Monday, December 21, 2015

Burundi, East Africa’s Boiling Pot, Yet To Break Into Pieces Again


Timeline of Burundi’s Turmoil

By Derek Tumusime (In NewVision)

In the African traditional setting, cooking was at most done in clay pots, although clay is referred as a heat insulator; however, there are tendencies where the pot will emit excessive heat and later develop cracks before finally breaking into pieces that cannot be stitched together any more.

The latest developments from Burundi following President Pierre Nkurunziza pursuit and re-election for a third term, seem to suggest that it is East Africa’s boiling pot which no one is willing to carry off the fireplace with their hands not even member states of the East African community of which Burundi is a member or even deploy the East African Standby Force to nip in the bud the escalating violence that has claimed over 200 lives and has forced more than 200,000 Burundians to become refugees in neighboring countries.

In related development as matter of fact the escalating violence is not on the headlines of the region’s newspapers, we just can’t afford to go silent at this gradual stage of the Burundi conflict as it is likely to have spillover effects to the entire East African region.

The crux of the matter is that Burundi with its history of instability has developed cracks wide enough for her to break into pieces again.

Take for instance, the recent failed attempt by Speaker of Burundi’s Parliament Pascal Nyabenda to recall four of the country’s nine representatives to the East African Legislative Assembly, who are reportedly  not members of  the ruling CNDD-FDD party  and are living outside Burundi out of fear for their security is a clear indicator of the no- love relationship of the country’s body politic, a volatile situation and is on the verge of anarchy, civil war, ethnic conflict, inter alia, as the international community, such as the United Nations and several high profile non-governmental organizations have warned.

Burundi, a member state of the East African Community, is disintegrating at a faster rate under our watch despite efforts by the regional bloc to broker a peace deal among the antagonistic players of the country’s body politic.

However unfolding events clearly show that there has been no breakthrough, to the extent the chief mediator President Museveni who is deeply involved in his re-election campaigns, at one of his several press conferences recently admitted that he was not well versed with the latest events in Burundi but, according to what he was hearing most probably from the press, was that the situation was deteriorating.

We can forgive him since he delegated his Defense minister Hon Dr Crispus Kiyonga, but again this minister has been and is also involved in his parliamentary election campaigns in his home district of Kasese, therefore too busy to attend to Burundi.

In the meantime the regional bloc should have replaced the Ugandan team because of its busy political calendar to attend to such sensitive regional security issues and there is no doubt President Museveni would have performed his role better given his experience in regional affairs and his participation in regional peace building efforts such as interventions in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, inter alia.

The East African Community [EAC] has not come out with a thorough explanation of how these peace talks are progressing or whether they exist at all, in fact there is a vacuum of information on its efforts to stabilize Burundi.

However tough and serious response to the situation in Burundi has so far come, from the US in its efforts to halt the escalating violence, President Barack Obama has imposed heavy sanctions on four prominent figures in Burundi, such as freeze on their assets and restrictions on visas to enter the US.

The targeted include; Maj Gen Godefroid Niyombare the former chief of Burundi’s intelligence and leader of the failed coup, Cyrille Ndayirukiye a former minister of defence, Godefriod Bizimana the deputy director of the National Police and the Minister for Public Security Alain Guillaume Bunyoni.

US also threatens to impose sanctions against more leaders both in government and in opposition. But the rest of the western powers who as usual, their initiatives stop at lip service inform of condemnation but no or less action, although important but it’s never enough, have resorted to evacuation of their diplomatic staff especially the non-essential staff and family members.

Burundi could turn out to be a breeding ground for regional instability like the Democratic Republic of Congo which still harbors armed groups fighting neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Uganda.

In this growing era of radicalization and terrorism in Africa such the Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-shabab in Somalia, we cannot take the situation in Burundi for granted, for instance , the recent countries which have become failed states such Libya and Syria are now home to the ruthless Islamic state.

The East African region especially the great lakes region since independence has been home to some of the worst armed conflicts on the African continent; it has also witnessed some of the worst atrocities in human history such as the 1994 ethnic cleansing in Rwanda, the use of sex as a tool of war especially against innocent girls and women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the LRA insurgency in Northern Uganda, the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya, the recent civil war in South Sudan( the Bor and other massacres ), not forgetting the sporadic terrorist attacks in Kenya by Al-shabab,  these and many more have befallen this region.

At the height of these armed conflicts the most affected are women and children, thousands have been condemned to a refugee life and to makeshift displaced peoples’ camps and left at the mercy of international Aid agencies for basic needs of survival.

Fundamental human rights are violated with impunity, human life is extinguished mercilessly within no time, young girls are rape and defiled at the orders of warlords, children are displaced from their parents whom in most cases they never see again, such is the brunt of armed conflict the people of Burundi have had to bear with in the past and are likely to bear with it again.

We must appreciate the fact that injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere; Burundi should not slide back to anarchy as we watch just like the 1994 Rwandese genocide and also although not so recent the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya, where justice for the victims is not forthcoming and in fact attempts of prosecuting perpetrators by the international criminal court[ICC] is being frustrated not only by Kenyans themselves but also by those other African countries which just watched on as innocent Kenyans where being subjected to horror by their own.

The latest attempt [futile] being, Kenya’s bid to have the rule on recanted evidence amended by the assembly of state parties [ASP] so as in the case Deputy President William Ruto recanted Evidence is dropped, this is unfortunate as it undermines the principles of international [criminal justice] Law and the thirst for justice for the victims of post-election violence in Kenya.

Therefore in the case of Burundi we have the opportunity of the stopping the unrest before it further escalates rather than wait to frustrate justice. 

Last week’s Friday attacks on military camps which are some of the worst since the unrest begun in April this year, is pointer to a situation that is gradually getting out of hand, therefore all options geared towards restoring sanity in Burundi must be fast-tracked in pursuit of a long standing political solution to the crisis by the international community.
Originally published in Uganda's NewVision
The writer is an International law Student, with interest in Regional affairs [The East African Community].

No comments:

Post a Comment