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have been conducted of these trainings in both Burundi and the DRC. To briefly
pick out some findings, mention can be made of the influence of the workshop
on the first election cycle that took place in the transitional phase in Burundi.
The results bear out the idea presented earlier about using elections as a mechanism
for building cohesion. As the election was approaching in 2005, Burundians
were fearful that it was going to mean more assassinations and inter-communal
massacres as had happened in 1993. People tend to think of elections as a means
of creating competition. The training program decided to form an alliance with
the Independent Burundi Electoral Commission as well as the United Nations to
carry out a six-day retreat for the top leaders of the then thirty-one political parties.
The week-long retreat was framed as an effort to prepare for the management
of the elections and was designed along the lines described above.
At first, the participants were frightened, hostile, and did not want to be there.
They felt they had to participate because they thought it was part of getting ready
for the election. However, by the end of the week, as Howard Wolpe recalled,
“Had any observer walked into the workshop, he would have thought the former
combatants were all from the same political party.” When the retreat turned to
substantive issues and gave the participants the opportunity to identify the principal
challenges that faced the upcoming election, they ended up writing their own
electoral code of conduct, which became the official code and was immediately
promulgated by the minister. They also issued a joint proclamation or communiqué
that was signed by all the parties in order to reassure the public of their joint
determination to work for elections without violence or intimidation. They also
demanded more joint training. A month later, they were brought together again
for two more days in Bujumbura. In that second training session, they decided to
invite the media to be present so they could directly observe the participants collaborating
instead of fighting. The result was that Burundi held a very successful
election. So there are ways to turn elections into a much more constructive, useful
and collaborative process. Generally speaking, the transitioning from pre-election
to post-election will be smoother when this kind of work is done.
In Burundi, as well as DRC and Liberia, the Woodrow Wilson Center has been
asked by the governments and key leaders to continue the work after elections.
Three weeks after the Burundian election took place, the new president requested
training for the entire new council of ministers and parliamentary leaders. When
a crisis took place a year later and the country arrived at a total political impasse,
the Wilson Center helped break that logjam by bringing together a high level retreat.
This involved all the former presidents of the country and top leaders of all
the institutions—military, political, and civil society. In addition, at the request of
the Minister of Defense, the most recent effort is to provide a Training of Trainers
series to begin institutionalizing these techniques in the military academy, so that
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