Burundi Protesters on Streets After African Leaders Seek Poll Delay
BUJUMBURA
BY CLEMENT MANIRABARUSHA
Reuters
Police fired on protesters who took to the streets of Burundi's capital on Tuesday in renewed protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term in office, witnesses said.
Protesters said they were angry that a weekend summit of African leaders had not urged Nkurunziza to halt his bid but only urged a delay in elections.
Witnesses in Cibitoke and Musaga, two volatile districts of Bujumbura, said the police shot at protesters in the morning. One demonstrator in Musaga was wounded in the clashes and four others arrested, witnesses said.
Police have routinely denied shooting any protesters, who have often burned tires and hurled rocks at security forces during several weeks of unrest.
Opponents of the president say he is violating the constitution by running, while supporters say a constitutional court ruling allows him to enter the race again. The crisis is the worst since the end of an ethnically fueled civil war in 2005.
Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said on Monday the government was receptive to the idea of shifting the poll, as requested by regional leaders meeting in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
"The Dar es Salaam summit was a failure because the issue that forced people on the streets is the third term of Nkurunziza," said Claver, a protester in Musaga who declined to give his full name for fear of government reprisals.
Diplomats have said the longer unrest continues the more chance old ethnic wounds are reopened. The civil war pitted the army, which was then led by the Tutsi minority, against majority Hutu rebel groups, including one led by Nkurunziza. The violence has rattled a region with a history of ethnic conflict.
The government has called the protests, which erupted on April 26, an insurrection and detained scores of people.
Civil society activists say at least 30 people have been killed in the unrest.
Parliamentary and local council elections have already been delayed by more than a week to June 5, although experts say it will be difficult to meet that deadline now. A presidential poll is set for June 26 and a senate vote for July 17.
The East African Community - comprising Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi - joined by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma called for a delay of "at least" month and a half for "the elections", without giving specifics.
The opposition has called for a delayed and says it will boycott the June 5 poll. Some opposition politicians say the votes should still be held before the president's current term runs out on Aug. 26.
The European Union and Burundi's influential Roman Catholic Church last week pulled out from observing elections, saying the vote cannot be fair because of unrest and a crackdown on media.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic, Editing by Edmund Blair and Angus MacSwan)
Burundi's electoral body considers postponing elections amid unrest in the capital
June 2, 2015 | 1:42 p.m. EDT
By GERARD NZOHABONA, Associated Press
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's electoral commission is considering alternative dates for national elections amid growing calls for the polls to be postponed because of political unrest, an official said Tuesday as anti-government protests returned to parts of the capital.
A new electoral schedule is likely to be sent to President Pierre Nkurunziza before the end of the week, Prosper Ntahorwamiye, a spokesman for the electoral commission, told The Associated Press. He gave no details.
Parliamentary elections are currently scheduled for Friday, while the increasingly fraught presidential poll is set for June 26.
Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, has been wracked by weeks of street protests after the ruling party nominated Nkurunziza for a third term — a decision seen by many as unconstitutional.
An emergency meeting by regional leaders last weekend called on elections to be delayed by at least six weeks. But the government has rejected any postponement, saying any political vacuum in the country could lead to even more political violence.
Citing insecurity, Catholic Church leaders here announced last week they had withdrawn support for the elections as scheduled. The European Union also has also suspended its election observer mission in Burundi over concerns about restrictions on the independent media, excessive use of force against demonstrators and intimidation of opposition parties and civic groups.
The U.N. special envoy to Burundi, Said Djinnit, is in the capital consulting with various parties "with a view to resuming dialogue" among them, the U.N. secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters Tuesday.
"We remain concerned about the possible escalation of violence," Dujarric said.
Burundi, a country of 10 million people which exports mostly coffee and depends heavily on foreign aid, experienced an ethnic-based civil war from 1993 to 2003 which killed at least 250,000 people.
The protests in Bujumbura, which have left 20 dead and hundreds injured, came to a head on May 13 when an army general announced a coup against the president which was defeated in 48 hours.
Protesters say Nkurunziza's bid for a third term is illegal because the constitution only allows for two five-year terms, and some protesters are vowing to stay on the streets until Nkurunziza says he will not run for re-election. Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 and won a second term in 2010. He maintains he is eligible for a third term because parliament elected him for the first term.
