{"id":7413,"date":"2016-10-05T10:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T14:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/?p=7413"},"modified":"2018-01-05T10:21:56","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T14:21:56","slug":"from-the-field-negotiating-for-peace-in-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/2016\/10\/from-the-field-negotiating-for-peace-in-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Field: Negotiating for Peace in Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"peace-7\"<\/a>
Jean Claude Nkundwa, MA \u201814,is working to resolve a long-term political crisis in his native Burundi with the help of skills acquired at CJP. He returned to SPI in 2016 to take a course on peacebuilding responses to violent extremism. (Photo by Joaquin Sosa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jean Claude Nkundwa<\/a>, MA \u201914, thought finding work\u00a0in peacebuilding in his native Burundi after graduation could take up to two\u00a0years. When, he, his wife Francine Muhimpundu, and young son returned,\u00a0Nkundwa renewed former contacts from working 12 years with partner\u00a0organizations affiliated with Mennonite Central Committee and also with\u00a0Harvest of Peace Ministries. With Burundi International Community Church,\u00a0he helped mobilize churches in community violence prevention training\u00a0and began building an early warning system network<\/p>\n

However, his patient plan was sidetracked by a May 2015 political crisis,\u00a0one which Nkundwa presciently predicted the month before in a New York\u00a0Times op-ed titled \u201cBurundi: On the Brink?\u201d<\/p>\n

The coup was precipitated by the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza\u00a0to run for a controversial third term. Since his win in the election, hundreds\u00a0of people have been killed and more than a quarter of a million people have\u00a0fled the country. Human rights abuses are rampant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat article helped get my name out,\u201d Nkundwa said. When he fled to\u00a0Rwanda with his family and other civil society leaders, he was quickly back\u00a0on his feet. With former classmate Katrina Gehman<\/a>, MA \u201915, he published\u00a0a conflict analysis that opened doors to his inclusion in gaining support of\u00a0leaders in Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa and Tanzania for peace talks.<\/p>\n

Nkundwa says the strategic peacebuilding and negotiation practices\u00a0taught at CJP have contributed to a unique skill set: \u201cCJP taught me to think\u00a0about who to build relationships with, how to work with influential individuals\u00a0and groups who can facilitate your messages. As someone who works\u00a0independently, that is one of my biggest skills. Now I support civil society\u00a0groups in analysis, suggesting interventions, framing messages, targeting\u00a0allies, networking and process.\u201d<\/p>\n

From exile in Rwanda, Nkundwa is being called upon to help peace negotiations\u00a0forward and to advocate for international intervention to prevent a\u00a0situation that could turn swiftly to genocide, once again.\u00a0In May, he was invited by Crisis Action to advocate before the United\u00a0Nations Security Council with representatives of Burundi\u2019s civil society for\u00a0police intervention to protect civilians.<\/p>\n

Disturbed by the lack of consensus among mid-level security council\u00a0members, he then scheduled a series of meetings, facilitated by a U.S.-\u00a0based student peace organization, in Washington D.C. with staff of Special\u00a0Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa Tom Perriello in the U.S. Department\u00a0of State. He also met with the United States Senate and U.S. House\u00a0committees on foreign relations, representatives of USAID, and non-governmental\u00a0organization advocates.<\/p>\n

He also visited Gehman, now an independent contractor for the U.S.\u00a0Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, and met with military\u00a0officials to highlight that \u201cwithout civilian protection, political solutions\u00a0are not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

At SPI, during his final week in the United States, Nkundwa took Lisa\u00a0Schirch<\/a>\u2019s course on peacebuilding approaches to violent extremism in\u00a0anticipation, he says, of what is likely to occur in Burundi.<\/p>\n

Despite concerns about his future, Nkundwa was pleased to be back\u00a0at EMU. \u201cAlways moving from one emergency to another and constantly\u00a0adapting leadership skills and language is exhausting. I needed a break.\u00a0This has been a good time to reflect. I\u2019ve taken some good deep breaths\u00a0here,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Invaluable, too, was the encouragement of fellow peacebuilders. \u201cMy\u00a0colleagues in other countries dealing with similar issues have listened,\u00a0counseled and criticized,\u201d he said. \u201cMy own understanding of my situation\u00a0and of what is happening in Burundi needed to be checked. Here is a space\u00a0to which I can bring my assessments and the way I think things should be\u00a0done, so my colleagues can help me develop the most clear analysis and the\u00a0best strategies to suggest when I return.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jean Claude Nkundwa, MA \u201914, thought finding work\u00a0in peacebuilding in his native Burundi after graduation could take up to two\u00a0years. When, he, his wife Francine… Read more about From the Field: Negotiating for Peace in Burundi<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1073],"tags":[],"issues":[1425],"class_list":["post-7413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","issues-2016-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7413"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7731,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7413\/revisions\/7731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7413"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/peacebuilder\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=7413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}