BUJUMBURA May 29th (ABP) – The 51st ministerial meeting of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee (UNSAC) on Security Issues in Central Africa was organized in Bujumbura from May 24 to 28, 2021.
The participants in the said meeting from 11 countries of Central Africa visited some historical monuments located in the economic capital in order to share with them the difficult times that Burundi went through before reaching the stage of peace and satisfactory security.
The places visited are the mausoleum of Prince Louis Rwagasore and those of his two children who died in October 1961, the unity square; the two monuments are on the Hill of Vugizo, the square of the Revolution marking the passage from the monarchy to the Republic, the independence square in memory of the independence of Burundi where the flag of the Belgians was lowered and the flag of Burundi hoisted in 1962.
The visit also continued at the Martyrs’ Monument where the hero of democracy, Ndadaye Melchior, and his close collaborators assassinated in October 1993, Cyprien Ntaryamira and certain ministers assassinated in April 1994 are buried.
They continued the visit to the Tanganyika hotel where Prince Louis Rwagasore was assassinated by Greek Kageorjis, then at the “Chanic” roundabout where there are two monuments illustrating the hero of independence who is Prince Louis Rwagasore and the hero of democracy who is Melchior Ndadaye, to end at the United Nations roundabout in Burundi which marks the United Nations presence in Burundi.
The explanations in relation to those monuments were given by historian Joseph Banyendeza and the Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Mr. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye. The two indicated that the monuments they visited serve and will serve for present and future generations to know the painful past that Burundi has gone through to say “Never again”.
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation clarified that the goal of the visit was just to share the experience of Burundi in matters of peace and security, which were the fruits of a long struggle. He argued that Burundi has experienced through hard times, political crises, civil wars and others as illustrated by certain historic places visited.
For him, that kind of sharing of Burundi’s experience with other Central African countries which still have security problems allows us to keep hope that for them too those peace and security problems will find solutions as in Burundi.
Mrs. Bouanga Ayoune Lia Berthian from Gabon and Deputy Chairperson of UNSAC expressed her satisfaction to be in Burundi and specified that she was very impressed by the history of Burundi that she has just learned from through what the monuments visited illustrate.
It is worthy to note that one of the goals of holding that meeting was the preparation for a meeting of ministers from the 11 countries of Central Africa that was held on Friday May 28, 2021 in Bujumbura. The said countries are Burundi, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, DRC, Rwanda, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, and Sao Tome and Principe.