    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [February 22, 2000]
    [Pages 283-285]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Teleconference Remarks to Participants in the Burundi Peace Talks
    February 22, 2000

    [The teleconference is joined in progress. Former President Nelson
    Mandela of South Africa stated that the
    leadership in Burundi was committed to peace, and he then turned the
    discussion over to President Clinton.]

        President Clinton. Well, thank you very much. First of all,
    President Mandela, let me thank you for the
    efforts you are making for peace in Burundi. I know that all the parties
    there appreciate it, and I can assure you that people all around the
    world appreciate your efforts.
        I also want to say that I am joined here by our Secretary of State,
    Madeleine Albright; my National
    Security Adviser, Sandy Berger; my Chief of
    Staff, John Podesta. We want you to know how
    important the United States believes it is for a peace to be achieved in
    Burundi.
        This work began under President Nyerere, and we thank you for continuing the effort. I want to also say to the
    people of Burundi, America cares about the peace process there, and
    America wants all the parties to succeed. I also want to pay tribute to
    President Mkapa and the people of
    Tanzania for hosting the talks and being good neighbors. And I thank the
    facilitators from the Nyerere Foundation who work each day to help their
    brothers and sisters from Burundi to achieve peace.
        I am very glad that I can speak to you because of this modern
    technology. It's a symbol of our growing interdependence. And I'm
    thrilled that the sounds and the images of these deliberations are being
    beamed back to the people of Burundi.
        I want to say that, in a way, my speaking to you through this
    technology shows that the greater openness of people and borders makes
    us more interdependent in ways that are positive and, particularly,
    negative as well. As the world shrinks, we are all more vulnerable to
    the problems of those beyond our borders--all those with whom we share
    this small planet Earth. All of us benefit when others build peace; all
    suffer when others suffer.
        That is why you are there, Mr. President,
    and why I am honored to be joining you in this way today. We understand
    what is at stake, first, for the people of Burundi who have suffered so
    much death, fear, and insecurity; for all of Africa; and, indeed, for
    the rest of the world.
        Just last week I attended the opening in Washington of our National
    Summit on Africa. More than 2,000 Americans participated, people from
    all 50 of our States, from every walk of life and every racial and
    ethnic background. All came because they believe in Africa's promise and
    because they want to work with Africans to realize it by building a more
    open world trading system, by standing with young democracies, by
    lifting the burden of debt, by supporting education in Africa and
    fighting malaria, TB, and, of course, AIDS.
        The United States wants to build a common future with all of Africa.
    The real question for the leaders from Burundi who have gathered with
    you in Arusha is whether your country will share in the promise of this
    future. Will you lead the way to a lasting settlement for the larger
    conflicts in the Great Lakes region? Will you show the way for other
    societies in Europe and Asia that are also victimized by these kinds of
    ethnic conflicts? Or will you hesitate and falter?
        If that were to happen, I am afraid a disaster would befall your
    people, and it would seep beyond your borders. We have seen how a spark
    lit in one small part of this region can engulf the whole.
        To most of us outsiders, the choice is clear. I know that to our
    friends from Burundi, who are burdened with painful memories, it is more
    complicated. Yet I have found that all the great peacemakers somehow
    find a way to let their real grievances and pain go and walk away, not
    just from imagined but from very real grievances.

    [[Page 284]]

        The late Israeli Prime Minister, my friend Yitzhak Rabin, said,
    ``You do not make peace with your friends.'' And Mr. President, of course, your own life is the most powerful example
    of the good that comes from letting go of legitimate grievances and
    harm.
        So I ask the people who are gathered there to remember the examples
    of what works in this new and exciting world, and to let go of their old
    hurts, even if they are legitimate--perhaps especially if they are
    legitimate, because nothing that happened yesterday will take care of
    today and tomorrow, and the children of Burundi deserve leaders who are
    looking to today and especially to tomorrow.
        It requires vision to believe that in the end we'll all be better
    off if we work together; that people of different tribes and ethnic
    groups, different races and religions, all need one another; that
    violence is bad because it just breeds more violence; and that
    sustainable peace and security can be achieved only by negotiation, by
    what you are doing there; that everyone comes out ahead when all members
    of society feel that they have a common stake in the nation.
        It requires courage for these leaders to accept the risks of
    peacemaking. It's easy for me, half a world away, to tell the leaders of
    the various parties they should do this. But I know they have to go back
    and explain it to those whom they represent. So, even though it's easy
    for me and hard for them doesn't change the fact that it's still true:
    The courageous and brave thing to do is to find reconciliation and to
    give everyone a role to play in Burundi's future.
        Of course, there are those who doubt that you will succeed. There
    are those who believe some places are simply cursed by their past and
    condemned to a future of endless conflict. But Mr. President, if that were true, your old cell on Robben Island
    would still be occupied today instead of being the site that all the
    tourists want to see.
        We can change; all of us can change. And I thank you again for
    helping the people of Burundi to change. I applaud the effort of all who
    are gathered there in Arusha and the vision and courage that brought you
    there. I support the efforts to form a new social compact and a single,
    indivisible, democratic nation.
        I call upon those armed groups still using violence to suspend
    hostilities and come to the negotiating table. You do not have to
    abandon your points of view, just to defend them with the force of
    argument, not the force of arms.
        And let me say to all our Burundian friends who are present there,
    the United States and our partners will do all we can to ensure that
    these talks to succeed and to help create the economic conditions
    essential to a sustainable peace. My Special Envoy, Howard Wolpe, will continue to work with you, and I thank him for
    his dedication. We will do this because it's the right thing to do and
    because we, too, have a stake in your future. We will do it because we
    have faith in you, President Mandela, and in
    other African nations who have pledged to see this process through.
        Ultimately, of course, the people of Burundi and their
    representatives will have to decide what to do. You have all known fear
    and insecurity and loss. I ask you, do not condemn your young children
    to what you have known in the past. Seize this chance to give them a
    different future. Give them a country where they can sleep in their
    homes, walk to their schools, worship in their churches, and rise to
    their potential without being at war with their neighbors; a country
    that helps to fulfill the promise of Africa, that is part of the life of
    the world.
        This will be a long and difficult journey. But as you go forward, I
    want the people of Burundi to know the people of the United States are
    prepared to walk with you. We will reach our destination together.
    Turikumwe--I am with you. And I thank you.

    [At this point, President Mandela thanked
    President Clinton and made brief remarks.]

        President Clinton. Thank you. Let me just say very briefly how much
    I appreciate those remarks and, again, how much I appreciate all the
    parties being in Arusha. And you may be sure that the United States will
    continue to support this process. And if the process achieves an
    agreement which brings peace, we want to support Burundi. And we want to
    use this process, and your role in it, Mr. President, as a shining example to other troubled countries in
    Africa and throughout the world that there is a way to walk away from
    war toward a peaceful future.
        So again, I thank you. I pledge my support. And I am very impressed
    by what all of you have done. I urge you to stay there and keep working
    at it. You can do it, and the United

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    States will be with you. Thank you very, very much.
        President Mandela. Well, goodbye, Mr.
    President.
        President Clinton. Goodbye.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 9:50 a.m. from the Situation
    Room at the White House to Burundi peace talks participants at the
    International Conference Center in Arusha, Tanzania. In his remarks, he
    referred to President Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania; and Howard
    Wolpe, Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State to Africa's
    Great Lakes region. The transcript released by the Office of the Press
    Secretary also included the remarks of President Mandela; however, it
    did not include the opening portion of the teleconference.