Associated Press writer Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Burundi: UN Urges Return to Political Dialogue Amid Ongoing Tensions, Humanitarian Crisis
2 June 2015 – The United Nations is continuing its efforts to facilitate a dialogue among Burundian stakeholders amid the country’s ongoing political deadlock and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, a spokesperson for the Organization announced today.
Briefing a press conference earlier this afternoon, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, Said Djinnit, had returned to the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, after attending the East African Community Summit on Sunday. Mr. Djinnit’s return comes as the UN official seeks to reboot talks with Burundian stakeholders on ways to resume the consultative political dialogue.
Burundi has been embroiled in a political crisis since mid-April when popular protests erupted after the country's ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza as its presidential candidate for a third term.
The situation escalated shortly thereafter, on 13 May, following an attempted coup d'état as President Nkurunziza left for the Summit of the East African Community, which was intended to try to resolve the crisis.
Mr. Dujarric today reported that Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, had also recently met with the First Vice-President of Burundi, Prosper Bazombanza, and endorsed the recommendations of the East African Summit which, he said, provided the Government with an additional opportunity to create the conditions for peaceful and credible elections.
Moreover, Mr. Feltman had encouraged the Burundian Government to seize the opportunity to take concrete steps to ensure the security of the electoral process and of political and civil society actors, the disarmament of armed civilians, the strengthening of the national independent electoral commission (CENI), and the vote of refugees, Mr. Dujarric added.
The crisis in Burundi has not only led to growing tensions within the country but has also spawned a troubling humanitarian crisis across the region as thousands of Burundian refugees stream across the country’s borders and into neighbouring states such as Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Since early April, nearly 100,000 Burundians have fled their country, according to UN estimates. At the same time, a cholera epidemic striking refugees gathered along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania has only added to the miseries of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
The UN Spokesperson, meanwhile, reiterated the Organization’s concern about the possibility of an escalation of violence throughout Burundi and reiterated the UN’s calls for calm and restraint while urging Burundians to express their views peacefully.
In addition, Mr. Dujarric noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had spoken to Presidents Kikwete of Tanzania and dos Santos of Angola by phone yesterday to express appreciation for their leadership in helping address the Burundian crisis.
The Secretary-General reportedly discussed how best the UN, the East African Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region could help defuse tensions and support the holding of peaceful and credible elections in Burundi.
US: Third Term for Burundi President is Unconstitutional
by VOA News
The U.S. Embassy in Burundi says it continues to urge President Pierre Nkurunziza to abandon his attempt to run for a third term in office, a decision that has sparked violent protests since the president's announcement in April.
The U.S. embassy in Bujumbura says Nkurunziza's plans violate the agreement that ended years of violence in Burundi, and could endanger the country's "hard-earned stability after a tragic civil war."
The embassy statement said the conditions for free, fair, transparent and credible elections do not exist in Burundi at present, due to the closure of political space, the shutting down of independent media, the government's violent response to political protests, and continuing reports of violence and intimidation by an armed youth militia.
East African leaders, who met Sunday to discuss the crisis, have called on President Nkurunziza to postpone the June 26 presidential election for at least six weeks. The president said through a spokesman Monday that he will consider the request. But deputy presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho told VOA that any delay should not push the vote back too far.
The president says he has the right to run for a third term in office because he was appointed to his first term, rather than elected. But his critics say a third term would be unconstitutional.
Meanwhile the United Nations says it is giving $15 million in aid to Rwanda and Tanzania to help
them cope with the influx of refugees from Burundi. The U.N. says more than 70,000 refugees, an estimated 60 percent of them children, have fled the Burundian capital Bujumbura since violent protests began in April.
The U.N. says children from Burundi have been arriving in Rwanda and Tanzania sick and malnourished. It says a cholera outbreak has affected some 4,000 people in port cities on Lake Tanganyika, and the illness has killed 30 refugees in a refugee camp.
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-third-term-for-burundi-president-is-unconstitutional/2804080.html
Burundi: Can a credible election take place amid political crackdown?
East African leaders have urged President Nkurunziza to delay the Burundi presidential election by a month. But Burundians say that no matter the date, there is little chance that any election will be free or fair.
