Pézard, Stéphanie and Nicolas Florquin. 2007 ‘Arms Collected.’ Small Arms in Burundi: Disarming the Civilian Population in Peacetime, p. 60. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva / Ligue Iteka. 1 August

Relevant contents

Arms Collected

As the name of the commission charged with its implementation suggests ('National Commission charged with the Demobilization, Reinsertion and Reintegration of ex-combatants'), the DRR programme was primarily concerned with demobilization, reinsertion, and reintegration. It was not concerned with disarmament, and as a consequence, the new Burundian army (FDN) and the UNOB have assumed responsibility for that problem.

By 31 May 2006, a total of 5,729 arms had been collected. Disarmament was achieved in two ways: firstly by direct integration (into the army), which was the preferred option, in which combatants handed their arms directly to the FDN; secondly by a process of formal integration which was administered by the UNOB, in which demobilized combatants went through demobilization centres (in Randa, Gitega, and Muramvya). The majority of combatants chose the first option as the arms handed over were counted in order to estimate how many 'places' in the new army would be reserved for their group.

According to UNOB, 5,403 arms were collected by this method; they went straight into the stocks of the FDN. The arms collected included pistols, AK-47 assault rifles, FAL, R-4, and M16, light machine guns, mortars, grenade launchers, and RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launchers and SPG- 9s.

Another source gives a total of 5,404 arms, distributed as in Table 4 among the various armed political movements involved in the integration process.

[UNOB = United Nations Office in Burundi]

Last accessed at:
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org