Burundi after the civil war: demobilising and reintegrating ex-combatants

"After the signing of a peace accord it is the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the former fighting groups that is one of the first steps towards a conflict transformation process (Kingma 2000). In most cases, some of those who fought are, for the time being, integrated into the subsequently downsized national army. Those who remain, often the majority, are demobilised and reintegrated into civilian life. But how does this process take place on site? What are the procedures involved and what are the consequences of living together in the receiving communities? In this article, based on a PhD thesis in progress, the question of reintegrating excombatants after the civil war in Burundi will be discussed. At the beginning of 2006, the four months of field research were structured around the following guiding questions: How are ex-combatants reintegrated into their communities in Burundi and which factors influence this reintegration? The article will show that up to now reintegration has gone relatively well on the social level, but has not yet started on the economic level." (author's abstract