By Abigail Higgins, Contributor
JUNE 2, 2015
Christian Science Monitor
Bujumbura, Burundi
Residents of the Musaga neighborhood here in Burundi's capital have resorted to stringing strips of mosquito netting across the entrance of their street for protection.
“We put this here to defend our neighborhood from the police and the military. It can’t really protect us, but it's all we have,” says Eric Ndayisenga, an electrician. This area has been a stronghold of anti-government protests since April 25, when the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkrurunziza would run for a controversial third term.
Fear has gripped Burundi since a failed coup ended on May 13. The government used the uprising as an opportunity to crackdown on protestors, journalists, human rights activists, and any perceived opposition, making the current landscape virtually impossible for the presidential election scheduled for June 26 to be credible.
The most prominent opposition candidate, Agathon Rwasa of National Forces of Liberation (FNL), announced Friday that he is boycotting the elections because he no longer feels safe. Nor does he believe in the likelihood of a fair democratic process. His statement followed the May 23 killing of opposition leader Zedi Feruzi in a drive-by shooting. Also, no independent media is functioning, and most journalists are in hiding or have fled.
“If the general population is in fear for their life and their rights that is not a situation conducive to free and fair elections,” says Stephanie Schwartz, a Burundi expert and PhD candidate at Columbia University.
Two members of the five-member electoral commission have likely fled the country, leaving just three in charge of conducting the election. They will also decide whether to delay the presidential vote by six weeks as recommended by the East African Community members in a meeting this Sunday. While it remains uncertain whether Mr. Nkurunziza will take heed, growing government intimidation is making it hard for all forms of opposition.
Intimidation is not new in Burundi, and the political space has been shrinking since before the 2010 election. But today, as Burundi prepares for an election in which its tenuous peace and democracy is at stake, all forms of opposition have all but disappeared.
Post-coup crackdown
The protests that rocked Burundi for weeks have since slowed to a trickle. Several dozen protestors still pound the streets most days, waving “Stop the third term” placards. But they say police are growing increasingly violent. Human Rights Watch says that since demonstrations began on April 26, at least 27 protestors have been killed and more than 300 have been injured.
“Get out of the streets or we’ll shoot you in the legs so you can’t run” says Blaise Ndayisenga from Musaga, recounting what an officer said to him when he tried to protest shortly after the failed coup.
“They’re saying we’re putschists and we’re not,” he says, referring to the word the government uses for coup-supporters. Shortly after the coup, the government announced all protestors would be considered accomplices, blurring the line between the protestors and the military personnel who led the coup.
“We didn’t want the coup. Confusing between the demonstrators and those who made the coup is something which was prepared just to have a reason to throw people in jail,” says Justine Nkurunziza, the chairwoman of COSOME, a human rights group that opposed the president’s third term. “People are arrested on a daily basis and others are disappearing.”
Ms. Nkurunziza, who is not related to the president, says she received a phone call after the failed coup notifying her that she was on a list of people targeted for arrest or assassination. She fled to Rwanda and has yet felt safe enough to return to Burundi.
Politics as usual?
Political violence is not without precedent in Burundi, which emerged from civil war only a decade ago.
“The patterns of repressions are very similar to what we saw in the lead-up of the 2010 elections,” said Yolande Bouka, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, in an email. In 2010, Nkurunziza ran unopposed after opposition parties boycotted the election. In the weeks ahead of it, dozens of opposition leaders were arrested, opposition party meetings were banned, and those who weren’t arrested were closely monitored.
Political violence, perpetrated by both sides, also spiked ahead of the 2010 election with nearly a hundred grenade attacks, the assassination of two ruling party activists and an opposition activist, and arson attacks on local ruling party offices.
But Ms. Bouka says the stakes are much higher this time round.
“These elections are the litmus test of democratic transition,” she says. “By refusing to step aside, President Nkurunziza is moving the country away from democratic consolidation and more towards authoritarianism.”
Analysts and human rights groups also fear that dangerous puzzle pieces, such as increased ethnic-tinged rhetoric and the mobilization of Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, could be falling into a place that could lead to mass violence.
“I feel very strongly that this will not end well, that the propensity for violence is very, very high,” says Cara Jones, an expert on Burundi and assistant professor of political science at Mary Baldwin College. “The trigger warnings we would expect to see in a civil war situation are there.”
