    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 35 (Monday, September 4, 2000)]
    [Pages 1967-1970]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Burundi Peace Talks in Arusha

    August 28, 2000

        Thank you very much, President Museveni, President Mkapa,
    distinguished leaders of the OAU and various African nations and other
    nations supporting this peace process. It is a great honor for me to be
    here today with a large delegation from the United States, including a
    significant number of Members of our Congress and my Special Envoy to
    Africa, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Howard Wolpe and others who have
    worked on this for a long time.
        This is a special day in America and for Reverend Jackson. I think I
    should just mention it in passing. This is the 37th anniversary of the
    most important civil rights meeting we ever had: the great March on
    Washington, where Jesse Jackson was present and Martin Luther King gave
    his ``I Have A Dream'' speech. I say that not because I think the
    situations are analogous but because everybody needs a dream, and I
    think whether you all decide to sign this or not depends in part on what
    your dream is.
        I thank my friend President Mandela for coming in to replace the
    marvelous late President Nyerere, to involve himself in this process.
    After 27 years in prison and 4 years as President of his country--which
    some people think is another form of prison--[laughter]--he could be
    forgiven if he had pursued other things. But he came here because he
    believes in peace and reconciliation. He knows there is no guarantee of
    success, but if you don't try, there is a guarantee of failure. And
    failure is not an acceptable option.
        So I thank him; I thank the OAU and the Presidents who are here
    today. I thank the regional leaders, in addition to Presidents Museveni
    and Mkapa, President Moi, President Kagame, Prime Minister Meles, for
    their work. I thank the Nyerere Foundation, Judge Bomani, Judge Warioba,
    and I thank the people of Tanzania for hosting us here in a city that
    has become the Geneva of Africa, thanks to many of you.
        I say again, I am honored to be in a place that is a tribute to the
    memory of President Nyerere, and I'm glad that Madam Nyerere is here
    today. I met her a few moments ago, and I thank her for her presence.
        I thank President Buyoya and all the Burundians from all the parties
    who have come to Arusha and for the efforts you have made.
        Peacemaking requires courage and vision--courage because there are
    risks involved and vision because you have to see beyond the risks to
    understand that however large they are, they are smaller than the price
    of unending violence. That you have come so far suggests you have the
    courage and vision to finish the job, and we pray that you will.

    [[Page 1968]]

        I confess that I come here with some humility. I have spent a great
    deal of time in the last 8 years trying to talk people into laying down
    their arms and opening their hands to one another--from the Middle East
    to Northern Ireland to the Balkans. I have had some measure of success
    and known some enormously painful failures. But I have not been here
    with you all this long time, and maybe I have nothing to add to your
    deliberations, but I would like to share some things that I have learned
    in 8 years of seeing people die, seeing people fight with one another
    because they're of different ethnic or racial or tribal or religious
    groups, and of seeing the miracles that come from normal peace.
        First, to state the obvious, there will be no agreement unless there
    is a compromise. People hate compromise because it requires all those
    who participate in it to be less than satisfied. So it is, by
    definition, not completely satisfying. And those who don't go along can
    always point their finger at you and claim that you sold out: ``Oh, it
    goes too fast in establishing democracy. Oh, it goes too slow in
    establishing democracy. It has absolutely too many protections for
    minority rights. No, it doesn't have enough protections for minority
    rights.''
        And there's always a crowd that never wants a compromise--a small
    group that actually would, by their own definition, at least, benefit
    from continued turmoil and fighting. So if you put the compromise on the
    table, they will use it like salt being rubbed into old wounds. And
    they're always very good. They know just where the breakpoints are to
    strike fear into the hearts of people who have to make the hard
    decisions. I have seen this all over the world.
        But I know that honorable compromise is important and requires
    people only to acknowledge that no one has the whole truth, that they
    have made a decision to live together, and that the basic aspirations of
    all sides can be fulfilled by simply saying no one will be asked to
    accept complete defeat.
        Now, no one ever compromises until they decide it's better than the
    alternative. So I ask you to think about the alternative. You're not
    being asked today to sign a comprehensive agreement; you're being asked
    to sign on to a process which permits you to specify the areas in which
    you still have disagreements, but which will be a process that we all
    hope is completely irreversible.
        Now, if you don't do it, what is the price? If you don't do it, what
    is the chance that the progress you have made will unravel? If you come
    back in 5 or 10 years, will the issues have changed? I think not. The
    gulf between you won't narrow, but the gulf between Burundi and the rest
    of the world, I assure you, will grow wider if you let this moment slip
    away. More lives will be lost.
        And I have a few basic questions. I admit, I am an outsider. I
    admit, I have not been here with you. But I have studied this situation
    fairly closely. I don't understand how continued violence will build
    schools for your children, bring water to your villages, make your crops
    grow, or bring you into the new economy. I think it is impossible that
    that will happen.
        Now, I do think it is absolutely certain that if you let this moment
    slip away, it will dig the well of bitterness deeper and pile the
    mountain of grievances higher, so that some day, when somebody else has
    to come here and sit at a table like this, they will have an even harder
    job than you do. So I urge you to work with President Mandela; I urge
    you to work with each other to seize the opportunity that exists right
    now.
        And I urge those groups, including the rebels who are not now part
    of this process, to join it and begin taking your own risks for peace.
    No one can have a free ride here. Now that there is a process for
    resolving differences peacefully, they should lay down their arms.
        Now, if you take this step today, it is a first step. It can't
    restore the bonds of trust by itself. It can't restore the sense of
    understanding that is necessary for people to live together. So I will
    also acknowledge that success depends not only on what you say or sign
    in Arusha but also what you do in the weeks and months and years ahead
    in Burundi. The agreements you reach have to be respected and
    implemented both in letter and spirit. Again I say, if you decide to do
    this, everyone must acknowledge there must be no victors and no
    vanquished. If one side feels defeated, it will be likely to fight
    again,

