- Kelly McAulay, MAG Regional Desk Officer
I’m a Regional Desk Officer at MAG’s HQ in Manchester. RDOs are the principle point of coordination between designated programmes, HQ and donors. One of the programmes I support is Burundi, and this blog details my visit there in June:
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A visit to the zoo: (top) a croc that hasn't eaten more than 200 people; (centre) an attention-starved chimp; (bottom) me getting smeared with you-know-what. |
Friday 12th: I was met at Bujumbura International Airport by Cynthia, MAG Burundi’s Logistics Officer. Driving into the capital I was struck by posters flanking the roads, giant adverts from the Civilian Disarmament Campaign informing people about the dangers of guns and other light weapons. I knew that the prevalence of arms was significant, but was surprised to see how visible and tangible the issue was in day-to-day life in the country.
Saturday 13th: This weekend, Julie, MAG’s Country Programme Manager for Burundi, has offered to show me the sites of the capital and we begin with a visit to the market. As we drove, Julie explained to me that although the city seemed calm, unrest could break out with little warning. Burundi’s first democratically elected President was assassinated in 1993, leading to widespread Hutu-Tutsi violence (estimates in the range of 200-300,000 people killed) and sparking a refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) crisis.
A long and painful peace process culminated in 2006, with the signing of peace accords with the last remaining rebel groups. So the conflict is still very fresh and raw in the minds of the population. After 6pm there is a police curfew which stops people entering and leaving the city, but MAG imposes a curfew of 5pm on its staff because of the risk of ambush.
Sunday 14th: Julie and her fiancé showed me the delights of Burundi’s vibrant nightlife last night, which was brilliant but necessitates a slow start to the day. In the afternoon we visit a national park, and I was glad we took the vehicle as there were signs warning of crocodiles everywhere. The park is apparently home to a giant croc called Gustave, rumoured to have eaten more than 200 people. International search parties have combed the park to find him, but to this day he remains at large. I wondered if the kite surfers just a few hundred metres away realised?
We watched the birds and hippos for a while, then continued to a zoological park which houses species native to Burundi, and a leopard which was gifted from neighbouring Congo. The zoo was, erm, interesting. The chimps seemed attention-starved and we were encouraged to let them ‘groom’ our hair and stroke our face. Naively I forgot to check their hands were clean before approaching them and ended up with a face smeared in…..
Monday 15th: Today the real work begins. At the weekly staff meeting I am informed that I will be spending the majority of the week with MAG’s mobile team, which is comprised entirely of members of the Burundian Police Force and led by a MAG Technical Field Manager (TFM), Didier. In the afternoon, Jacques (our TFM Team Leader) and Didier took me to an Army base where MAG has established a Weapons Destruction Workshop.
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Under close supervision, I was allowed to operate the shears and destroy a weapon. |
MAG has trained and equipped the Army to destroy surplus weapons so that they cannot be leaked into the populous and used in civilian violence and banditry. MAG has recently established a project where our mobile team collect surplus and obsolete weapons from police armouries around the country, which are transported to this workshop where they are destroyed.
Weapons that will be retained by the police will also be brought to this Army site so that they can be marked with a registration number. This is an important measure meaning that if they are ever stolen or ‘lost’ they can be tracked and authorities will know where the source of the leakage is. It also means that armourers can manage their stocks better. Under close supervision, I was allowed to operate the shears and destroy a weapon.
We returned to the office where Didier was notified of a grenade attack in the city centre – someone has thrown a grenade which didn’t explode, in a residential area, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds of people. Didier left with his team immediately. Julie tells me there is a grenade attack at least once a day, sometimes more, which is why MAG’s work is so important as it remove grenades from insecure armouries to prevent leakage into the civilian population.
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Destroying the grenade which had failed to explode during an attack in a residential area of the city centre. |
Tuesday 16th: It normally takes Julie about 15 minutes to drive into work, but today the roads are completely crazy. Initially, we thought there must have been a road traffic accident, and Julie told me that there are just three police cars in the whole city available to respond to such accidents so it can take a long time for traffic to get moving again. However, it transpired that the disruption was caused by the police closing roads, bringing the whole city to a standstill so they could practice marching in anticipation of a parade for Burundi Independence day.
We arrived eventually; Didier and his team were preparing to return to the site of the grenade attack. The night before they had made the area safe and clearly marked the dangerous area, warning the community not to approach it. Didier explained that the source of the attack seemed to be a dispute amongst neighbours. When we arrived at the site, MAG’s team and their police colleagues were busy trying to clear people away to a safe distance. It was quite a challenge because people wanted to crowd around and see what was happening.
Didier and the team set to work on the grenade. Didier closely supervised the mobile team in the preparation of the explosion. MAG is training the team up to build their skills and experience so that they can one day attend to such tasks safely with no assistance from us. The team put three tyres around the grenade, put a detonator and cord on it and then packed it with sand.
A board was placed on top and weighted, then we all retreated to a safe distance before the ‘button’ was pushed. After final safety checks the grenade was destroyed to huge applause from the crowds. Everyone was pleased that the explosion was skilfully carried out, meaning that there was no damage to the house nearby.
That afternoon I deployed with the police team to Police Region North. It was an incredibly beautiful drive over hills and mountains.
After driving for three hours, we arrived at the police station and spoke with the Chief and armoury staff. Didier conducted an initial survey of the armoury and showed me around by torchlight. I was staggered. There was a small mountain of rifles, some with magazines engaged. There were boxes and boxes of grenades, rockets, mines and fuses. Didier briefed his team on the challenges they would face the next day as they attempted to make safe the dangerous items in the armoury and prepare other items for transportation to Bujumbura where they would be destroyed. Items deemed to dangerous for transportation would be made as safe as possible and destroyed in situ. > Continued...
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Some of the items awaiting destruction. |
20 August 09
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