Burundi president warns against another coup attempt
June 1, 2015 12:53 PM
Bujumbura
(AFP) - Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose controversial bid to seek a third consecutive term has sparked weeks of civil unrest and a failed coup attempt, on Monday warned against any fresh move to try to unseat him.
Addressing supporters in his hometown in the north of the country, Nkurunziza thanked those who backed him after a top general launched a failed coup while the president was out of the country in May for a summit.
He "warned any person who tries to take power by overthrowing elected institutions", saying "any such attempt will go nowhere", a statement from the ruling CNDD-FDD party said.
Nkurunziza also "called on party members to be vigilant so that the achievements of democracy are safeguarded," the statement added.
The crisis in Burundi erupted in late April after the ruling party designated Nkurunziza, in power for 10 years, as its candidate in upcoming elections. Weeks of street protests, which were brutally suppressed, left at least 30 dead.
The opposition and rights groups say the president's third-term bid violates a constitutional two-term limit as well as a 2006 peace deal that ended a 13-year civil war.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority and a born-again Christian, insists he has every right to stand again because he was elected to his first term by parliament, not directly by the people.
Burundi's parliamentary elections are currently scheduled to take place on June 5 while the presidential election is slated for June 26.
On Sunday, regional leaders called for the polls to be delayed by at least a month and a half but stopped short of telling the president to abandon his re-election campaign.
Government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba told AFP that the government welcomed the proposal to delay the polls, adding that his third-term bid was a sovereign issue and that the government now considered the matter "closed".
Plans by the government to push ahead with the polls have been hit by a string of setbacks, with the influential Catholic Church withdrawing its support and key international donors also suspending crucial aid.
Last week, the election commission's vice president fled the country.
On Monday, a second member of the five-person electoral board was said by relatives to have gone into hiding, following threats from the Burundian intelligence service.
The election panel has now been left with just three sitting members, effectively stripping it of its ability to take decisions, which normally require the agreement of four members.
The head of the election commission, Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye, said the questions surrounding a possible election delay, as demanded by the regional summit, was "being discussed with the presidency" but that no decision had yet been taken.
BY CLEMENT MANIRABARUSHA
Reuters
Police fired on protesters who took to the streets of Burundi's capital on Tuesday in renewed protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term in office, witnesses said.
Protesters said they were angry that a weekend summit of African leaders had not urged Nkurunziza to halt his bid but only urged a delay in elections.
Witnesses in Cibitoke and Musaga, two volatile districts of Bujumbura, said the police shot at protesters in the morning. One demonstrator in Musaga was wounded in the clashes and four others arrested, witnesses said.
Police have routinely denied shooting any protesters, who have often burned tires and hurled rocks at security forces during several weeks of unrest.
Opponents of the president say he is violating the constitution by running, while supporters say a constitutional court ruling allows him to enter the race again. The crisis is the worst since the end of an ethnically fueled civil war in 2005.
Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said on Monday the government was receptive to the idea of shifting the poll, as requested by regional leaders meeting in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.
"The Dar es Salaam summit was a failure because the issue that forced people on the streets is the third term of Nkurunziza," said Claver, a protester in Musaga who declined to give his full name for fear of government reprisals.
Diplomats have said the longer unrest continues the more chance old ethnic wounds are reopened. The civil war pitted the army, which was then led by the Tutsi minority, against majority Hutu rebel groups, including one led by Nkurunziza. The violence has rattled a region with a history of ethnic conflict.
The government has called the protests, which erupted on April 26, an insurrection and detained scores of people.
Civil society activists say at least 30 people have been killed in the unrest.
Parliamentary and local council elections have already been delayed by more than a week to June 5, although experts say it will be difficult to meet that deadline now. A presidential poll is set for June 26 and a senate vote for July 17.
The East African Community - comprising Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi - joined by South Africa's President Jacob Zuma called for a delay of "at least" month and a half for "the elections", without giving specifics.
The opposition has called for a delayed and says it will boycott the June 5 poll. Some opposition politicians say the votes should still be held before the president's current term runs out on Aug. 26.
The European Union and Burundi's influential Roman Catholic Church last week pulled out from observing elections, saying the vote cannot be fair because of unrest and a crackdown on media.
