[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.