BURUNDI: UN MISSION SETS UP UNITS TO CHECK SEXUAL ABUSE
November 15, 2004 - (IRIN) Following reports of sexual exploitation of host populations in several peacekeeping missions in Africa, the UN Mission in Burundi, known as ONUB, has established a Code of Conduct Unit and appointed a gender adviser to make sure this problem does not arise in Burundi.

GRIEF AND ANGER AT MASS BURAL OF MASSACRE VICTIMS
August 17, 2004 - (IRIN) At a mass burial in Burundi on Monday, thousands of people lamented the death of hundreds of Tutsis from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as Banyamulenge, who had fled fighting across the border in June. They were slaughtered on Friday in their refugee camp at Gatumba, west of the capital, Bujumbura, and close to the border with the DRC.

UN CONDEMNS MASSACRE OF TUTSI REFUGEES
August 16, 2004 - (The Guardian) The UN security council has condemned the massacre last week of more than 160 Tutsi Congolese refugees in Burundi. Most of the victims were women, children and babies, shot dead and burned as they slept in shelters at the Gatumba refugee transit camp on Friday.

ATTACK ON REFUGEE CAMP IN BURUNDI KILLS AT LEAST 180
August 14, 2004 - (Associated Press) Dozens of attackers raided a United Nations refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting and hacking to death at least 180 people, witnesses and officials said Saturday.

CIVILIANS TARGETED IN BUJUMBURA RURAL
June 25, 2004 – (Human Rights Watch) Just outside the capital Bujumbura, civilians in Burundi have been killed, raped and injured in ongoing combat between government troops allied with former rebel combatants and the forces of a rebel group that remains outside the country's peace process, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

WOMEN CAN HELP BRING PEACE IN BURUNDI
June 14, 2004 – (BuaNews) Deputy President Jacob Zuma has called on Burundian women to pressurise political factions in that country to end the civil war and commence with democratisation.

MCASKIE ONE OF U.N.'S FEW WOMEN SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVES
June 4, 2004 – (UN Wire) The spotlight shining on Lakhdar Brahimi in Iraq, and before that in Afghanistan, has made many more Americans aware that the United Nations has its own corps of very skilled diplomatic troubleshooters known as special representatives of the secretary general. These envoys, like viceroys in the age of empire, can wield considerable administrative power and influence, especially when countries implode and need to be rebuilt, as Cambodia was more than a decade ago, or are in the process of being created anew, as East Timor was under U.N. guidance most recently.

REFUGEE VOICES: BURUNDIAN INTERNALLY DISPLACED WOMEN VULNERABLE TO SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
April 28, 2004 – (Refugees International) The Burundian government and the international community are attentively focused on the mass repatriation of Burundian refugees from Tanzania. While such attention for returnees is justified, the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burundi remains precarious. According to UN estimates, 281,000 people remain in IDP camps. Tens of thousands of others who fled their homes in Kebezi district south of Bujumbura as a result of recent fighting live with host families or in the bush.

BURUNDI: UNITED STATES SHOULD SUPPORT AN EFFECTIVE AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL PEACEKEEPING MISSION
April 19, 2004 – (Refugees International) Refugees International strongly urges the Bush administration to drop its opposition to a multidimensional peacekeeping operation for Burundi. A broad based approach is needed to deal with the many tasks involved with building lasting peace. Insisting upon a mission with a strictly military mandate is a recipe for failure.

BURUNDIANS HAIL AFRICAN SYNERGY
March 31, 2004 – (Cameroon Tribune - Yaoundé) First Lady, Mrs Ndayizeye, says the Bujumbura workshop is a decisive battle in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

MEDICAL PERSONNEL TRAINED ON PREVENTION OF MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIVE INFECTION
March 30, 2004 – (IRIN) African Synergy, an initiative of African first ladies on HIV/AIDS, begun on Monday a five-day training programme for 73 medical doctors, nurses and social workers on the prevention of mother-to-child HIV infection.

GIRLS', WOMEN'S ROLES IN CIVIL WARS MORE WIDESPREAD, STUDY FINDS
March 3, 2004 – (Reliefweb) A Canadian-sponsored study published Wednesday showed that recruitment and abductions of girls and women to fight in many civil wars in Africa were widespread even though governments in the region denied a role in the practice.

BURUNDI: URGENT NEED TO PROTECT WOMEN AND GIRLS FROM RAPE
February 24,2004 – (Amnesty International) The Government of Burundi and the international community should take urgent action to stop widespread sexual violence, including rape, against women in Burundi, Amnesty International urged today in a new report entitled Burundi: Rape - the hidden rights abuse.

SA, SWITZERLAND TO HELP BURUNDI WOMEN, CHILD SOLDIERS
February 20, 2004—(BuaNews - Pretoria) Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says South Africa and Switzerland are planning an extensive cooperation in the social integration of women and child soldiers in the war-strife Burundi.

