Security Council sets up integrated UN office in Burundi to follow current operation

Emphasizing the need for the United Nations system and wider international community to maintain their support for strife-torn Burundi, the Security Council today voted to set up an integrated office in the country to follow on from the current mission that ends on 31 December.

Adopting the resolution unanimously, the 15-member Council also noted the meeting earlier this month of the Peacebuilding Commission that focused on Burundi and recommended support from a multi-million dollar fund that aims to help countries emerging from conflict rebuild and prevent them from descending again into bloodshed.

“The Security Council… requests the Secretary-General to establish a United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi (Bureau Intégré des Nations Unies au Burundi, BINUB)… for an initial period of 12 months, commencing on 1 January 2007,” the resolution states.

Stressing the need for a “smooth transition” from the current UN Operation in Burundi, which is known by its French acronym ONUB, the resolution states that the Integrated Office will support the Government in such areas as peace consolidation and democratic governance, disarmament and reform of the security sector, as well as various human rights and development activities.

The Council also welcomed the signing in September of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement between Burundi’s Government and the Forces Nationales de Libération (Palipehutu-FNL), while also urging all political sides to “persevere in their dialogue on achieving stability and national reconciliation and to promote social harmony.”

Burundi is emerging from 12 years of civil war between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority.