It’s quiet for now in Bujumbura but the South African troops know things could change
Gregory Mthembu-Salter
A total of 651 South African soldiers are in the Burundian capital Bujumbura on a mission to contribute to a peaceful transition to democracy.
Officially titled the South African Protection Support Detachment (SAPSD), it is South Africa’s biggest, most expensive and riskiest military mission since 1994.
The troops have been in the country since October last year. Their main task is to protect Hutu politicians who have returned from exile to participate in the new transitional government and Parliament, but who do not trust the Burundian armed forces.
So far 26 politicians have asked for South African protection. Eighty-three members of the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) 500 parachute squadron act as bodyguards for the politicians, while 200 soldiers from the 1st parachute battalion are stationed outside politicians’ homes.
Meanwhile, despite the efforts of South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma to set ceasefire negotiations in motion, the civil war between the Burundian army and two militia the Forces for the Defence of Democracy and the Forces for National Liberation shows no sign of ending.
The Nigerian, Ghanaian and Senegalese detachments of the originally planned multinational force have declined to go to Burundi until a ceasefire is in place. This was apparently the SANDF’s original intention, but Nelson Mandela who brokered an agreement in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2000 on which the current government is founded forced the issue late last year by publicly promising that South African troops would go to Burundi with or without a ceasefire.
The SAPSD has no peacekeeping mandate, and neither the right nor obligation to intervene in the civil war.
According to its commanders, the SAPSD will leave the country if the Arusha agreement collapses, or if they are targeted by any of the warring factions.
After initially being suspicious of the SAPSD’s intentions, the people in Tutsi-dominated Bujumbura are becoming accustomed to the South African presence there.
Relations between the South African soldiers and the Burundian armed forces were at first strained. The Burundian army was unhappy that the SAPSD based itself in the city centre, and even deployed President Pierre Buyoya to try to force the troops to a more distant location, but the SAPSD refused to move.
At a road accident in Bujumbura earlier this year South African and Burundian forces drew weapons against each other, but nothing happened, and now that Burundian armed force commanders have reassured themselves that the SAPSD is sticking to its mandate, relations are gradually improving.
SAPSD officers say they do not think the Burundian army poses a threat to them, and so far no one has attempted to assassinate the politicians being protected by the SAPSD.
One SAPSD member was found strangled to death in January in a Bujumbura suburb in circumstances that remain unexplained. In late February a black SAPSD soldier, who had apparently only just arrived in Burundi, shot and wounded a white officer before being shot and killed by an Indian sergeant. The incident has been played down by the SAPSD, but has fascinated Burundians, particularly since the SANDF is the best role model they have for an integrated African army.
The lack of action and apparent calm in Bujumbura has made it difficult for the SAPSD guards to stay vigilant. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Vermeulen, says this is one of his major concerns. “Everyone was getting very relaxed. We told them, don’t become friends with the people you are guarding.”
Vermeulen and his team know the situation can change overnight, and that the SAPSD’s true reputation will depend on how it responds to trouble.
As the weeks pass without a ceasefire agreement, trouble becomes more likely since frustrated radical Tutsis will increasingly be tempted to strike out at the Hutu politicians in the government, whom they already suspect of being fifth columnists for the rebel militia.
This would mean South African casualties, creating the possibility that political support in South Africa for the mission might collapse. SAPSD commanders, however, remain confident. “The South African public is hard to alarm,” says Vermeulen. “They are not like Americans. It is Mandela who has asked us to go, and that brings out a commitment from everybody.”