Report of the first day of the sensitization workshop.

Workshop of call-up of students leaders under the theme “ Call-up of Youth For
Free, Transparent and Non-Violent Elections in Burundi organized by Amahoro Youth
Club and held at Regina Mundi Cathedral Square on 27th and 28th April,2010.

Sixty students representing four Universities among which, University Of Burundi,

Université Lumière de Bujumbura, Université des Grands Lacs and Université du
Lac.
The workshop opened with the speech of welcome delivered by Armand Giramahoro,
Legal Representative of Amahoro Youth Club in which he first showed gratitude and
thanked the minister in charge of youth for the support he always gives for youth
Organizations in general and Amahoro Youth Club in particular. He also thanked the
Students leaders for the motivation they showed in responding massively to the
invitation.
After giving a welcome to the distinguished guests, he presented how Amahoro
Youth Club took the initiation of using exchange sessions through which different
challenges that the country encountered along years were discussed and by this
process, the culture of dialogue got developed among members of the Club. The
Youth, he continued, have shown its inconvenience towards all these challenges and
shown the will of contributing to the building of a peaceful society by using de
peaceful means as the UN specifies it. He reminded the assembly about the period
that Burundi is heading for, the crucial period towards true democracy and
sustainable peace

Moreover, this process of peace has been a fruit of long and of high level
negotiations, he mentioned. He called the Youth to the full participation and
contribution in order to establish definitely democracy and peace since the youth
constitute sixty percent of the population. He promised that AYC will always scout
ahead the youth in reinforcing democracy and peace in our country.

To finish his speech, he called the attention of the participants to the workshop for
the good understanding and reception of the message they will receive and asked
them to be the model and the light of the Burundian society during the whole 2010
election process and thanked all the persons whether moral or physical who
contributed for success of this so important and beneficial activity, especially Peace
Direct for the financial support it gave to AYC to organize this activity.

After the speech of Amahoro Youth Club legal representative, it was the turn of the
Minister in charge of Youth to launch the workshop. In his speech, he first
congratulated Amahoro Youth Club for this important activity it organized. He
promised to give all his energy to support all youth’s initiatives in building sustainable
peace. He reminded the youth the role to play in such a period. The country counts
on the educated youth and what the youth will wish the country to be is what the
country will be, he mentioned. He asked the youth to tell politicians to use the youth
for the good.

He also reminded the participants that time has changed and that it is no more
compulsory for young graduates to access easily to job. But to assure the youth, he
said that the ministry of youth, sports and culture doors, starting by his own cabinet
door are open for Youth. When the youth will need support from the ministry will be
welcome.

He even announced that in order to face accordingly to the prevailing realities, the
ministry of youth, sports and culture has initiated:
1. A decree project that will settle an Burundian Agency for Youth Employment (
ABEJ)
2. A decree of settling a Fund for the Promotion of Youth Employment has been
adopted by Ministry Council and will support youth in Universities or
candidates from Professional schools who seek for employment.
3. To give finance support for the training as 1st employment to young people in
order to avoid the long experience period asked when they are seeking for
employment.
He concluded by showing the participants the will of the Government in finding
solutions to the problems that youth face today.
After the two important, promising and assuring speeches, the workshop entered
in action by a presentation on the theme: Experience of elections in Burundi.

This session that gave participants a look at the different elections that Burundi
has known in its history was a presentation of a well experienced expert in
elections process in the Great Lakes and East Africa regions, the spokesperson
of the Coalition of the Civil Society for the Electoral Monitoring (COSOME). Mr.
Muhamed Nibaruta El Amini.
To introduce his presentation by stating that Burundi is following a right way to the
process of democratic elections because in few weeks, all Burundian in age and
conditions of voting will take part in communal council elections. The census of
the voting population has been conduct by National Independent Electoral
Commission and lists have been shown to the public to check if there are no
mistakes made during the lists confection, all necessary materials are available
for the successful elections. All the actors of the life the country and partners of
Burundi are combining their efforts for the success of the elections. He pointed
that Burundi has no tradition of elections because for about 400 years it was
under monarchy and the kings where mystically chosen.

