limited to: Diamond 2015, Friedman 2007, Galtung 1969, Gurr 1993, Weingard et al 2010 - accessible through bibliography. The above mentioned authors provide holistic analysis on the cases of conflict and insurgency as a whole not specifically assigned to a certain country.
12 Nkurunziza, 2018 explains that State fragility in Burundi has been as a result of the country’s political instability due to the endurement of six civil wars and five coup d’états and all that happened in a time line of 58 years since independence. State fragility in this sense rests to the failure of the country to reconstruct its economy and state institutions that occurred as a result of poor decisions made by its leaders over the years preceding the independence.
13 Keenan, The Blood Cries Out: Murder and Malthus in Africa's Great Lakes explains that due to the densely population and the lack of land and resources is forcing siblings fight for mere acres of land which could push the country into another civil war.
14 Ibidi.
15 Tchatchoua-Djomo et al., ‘Intricate links.’
16 Goodhart, ‘Democracy, Globalization, and the Problem of the State.’
17 Ibid
18 Weber, ‘Politics as a Vocation.’
19 Hobbes and Curley, ‘Leviathan: With Selected Variants from the Latin Edition of 1668.’
20 Uvin, ‘Ethnicity and Power in Burundi and Rwanda.’
21 Kay and Lemarchand, ‘Burundi since the Genocide.’
22 Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi.
23 Lemarchand, ‘Social Change and Political Modernisation in Burundi.’
24 Voors et al., ‘Violent Conflict and Behavior.’
25 United Nations Security Council. S/1996/682.
26 Kay and Lemarchand, ‘Burundi since the Genocide.’
27 Gurr, ‘Why Minorities Rebel.’
28 Weingard and Krista, ‘Government Repression in Ethnic Conflict.’
29 Gurr, ‘Why Minorities Rebel.’
30 Francis Loft, and Frances Loft. ‘Background to the Massacres in Burundi.’
31 Wang and Alder, ‘Divide and Rule.’
32 Ndikumana, ‘Institutional Failure and Ethnic Conflicts in Burundi.’
33 Lately, ‘Peasants, Local Communities, and Central Power in Burundi.’
34 Uvin, ‘Ethnicity and Power in Burundi and Rwanda.’
35 Human Rights Watch. ‘Proxy Targets: Civilians in the War in Burundi.’
36 Ibid.
37 Bundervoet, Verwimp, and Akresh, ‘Health and Civil War in Rural Burundi.’
38 Ibid
39 Kohlhagen, ‘In Quest of Legitimacy.’
40 Keenan, ‘The Blood Cries Out.’
41 Ibid
42 Lately, ‘Peasants, Local Communities, and Central Power in Burundi.’
43 Ibid.
44 Vervisch, Titeca, and Braeckman, ‘Social Capital and Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Burundi.’
45 Diamond, ‘Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive.’
46 CIA Factbook. Burundi country.
47 Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 'Burundi: Still No End to Displacement, Despite Political Progress, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.'
48 Bundervoet, Verwimp, and Akresh, ‘Health and Civil War in Rural Burundi.’
49 Ibid.
50 Keenan, ‘The Blood Cries Out.’
51 Ibid.
52 Friedman, ‘The World Is Flat.’
53 Gurr, ‘Why Minorities Rebel.’
54 Ndikumana, ‘Institutional Failure and Ethnic Conflicts in Burundi.’
55 Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research.’
56 Lerche and Said, ‘Concepts of international politics.’
57 Mapendere, ‘Track One and a Half Diplomacy and the Complementarity of Tracks.’
58 Goodhart, ‘Democracy, Globalization, and the Problem of the State.’
59 Abdulrahman and Tar, ‘Conflict Management and Peacebuilding in Africa.’
60 Nan, ‘Track One-and-a-Half Diplomacy.’
61 Ibid.
62 Van Leeuwen and Haartsen, ‘Land Disputes and Local Conflict Resolution Mechanisms in Burundi.’
63 Ibid.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jetnor Kasmi
Jetnor Kasmi is a Development Economist working primarily on development policy and political economy. His interests include cultural conflict and security, migration and education policies, and participatory governance. Mr. Kasmi works for the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) heading the Civil Society Initiatives in Albania aiming at mediating conflict through the dialogue between governments and citizens on the issue of transitional justice and the issue of forced disappearances from autocratic regimes. Mr. Kasmi holds a Political Science degree with an emphasis in International Relations from Methodist University, USA; and MA degree in Development Policy from KDI School of Public Policy and Management, South Korea. He has extensive experience in working with the Albanian local and central level government, coordinating policy and providing capacity-building workshops for the community and the local government officials. In adittion, he has worked as a research consultant for the Institute of Democracy and Mediation and as a Senior Expert at the Directory of Integration, Coordination, Agreements, and Assistance at the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Furthermore, Mr. Kasmi has published a paper regarding the Romany rights in the Balkan region, and policy analysis regarding South Korean politics and its role in the middle-power diplomacy. Papers under publication include policy analysis regarding the Belt and Road Initiative in the Balkan Region and Community Perspectives on Services offered by the Government and NGOs.
Mohsin Khan
Mohsin Khan is a Gender, Governance, and Human Rights Program Advisor at Good Thinkers Organization for Human Development, and a Development Policy Fellow at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea where he majors in International Development and Public Administration and Leadership. In the past, he has worked with the Royal Commonwealth Society in London and with the Queen's Young Leaders at the University of Cambridge where he provided counseling and strategic support to the emerging young leaders across the Commonwealth States. As a former Program Specialist for the KOICA Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and READ Foundation, he led various programs centered on socioeconomic development in South and Southeast Asia, specifically in the realm of women's empowerment, health, education, and governance. As an avid researcher and policy analyst, he writes on human rights, education, poverty, political economy and institutional and bureaucratic reforms in Asia and Africa.