Conflitt and Coffee in Burundi
Johnstone Summit Oketch ond Tora Polzer'
Introduction
The small central African country of Burundi has repeatedly been wracked
by conflict since its independence in 1962. Since 1993 a fully-fledged civil
war has raged, with enormous human and economic cost. Years of regional
and international attempts to bring peace have made only slow progress.
Tragically, the most promising episodes of Burundi's history in terms of
democratisation and reform have repeatedly been turned into the triggers for
the most violent and deadly confrontations.
This study re-examines the conflict in Burundi and the conflict manage-
ment initiatives and processes aimed at mitigating it in the light of the con-
tribution of environmental and ecological factors in causing violence. There
are very few studies of the Burundian conflict which take these factors into
account. At a time when the Arusha peace process is at a crossroad, with the
start of all-party talks in Tanzania in August 2002, this perspective may con-
tribute to a deeper understanding of the underlying causes of the conflict.
especially those that have led to its repeated re-emergence over the past
decades. We also suggest several possible approaches to peace building that
aim to address the structural ecological conflicts that we identify.
The leitmotiv connecting the chapters is that the conflict, like many on the
continent of Africa, is primarily about elite struggles for control of the state.
Many researchers on Burundi2 have noted the central importance of compe-
tition for control over the state. The state, and the predatory activities of the
elite who control it, as we argue, is both the underlying impetus for violent
conflict, and the connecting link between the exploitation and degradation of
Burundi's natural resources and the conflict. The small size of the private
sector in many African countries has ensured that the state is virtually the
sole provider of employment and sole agent of economic redistribution.
Control of the state is therefore a powerful political asset which brings with
it the power to decide over the allocation of all the country's resources.
Harold Laswell's adage that politics is a question of whogets what where and
when applies in a very literal way in B~rundi.~ This study, in short, is con-
cerned with the role that the exploitation and control over the country's agri-
cultural produce played in fuelling the conflict. Burundi's political economy
is logically central to the study's analysis.