Burundi: 'The Old Demons Aren't Dead, but At Least They're
Sleeping' - 50 Years of Independence   On July 1st 2012 Burundi
celebrates 50 years of independence from Belgium. The country is
situated in a complex region with a violent recent past where
political and social differences became polarised and
interconnected with those of neighbouring countries.  In the
1990s, at the end of the Cold War, the region degenerated into
an avalanche of killing and destruction, resulting in collapsed
states, large-scale organised violence and millions of victims.
Together with the genocide in Rwanda, and the violence in Congo
- which later became known as Africa's First World War - the
civil war in Burundi is one of the worst events in Central
Africa's recent history.  A war without winners  Unlike Rwanda,
where the civil war ended with the comprehensive military
victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), none of rebel
groups involved in the Burundian conflict was strong enough to
achieve a military victory. The first d