    [[Page 1969]]

    and no Burundian will be secure. And after all, security for all is one
    of the main arguments for doing this.
        Now, let me say something else. Of course, you must confront the
    past with honesty. There is hardly a Burundian family that has not felt
    the sorrow of losing a loved one to violence. The history must be told;
    the causes must be understood. Those responsible for violence against
    innocent people must be held accountable. But what is the goal here? The
    goal must be to end the cycle of violence, not perpetuate it.
        So I plead with you. I've seen this a lot of places, and it's always
    the same. You have to help your children remember their history, but you
    must not force them to relive their history. They deserve to live in
    their tomorrows, not in your yesterdays. Let me just make one other
    point. When all is said and done, only you can bring an end to the
    bloodshed and sorrow your country has suffered. Nelson Mandela will be a
    force for peace. The United States will try to be a force for peace. But
    no one can force peace. You must choose it.
        Now, again I say, I watched the parties in Ireland fight for 30
    years. I've watched the parties in the Middle East fight for 50 years.
    I've watched the parties in the Balkans now go at it and then quit and
    then go at it again, and then I've watched--saw a million people driven
    out of Kosovo. And when we began to talk about peace in Bosnia, the
    three different ethnic and religious groups didn't even want to sit down
    together in the same room.
        But when it's all said and done, it always comes down to the same
    thing. You have to find a way to support democracy and respect for the
    majority and their desires. You have to have minority rights, including
    security. You have to have shared decisionmaking, and there must be
    shared benefits from your living together.
        Now, you can walk away from all this and fight some more and worry
    about it, and let somebody come back here 10 years from now. No matter
    how long you take, when it comes down to it, they'll still be dealing
    with the same issues. And I say, if you let anybody else die because you
    can't bring this together now, all you will do is make it harder for
    people to make the same decisions you're going to have to make here
    anyway.
        So I will say again, if you decide, if you choose not because
    anybody is forcing you but because you know it is right to give your
    children their tomorrows, if you choose peace, the United States and the
    world community will be there to help you make it pay off. We will
    strongly support an appropriate role for the U.N. in helping to
    implement it. We will support your efforts to demobilize combatants and
    to integrate them into a national army. We will help you bring refugees
    home and to meet the needs of displaced children and orphans. We will
    help you to create the economic and social conditions essential to a
    sustainable peace, from agricultural development to child immunization
    to the prevention of AIDS.
        I know this is hard, but I believe you can do it. Consider the case
    of Mozambique. A civil war there took a million lives, most of them
    innocent civilians. Of every five infants born in Mozambique during the
    civil war, three--three--died before their fifth birthday, either
    murdered or stricken by disease. Those who survived grew up knowing
    nothing but war. Yet today, Mozambique is at peace. It has found a way
    to include everyone in its political life. And out of the devastation,
    last year it had one of the five fastest growing economies in the entire
    world.
        Now, you can do that. But you have to choose. And you have to decide
    if you're going to embrace that. You have to create a lot of room in
    your mind and heart and spirit for that kind of future. So you have to
    let some things go.
        Now, Mr. Mandela--he's the world's greatest example of letting
    things go. But when we got to be friends, I said to him one day, in a
    friendly way, I said, ``You know, Mandela, you're a great man, but
    you're also a great politician. It was quite smart to invite your
    jailers to your inauguration. Good politics. But tell me the truth, now.
    When they let you out of jail the last time and you were walking to
    freedom, didn't you have a moment when you were really, really angry at
    them again?'' You know what he said? He said, ``Yes, I did--a moment.
    Then I realized I had been in prison for 27 years, and if I

    [[Page 1970]]

    hated them after I got out, I would still be their prisoner, and I
    wanted to be free.''
        Sooner or later, hatred, vengeance, the illusion that power over
    another group of people will bring security in life, these feelings can
    be just as iron, just as confining as the doors of a prison cell. I
    don't ask you to forget what you went through in the bitter years, but I
    hope you will go home to Burundi not as prisoners of the past but
    builders of the future. I will say again, if you decide, America and the
    world will be with you. But you, and only you, must decide whether to
    give your children their own tomorrows.
        Thank you very much.

     Note:  The President spoke at 8:10 p.m. in Simba Hall at the Arusha
    International Conference Center. In his remarks, he referred to
    President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda; President Benjamin William
    Mkapa of Tanzania; U.S. Special Envoy to Burundi Howard Wolpe; former
    President Nelson Mandela of South Africa; President Daniel T. arap Moi
    of Kenya; President Paul Kagame of Rwanda; Prime Minister Zenawi Meles
    of Ethiopia; Tanzanian representatives to peace talks Judge Mark Bomani
    and Judge Joseph S. Warioba; Rosemary Nyerere, daughter of the late
    President Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, founder of Tanzania; and President
    Pierre Buyoya of Burundi.