BURUNDI RIGHTS GROUP RECORDS 961 RAPE CASES IN 2003
January 28, 2004 – (Pan African News Agency) A Burundi human rights group Wednesday said 961 cases of rape involving adult women and young girls were reported to it in 2003.

BURUNDI: FOCUS ON RAPE
January 15, 2004 – (IRIN Analysis) At 24, a single mother, Marie - not her real name - could have expected a better deal in life. But she was given no choice: while working as a housemaid in Kinindo, a residential suburb of the capital, Bujumbura, Marie was raped and subsequently found herself pregnant.

2003

NGO SENSITISES SOLDIERS AND FORMER REBELS AGAINST RAPE
December 12, 2003 - (IRIN) An NGO that cares for victims of sexual abuse, Nturengaho ("HALT"), said on Thursday it had registered 446 cases of girls and women raped during 2003, and that government soldiers and rebels were among the perpetrators.

AGENCIES BRING AID TO BUJUMBURA'S WAR-DISPLACED
November 28, 2003 - (IRIN) The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partner NGOs have mounted relief operations to respond to the needs of increasing numbers of war-displaced in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, following two weeks of fighting between government forces and rebel elements of the Forces nationales de liberation.

BURUNDI-DRC: HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION REMAINS BLEAK, UN REPORTS
November 11, 2003 - (IRIN) Women and children continue to bear the brunt of human rights violations in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where, despite some progress towards peace, rape is still being used as a weapon of war, and children are still being recruited to fight these wars, according to two new UN reports.

TWO GIRLS RAPED, TWO CIVILIANS DEAD IN BURUNDI REBEL ATTACK
September 23, 2003 – (AFP) Two girls were raped and two civilians killed in an overnight attack blamed on Burundi's largest rebel group, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), army officials said Tuesday.

UPCOMING SECURITY COUNCIL MISSIONS TO AFRICA: WILL THERE BE A GENDER PERSPECTIVE?
May 30, 2003 – (PeaceWomen) In June, the Security Council members will travel to Central and West Africa in order to witness the current armed conflict and post-conflict situations in countries in the respective regions. On June 7, the Council members- led by the French- will depart for the Great Lakes region, where they will spend a week visiting six countries, including Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. Later in the month, on June 28, the British will lead a Council mission to West Africa, where the Council members will spend six days visiting Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

BURUNDI, DRC AMONG WORST PLACES TO BE A WOMAN
May 7, 2003 – (IRIN) Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among the world's five worst conflict zones in which to be a woman or a child, according to a new report issued by the international NGO Save the Children, ahead of Mothers' Day to be marked on 11 May.

TRADITIONAL MIDWIVES ASSIST WOMEN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE
March 6, 2003 – (ICRC) It was the middle of the night and I was asleep. Suddenly, I heard a noise. Our houses don't have any doors, so I got up to investigate. That's when a bright light was shone in my face, blinding me and preventing me from seeing my attackers. But I know there were two of them. For several weeks afterwards, it hurt to urinate but I was too ashamed to go and see a doctor.

WOMEN SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN BURUNDI PEACE TALKS
2003 - (UNHCR) The UN Refugee Agency's Executive Committee was told Thursday that more women should be included in the current peace talks on the central African state of Burundi.

2002

WOMEN SATISFIED WITH PROGRESS
September 19, 2002 - (IRIN) Burundian women leaders have said they are satisfied with the progress they are making and are looking forward to obtaining more leadership positions in the country's institutions.

BURUNDI: FOCUS ON WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT
September 11, 2002 - (IRIN) In a rare expression of optimism, Burundian women leaders have said they are satisfied with the progress they are making and are looking forward to obtaining more leadership positions in the country's institutions.

2001

WOMEN'S PERSPECTIVES ON THE ARUSHA PEACE INITIATIVE
January 2001 – (EAMWA) The involvement of women in the on-going Burundi peace talks is a reflection of their general position in society. The initial battle for women's inclusion by mainly the urban based, educated women, enabled them to enter the peace talks, albeit long after they had started.

2000

PROMISES TO BURUNDIAN WOMEN NOT LIVED UP TO
October 27, 2000 – (Afrol- Burundi) In August, all parties to the Burundian conflict agreed to include gender equality recommendations in the peace agreement and in the new Burundian state emerging. Yesterday, however, Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Burundi, in her report more than indicated that these promises were not lived up to.

BURUNDI WOMEN HOPE TO INFLUENCE PEACE DEAL
July 18, 2000 – (Namibian.com) A meeting of Burundian women opened here yesterday to see how women's issues can be incorporated into an accord aimed at ending Burundi's civil war, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported.

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