(Reporting by Drazen Jorgic, Editing by Edmund Blair and Angus MacSwan)
Burundi's electoral body considers postponing elections amid unrest in the capital
June 2, 2015 | 1:42 p.m. EDT
By GERARD NZOHABONA, Associated Press
BUJUMBURA, Burundi (AP) — Burundi's electoral commission is considering alternative dates for national elections amid growing calls for the polls to be postponed because of political unrest, an official said Tuesday as anti-government protests returned to parts of the capital.
A new electoral schedule is likely to be sent to President Pierre Nkurunziza before the end of the week, Prosper Ntahorwamiye, a spokesman for the electoral commission, told The Associated Press. He gave no details.
Parliamentary elections are currently scheduled for Friday, while the increasingly fraught presidential poll is set for June 26.
Burundi's capital, Bujumbura, has been wracked by weeks of street protests after the ruling party nominated Nkurunziza for a third term — a decision seen by many as unconstitutional.
An emergency meeting by regional leaders last weekend called on elections to be delayed by at least six weeks. But the government has rejected any postponement, saying any political vacuum in the country could lead to even more political violence.
Citing insecurity, Catholic Church leaders here announced last week they had withdrawn support for the elections as scheduled. The European Union also has also suspended its election observer mission in Burundi over concerns about restrictions on the independent media, excessive use of force against demonstrators and intimidation of opposition parties and civic groups.
The U.N. special envoy to Burundi, Said Djinnit, is in the capital consulting with various parties "with a view to resuming dialogue" among them, the U.N. secretary-general's spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters Tuesday.
"We remain concerned about the possible escalation of violence," Dujarric said.
Burundi, a country of 10 million people which exports mostly coffee and depends heavily on foreign aid, experienced an ethnic-based civil war from 1993 to 2003 which killed at least 250,000 people.
The protests in Bujumbura, which have left 20 dead and hundreds injured, came to a head on May 13 when an army general announced a coup against the president which was defeated in 48 hours.
Protesters say Nkurunziza's bid for a third term is illegal because the constitution only allows for two five-year terms, and some protesters are vowing to stay on the streets until Nkurunziza says he will not run for re-election. Nkurunziza came to power in 2005 and won a second term in 2010. He maintains he is eligible for a third term because parliament elected him for the first term.
Associated Press writer Cara Anna at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Burundi: UN Urges Return to Political Dialogue Amid Ongoing Tensions, Humanitarian Crisis
2 June 2015 – The United Nations is continuing its efforts to facilitate a dialogue among Burundian stakeholders amid the country’s ongoing political deadlock and a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, a spokesperson for the Organization announced today.
Briefing a press conference earlier this afternoon, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, Said Djinnit, had returned to the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, after attending the East African Community Summit on Sunday. Mr. Djinnit’s return comes as the UN official seeks to reboot talks with Burundian stakeholders on ways to resume the consultative political dialogue.
Burundi has been embroiled in a political crisis since mid-April when popular protests erupted after the country's ruling National Council for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza as its presidential candidate for a third term.
The situation escalated shortly thereafter, on 13 May, following an attempted coup d'état as President Nkurunziza left for the Summit of the East African Community, which was intended to try to resolve the crisis.
Mr. Dujarric today reported that Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, had also recently met with the First Vice-President of Burundi, Prosper Bazombanza, and endorsed the recommendations of the East African Summit which, he said, provided the Government with an additional opportunity to create the conditions for peaceful and credible elections.
Moreover, Mr. Feltman had encouraged the Burundian Government to seize the opportunity to take concrete steps to ensure the security of the electoral process and of political and civil society actors, the disarmament of armed civilians, the strengthening of the national independent electoral commission (CENI), and the vote of refugees, Mr. Dujarric added.
The crisis in Burundi has not only led to growing tensions within the country but has also spawned a troubling humanitarian crisis across the region as thousands of Burundian refugees stream across the country’s borders and into neighbouring states such as Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Since early April, nearly 100,000 Burundians have fled their country, according to UN estimates. At the same time, a cholera epidemic striking refugees gathered along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania has only added to the miseries of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
The UN Spokesperson, meanwhile, reiterated the Organization’s concern about the possibility of an escalation of violence throughout Burundi and reiterated the UN’s calls for calm and restraint while urging Burundians to express their views peacefully.
In addition, Mr. Dujarric noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had spoken to Presidents Kikwete of Tanzania and dos Santos of Angola by phone yesterday to express appreciation for their leadership in helping address the Burundian crisis.
