Burundi: Why would the EU rush to resume cooperation with the Gitega genocidaires?
European sanctions on Burundi were taken following serious human rights violations following the disputed 3rd term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza. The Burundian people stood up to say no to this serious violation of the Arusha accords and of the constitution that resulted from it. The blind and bloody repression of these demonstrations by certain police officers zealous and committed to the cause of the cnddfdd, supported by the imbonerakure militia as well as the national intelligence service opened a free field for these killers to pursue all opponents until today.
The question that everyone would ask the States of the European Union is to know whether human rights violations in Burundi have really ceased or at least would be reduced (the Doudou Diène commission would not have received any UN the extension of its mandate to continue investigating human rights violations in Burundi). If not, what would have pushed the EU to take this hasty decision with serious consequences for Burundi, the sub-region and the whole world who took the EU as a model in terms of respect for human rights?
We can safely assert that this decision is in no way based on the decrease in the level of violence because it is not at all the EU that is not well informed of the real situation prevailing in Burundi. First of all, we should not expect the situation in Burundi to improve with the power of Evariste Ndayishimiye who knows very well that it was the result of an electoral coup. Burundi is ruled today by leaders who were not elected, but who imposed themselves by force. The Burundian people as a whole know it; the EAC, the AU, the EU and the UN know it. And no one is saying a word today. And they talk about democracy. Is it the democracy of the strongest that counts? How then do you expect that a power which knows that it has imposed itself by military force can give peace to the Burundians even if it does not already have a hidden agenda of genocide (which it has since long) that he only seeks to complete?
You had to be very naive to believe that the arrival of Evariste Ndayishimiye could improve the human rights situation in Burundi because he himself had said that he would only continue the program of his predecessor. You remember that on one occasion he even said words to say that he didn’t even see what he was going to do as if to say that everything had been done by the late President Nkurunziza. There is no doubt that he is following in the footsteps of his predecessor who, since 2015, has killed more than 4,000 Burundians, more than 800 missing, more than 8,000 imprisoned and half a million exiled. Human rights organizations agree that the 100-day rule of Evariste Ndayishimiye and his military clique has been very hard on Tutsi and CNL members. More than 198 Burundians were killed, more than 26 women and girls were killed after being raped, more than 40 people went missing and more than 300 arbitrary arrests noted.
With the “bandit guns” attacks that began on August 23, 2020, Gitega’s power behaved like a lion seeing blood on his body. Not a day goes by without discovering a corpse of a killed person tied up, arbitrary imprisonments are rife, until a former parliamentarian who did nothing but say what was wrong when he was still deputy.
In Burundi, the political space is completely blocked; a political opponent is a man to be killed without any other form of trial; only civil society organizations and the media that agree to do what the government recommends are allowed to work on Burundian soil.
In view of all the above, URN HITAMWONEZA is entitled to ask questions about the criteria on which the EU would have based itself to consider resuming its cooperation with the power of Gitega. While it is true that France has already taken such a decision unilaterally (it has taken the option of supporting this power in its genocidal plans and this is not the first time that it supports such powers), the whole of the EU should not fall into the same mistake. Weapons are today distributed to the imbonerakure militia and to the demobilized of the cnddfdd throughout the territory, the members of the FDLR have set up their staff and their positions in Burundi and receive the logistics of the national army, the entire administration , from the base to the top is acquired in the genocidal project of the cnddfdd power in place. Gentlemen of the EU, resuming cooperation with such a regime simply means supporting or financing a genocide project in Burundi and in the sub-region. Rather, you should demand that Gitega’s military clique dismantle the imbonerakure militia, send the FDLR interahamwe to Rwanda to stand trial, engage in dialogue with all of the country’s forces to find a negotiated solution to the crisis. In case of refusal, you should strengthen the penalties. If today or tomorrow you dares to ignore these observations and decide to support Evariste Ndayishimiye and his military regime, you, like France, will have contributed to supporting a genocide project and you will assume the heavy responsibility for it. WhatsApp contact: +31685638237
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