[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.
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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.