He then gave the dates of and defined the different elections that took place in
Burundi since 1961 till 2005. As he mentioned, the first democratic elections that
Burundi knew were held in 1961 where the Burundian people had to vote for or
against the independence. The political Parties that were (allied to UPRONA) for
independence won over those that were against(allied to PDC), and any troubles
happened even though there were an ethnic conflict between to Ganwa clans
Batare and Bezi.
In 1965, because of the politico-ethnic division and crisis in the young parliament,
the young King NtareV disbanded the parliament and called Burundians for new
parliament election. The elections succeeded and UPRONA won them but that
time, the number of political parties was reduced to only three parties.

From 1966, the military power took over and there were no elections held until
1982 when the second Republic organized legislative elections. The elections
were given a democratic name even though it was under a military regime.
In 1984, the same regime organized presidential elections but only one candidate
was present. Here again, the vote was given a democratic name.

In 1993, the politic pluralism rose again and many candidates appeared for the
general presidential and legislative elections but the campaigns were given ethnic
orientations, what became the generator motor of the crisis that Burundi
experienced for more than ten years. It is after long and hard negotiations that the
peace was established and then the country was lead to general elections of
2005. The elections were successful because what was sure was that the
population was in need of peace and the experience has had shown that the
problem was not ethnical.
The fear of the 2010 elections is that political parties tend to create youth groups
that behave as military guardian of those parties and their leaders while the major
problem is to know who will be responsible or who will punish the misbehavior
that may occur during the electoral process. He asked the Burundian youth to
avoid what Kenya experienced in 2007 and be the partisans of democratic,
peaceful, transparent and fair elections.
The participants acclaimed this wonderful and beneficial presentation.

The questions asked by participants were to know what behavior the population in
general and the youth in particular towards elections should adopt; if as a member
of an important organization that deals with election processes like COSOME he
is sure of the success of elections of 2010. For the first question, he told the
participants that each one has to be responsible for a better electoral process and
that the youth has to be the first to sensitize the rest of the population. For the
other question, he said to be 100% sure is not easy to say but the all the
parameters to the success of them are already provided.
After the presentation, participants watched a movie on Kenyan crisis that the
followed the elections of 2007 in Kenya.

Questions that participants responded to during the works in groups

1. What are the lessons the lessons do you get from this presentation?
If the answer is yes, what are they?
2. Do the youth have right to do politics? Why?
 3. Can really the youth avoid the political manipulation? If the answer is yes, why?
If no, why?
4. What do you suggest to Amahoro Youth for that this workshop be beneficial to
students of Universities of Bujumbura?
5. What are the commitments to take in order to avoid to bad experience of the
past?

The answers given by the different group works are the following:
Q1. -The presentation showed that the youth is actively and blindly in political
activities.
-In case of elections failure, the bad consequences such as imprisonment,
death or school abandonment fall on the heads of young people.
- The lesson got from the movie showing is that politicians have to learn the
good management of the success or the failure of elections.
Q2. Yes. The youth has the right to participate in political activities because the
future belongs to them and they have to prepare for the future leadership.
Q3. Yes. What is only necessary is to enter into politics with awareness of being
vigilant and discernment (not to follow blindly).
Q4 -In terms of this workshop, a synthetic document should be made available so
that participants can get it and spread its message in different universities they
come from.
-Also, financial means should be made available to facilitate the transmission
of the message contained by that document.
Q5. The commitments taken are:
-to be the activists of free, transparent and peaceful elections because our
future depends on them.
- to stand and call-up others for free, transparent and peaceful elections.

.
PS: The activities of the first day, started at 9:00 am and closed at 5:30 pm, that’s
why the report is lately delivered.
The answers of the group works questions will be sent tomorrow at the activities. The
pictures videos of the activities are attached to this report.

Reporter: Jean Baptist NIYONGABO