Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 87Explanations of conflict based on environmental and economic factors
have had a renaissance in recent years, reflected in the first chapter of this
book. We will briefly outline below to what extent some of these theories are
appropriate to Burundi's case. Of course, a focus on ecological causes is only
one possible angle from which to understand the conflict, and we do not
wish to postulate a new monocausal analysis. In the text, other factors, such
as the extremely powerful mutual fear of Hutus and Tiitsis of genocide, are
noted, but are not treated in detail.
Jeffrey Herbst4 makes the important point that too strong an analytical and
policy focus on the economic/resource-based aspects of a conflict (for exam-
ple, arguing for the policy of export diversification) detracts attention from
the fact that:
there are strong ideological or grievance-based factors (fear of mutual
genocide in Burundi); and
that the conflicts are still centrally military. For example, the violence
could be ended quickly by increasing the power of one side so that it can
defeat the other (as was long the case when the army could brutally
repress the rebel groups in a very short time).Moreover the international community does not want to take sides, and so
part of the attraction of drawing attention to economic agendas is that the
resulting policy recommendations do not require the international communi-
ty to get involved "in the messy business of promoting fighting, much less
the defeat of one side'? In spite of this caveat, it is clear that a position on
ecological issues in such a context is extremely political, because it concerns
control over wealth and the political influence this brings. It is not depoliti-
cising violence and conflict, but rather trying to uncover the structural moti-
vations and incentives behind the political rhetoric of ethnicity, which has
also had the effect of giving international actors an excuse for not taking a
committed and preventative stand in supporting peace building.
Many of the theories concerning the role of environmental factors in the
outbreak and continuation of violent conflict that have been put fonvard in
recent years do not apply to Burundi. There has been an active academic
debate about the 'new wars' whose protagonists are more interested in con-
tinued violence in order to gain and retain control over mineral wealth than
in winning for a political end. The central argument of these theories is that
armed groups, both government and rebels, can finance their arms and
armies through exploiting natural resources, and that retaining control over
these resources becomes a self-perpetuating reason for local commanders to
fight. These ideas focus mainly on easily extractable and exploitable natural
resources, which are found in easily localised and controlled sites, such as
gold, diamonds, other minerals (such as coltan in the DRC), oil or timber.