Up to 1,000 people are killed in the central African state every month.
The plight of Burundi headed the agenda of the OAU which has been considering ways of bringing peace and stability to Africa. Under the terms of the proposals, agreed at a regional meeting in Tanzania last month, an East African force of Ugandans, Tanzanians and Ethiopians will endeavour to end the crisis which threatens to engulf Burundi.Much has yet to be decided: when the force will be sent, what its manpower will be and how it will be deployed.One of the most contentious issues has been the control of the proposed peace-keeping force. A survivor swore that he had seen General Mladic at the scene of an execution. The Dutch battalion left the enclave on 21 July.First Srebrenica fell, then Zepa. The new commander of UN forces in Bosnia, General Rupert Smith, extracted his British soldiers from Gorazde.

Well, whatever the reason, the Government gets interested in bikes once a year and says that it is going to do something to help. To get people bicycle-conscious.
“Did you know,” says someone to someone,” that 90 per cent of journeys made on our roads are two miles or less? Perfect biking distance!”"Wow !” says the Government “Got to pursue this one! Let’s have … But we have no bargaining power at the top table,” says Winnie Ewing, the Scottish nationalist member of the European Parliament.While Britain fusses about the theft of its parliament’s sovereign powers from above, how long before the citizens of Europe demand that more power over European government be seized by democratically elected regions below?. It happens about once a year The Government gets interested in bicycles It realises that there is a large bicycling lobby out there. That there must be some reason Channel 4 covers the Tour de France. That if everyone had a bike, we wouldn’t need money spent on roads That … How long will it be before the weaker European regions demand the right from their national government to punch their weight in Brussels?Working together, the Atlantic Arc group may acquire money and influence.

But how can Sean O’Neachtain make his voice heard over the mayors of Barcelona and Rome, with their vast entourages and political clout? How long before the Committee of the Regions demands to be directly elected and given real powers in EU decision making? And with devolution now a real prospect under Labour, how long before Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland demand delegated powers in Brussels? “We are one of the oldest nations in Europe. “They invite us to receptions but we don’t have the money to ask them back,” said one Cornish official. The so-called four motors (regions with attitude) of Lombardie, Baden Wurttemberg, Catalonia and Rhone-Alpes are the wealthiest regional grouping of all. Catalonia, which occupies vast office space with a staff of 14, has recently won devolved powers to direct its own policy on EU affairs under the new coalition deal forged in Madrid. The proud German Lander occupy whole hotels de maitres, while Cornwall and Devon is squeezed into two rooms.

“Nobody in business operates with nation states anymore”, said one English regional official. John Redwood, the Conservative Euro-sceptic, attempted to close the Welsh regional office in Brussels when he was Secretary of State for Wales – a sure sign that he understood the implications of growing regional power.The disparate sizes of the regional offices connotes the enormous imbalance in their powers. But their work is mushrooming as businesses, universities, and chambers of commerce increasingly use the regional offices – rather than the national embassies – to represent their interests when EU policy is decided. Why should approval for an EU tourism grant to restore Galway’s Spanish arch (where 16th century EU galleons unloaded their rum) have to be approved in Dublin? Roberto Franceschini complains, “The infrastructure we have to live with was built to serve nation states We want region-to-region links. Direct flights to Brittany for a start.”Anyone who dismisses the growing influence of Europe’s regions need only take a walk in the streets around the EU institutions in Brussels and observe the plethora of regional offices.