The Secretary-General reportedly discussed how best the UN, the East African Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region could help defuse tensions and support the holding of peaceful and credible elections in Burundi.
US: Third Term for Burundi President is Unconstitutional
by VOA News
The U.S. Embassy in Burundi says it continues to urge President Pierre Nkurunziza to abandon his attempt to run for a third term in office, a decision that has sparked violent protests since the president's announcement in April.
The U.S. embassy in Bujumbura says Nkurunziza's plans violate the agreement that ended years of violence in Burundi, and could endanger the country's "hard-earned stability after a tragic civil war."
The embassy statement said the conditions for free, fair, transparent and credible elections do not exist in Burundi at present, due to the closure of political space, the shutting down of independent media, the government's violent response to political protests, and continuing reports of violence and intimidation by an armed youth militia.
East African leaders, who met Sunday to discuss the crisis, have called on President Nkurunziza to postpone the June 26 presidential election for at least six weeks. The president said through a spokesman Monday that he will consider the request. But deputy presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho told VOA that any delay should not push the vote back too far.
The president says he has the right to run for a third term in office because he was appointed to his first term, rather than elected. But his critics say a third term would be unconstitutional.
Meanwhile the United Nations says it is giving $15 million in aid to Rwanda and Tanzania to help
them cope with the influx of refugees from Burundi. The U.N. says more than 70,000 refugees, an estimated 60 percent of them children, have fled the Burundian capital Bujumbura since violent protests began in April.
The U.N. says children from Burundi have been arriving in Rwanda and Tanzania sick and malnourished. It says a cholera outbreak has affected some 4,000 people in port cities on Lake Tanganyika, and the illness has killed 30 refugees in a refugee camp.
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-third-term-for-burundi-president-is-unconstitutional/2804080.html
Burundi: Can a credible election take place amid political crackdown?
East African leaders have urged President Nkurunziza to delay the Burundi presidential election by a month. But Burundians say that no matter the date, there is little chance that any election will be free or fair.
By Abigail Higgins, Contributor
JUNE 2, 2015
Christian Science Monitor
Bujumbura, Burundi
Residents of the Musaga neighborhood here in Burundi's capital have resorted to stringing strips of mosquito netting across the entrance of their street for protection.
“We put this here to defend our neighborhood from the police and the military. It can’t really protect us, but it's all we have,” says Eric Ndayisenga, an electrician. This area has been a stronghold of anti-government protests since April 25, when the ruling party announced President Pierre Nkrurunziza would run for a controversial third term.
Fear has gripped Burundi since a failed coup ended on May 13. The government used the uprising as an opportunity to crackdown on protestors, journalists, human rights activists, and any perceived opposition, making the current landscape virtually impossible for the presidential election scheduled for June 26 to be credible.
The most prominent opposition candidate, Agathon Rwasa of National Forces of Liberation (FNL), announced Friday that he is boycotting the elections because he no longer feels safe. Nor does he believe in the likelihood of a fair democratic process. His statement followed the May 23 killing of opposition leader Zedi Feruzi in a drive-by shooting. Also, no independent media is functioning, and most journalists are in hiding or have fled.
“If the general population is in fear for their life and their rights that is not a situation conducive to free and fair elections,” says Stephanie Schwartz, a Burundi expert and PhD candidate at Columbia University.
Two members of the five-member electoral commission have likely fled the country, leaving just three in charge of conducting the election. They will also decide whether to delay the presidential vote by six weeks as recommended by the East African Community members in a meeting this Sunday. While it remains uncertain whether Mr. Nkurunziza will take heed, growing government intimidation is making it hard for all forms of opposition.
Intimidation is not new in Burundi, and the political space has been shrinking since before the 2010 election. But today, as Burundi prepares for an election in which its tenuous peace and democracy is at stake, all forms of opposition have all but disappeared.
Post-coup crackdown
The protests that rocked Burundi for weeks have since slowed to a trickle. Several dozen protestors still pound the streets most days, waving “Stop the third term” placards. But they say police are growing increasingly violent. Human Rights Watch says that since demonstrations began on April 26, at least 27 protestors have been killed and more than 300 have been injured.
“Get out of the streets or we’ll shoot you in the legs so you can’t run” says Blaise Ndayisenga from Musaga, recounting what an officer said to him when he tried to protest shortly after the failed coup.
“They’re saying we’re putschists and we’re not,” he says, referring to the word the government uses for coup-supporters. Shortly after the coup, the government announced all protestors would be considered accomplices, blurring the line between the protestors and the military personnel who led the coup.
“We didn’t want the coup. Confusing between the demonstrators and those who made the coup is something which was prepared just to have a reason to throw people in jail,” says Justine Nkurunziza, the chairwoman of COSOME, a human rights group that opposed the president’s third term. “People are arrested on a daily basis and others are disappearing.”
Ms. Nkurunziza, who is not related to the president, says she received a phone call after the failed coup notifying her that she was on a list of people targeted for arrest or assassination. She fled to Rwanda and has yet felt safe enough to return to Burundi.
Politics as usual?
Political violence is not without precedent in Burundi, which emerged from civil war only a decade ago.
“The patterns of repressions are very similar to what we saw in the lead-up of the 2010 elections,” said Yolande Bouka, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, in an email. In 2010, Nkurunziza ran unopposed after opposition parties boycotted the election. In the weeks ahead of it, dozens of opposition leaders were arrested, opposition party meetings were banned, and those who weren’t arrested were closely monitored.
Political violence, perpetrated by both sides, also spiked ahead of the 2010 election with nearly a hundred grenade attacks, the assassination of two ruling party activists and an opposition activist, and arson attacks on local ruling party offices.
But Ms. Bouka says the stakes are much higher this time round.
“These elections are the litmus test of democratic transition,” she says. “By refusing to step aside, President Nkurunziza is moving the country away from democratic consolidation and more towards authoritarianism.”
Analysts and human rights groups also fear that dangerous puzzle pieces, such as increased ethnic-tinged rhetoric and the mobilization of Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, could be falling into a place that could lead to mass violence.
“I feel very strongly that this will not end well, that the propensity for violence is very, very high,” says Cara Jones, an expert on Burundi and assistant professor of political science at Mary Baldwin College. “The trigger warnings we would expect to see in a civil war situation are there.”
Burundi president warns against another coup attempt
June 1, 2015 12:53 PM
Bujumbura
(AFP) - Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza, whose controversial bid to seek a third consecutive term has sparked weeks of civil unrest and a failed coup attempt, on Monday warned against any fresh move to try to unseat him.
Addressing supporters in his hometown in the north of the country, Nkurunziza thanked those who backed him after a top general launched a failed coup while the president was out of the country in May for a summit.
He "warned any person who tries to take power by overthrowing elected institutions", saying "any such attempt will go nowhere", a statement from the ruling CNDD-FDD party said.
Nkurunziza also "called on party members to be vigilant so that the achievements of democracy are safeguarded," the statement added.
The crisis in Burundi erupted in late April after the ruling party designated Nkurunziza, in power for 10 years, as its candidate in upcoming elections. Weeks of street protests, which were brutally suppressed, left at least 30 dead.
The opposition and rights groups say the president's third-term bid violates a constitutional two-term limit as well as a 2006 peace deal that ended a 13-year civil war.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel leader from the Hutu majority and a born-again Christian, insists he has every right to stand again because he was elected to his first term by parliament, not directly by the people.
Burundi's parliamentary elections are currently scheduled to take place on June 5 while the presidential election is slated for June 26.
On Sunday, regional leaders called for the polls to be delayed by at least a month and a half but stopped short of telling the president to abandon his re-election campaign.
Government spokesman Philippe Nzobonariba told AFP that the government welcomed the proposal to delay the polls, adding that his third-term bid was a sovereign issue and that the government now considered the matter "closed".
Plans by the government to push ahead with the polls have been hit by a string of setbacks, with the influential Catholic Church withdrawing its support and key international donors also suspending crucial aid.
Last week, the election commission's vice president fled the country.
On Monday, a second member of the five-person electoral board was said by relatives to have gone into hiding, following threats from the Burundian intelligence service.
The election panel has now been left with just three sitting members, effectively stripping it of its ability to take decisions, which normally require the agreement of four members.
The head of the election commission, Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye, said the questions surrounding a possible election delay, as demanded by the regional summit, was "being discussed with the presidency" but that no decision had yet been taken.
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