Burundi: Antonio Guterres’s double game strengthens the position of genocidaires in Burundi
A high-level United Nations delegation led by the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for the Great Lakes region HUANG Xia and the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations for Africa Bintu Keita is staying in Bujumbura in Burundi from September 14 to 21, 2020. She has already met on September 14, 2020, Minister Albert Shingiro in charge of foreign affairs and development cooperation. The latter said that they discussed issues pertaining to the socio-economic field to support Burundi in the implementation of the 2018-1027 national development plan. It is, according to him, “a meeting which constitutes a kick-off to increased cooperation between Burundi and the UN”.
On September 15, 2020, the delegation met President Evariste Ndayishimiye at Ntare House located in Bujumbura. After the hearing, HUANG Xia said that the meeting is part of the multidimensional strategic assessment, at the request of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Security Council. Also at the request of the United Nations SG, the United Nations office for the Great Lakes region is preparing a new regional strategy, he said. The president’s spokesperson, Jean Claude Karerwa Ndanzako took the opportunity to tell the media that the delegation appreciated the state of security that prevails in the country and the good cohabitation of Burundians: ” the Head of The delegation welcomed the step taken in terms of safeguarding peace, human rights, taking into account gender and social affairs. He did not fail to positively appreciate the good cohabitation of Burundians as well as the peace and security that reign throughout the national territory. ”
Here it is necessary to ask the question of which country Jean Claude Karerwa is from speaking, because it is not Huand Xia who would have said these sentences. Even if diplomacy requires, having already glanced at the report of the UN commission in charge of human rights investigations in Burundi has just been released, he would have found other words to stroke Evariste Ndayishimiye in the meaning of the hairs because to say what is not true means to lie. And diplomacy or Politics are not synonymes with lies.
The meeting took place as the level of human rights violations in Burundi is nearing its mark. A rebellion circulating in the country, innocent people who die every day, people who are wrongfully arrested by the police, the national intelligence service and members of the imbonerakure militia; people arrested are tortured and then killed or imprisoned; that is the grim picture of the current situation. Everyone is afraid, even the leaders are afraid but do not dare to say it. When the soldiers dare to burn the fishermen’s boats, saying they are moving the criminals when they were supposed to control the lake; when the Rukoko reserve is burnt down on the grounds that the rebels may be hiding there; when forests are burnt in the province of Rumonge to drive out rebels; when the interior minister bans karaoke and prayer vigils on the grounds that they make noises that prevent people from sleeping; this proves that the military clique does not yet know who its real enemy is and what its strength is.
Jean Claude Karerwa also added that his boss’s meeting with the UN delegation took place after a telephone conversation between Antonio Guteress and Evariste Ndayishimiye in June 2020. He took the opportunity to request the withdrawal of Burundi from the agenda of the UN Security Council because, according to him, “there is no rag that burns for Burundi to be kept on the agenda of the Security Council”.
Yet the cloth burns in Burundi; Doudou Diène’s Commission of Inquiry considers that Bujumbura now stands “at a crossroads”. Its report states that “the system of governance put in place for the benefit of the CNDD-FDD party is still present, as well as many risk factors. Human rights violations have continued so far and it would be premature to comment on possible developments with the new authorities. ” Doudou Diène advises the international community to “remain vigilant and mobilized to encourage actions that tackle the root causes of human rights violations”, Discussing the root causes of the Burundian crisis requires men and women of sense , who see the interest of the whole population to the detriment of their own interests, who accept dialogue. If they exist within the cnddfdd, they have no weight.
URN HITAMWONEZA finds that the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi has real data on Burundi, even if it is not sufficient. Burundi is on a very slippery slope. We believe that Antonio Guterres should first consult Doudou Diène and his commission before entering into talks with Evariste Ndayishimiye or sending a delegation to visit Burundi and plan any cooperation with a military clique of generals who have held an electoral holdup, who are in the final phase of the genocide of Tutsis and political opponents. The publication of the results of the UN commission’s investigations on Burundi (speaking of serious human rights violations) and the sending of a delegation to Burundi with a mission to study the modalities of cooperation seem two contradictory things. Doudou Diène believes it is premature to turn the page as if elections and political transition are enough to guarantee the improvement of the human rights situation in Burundi.
We say that things have rather deteriorated. The same system is still in place, the imbonerakure militia has just been activated once again by the Minister of Youth, and the FDRL Interahamwe has known positions in Burundi and receives the logistics of stocks from the Burundi National Defence Force. Yet the UN recommends stopping these negative forces wherever they are found. No one disturbs them on Burundian soil. The organization headed by Guterres does not even dare to release a statement condemning him when these fdrl described as negative forces leave Burundi to disrupt neighbouring Rwanda. Should we wait for another genocide in Burundi or Rwanda to say sorry for not having done anything? If this international community only exists in name, it is high time to stop thinking about cooperation with the power of Gitega, to come out of its silence to condemn what is being done in Burundi and especially to take concrete actions against the military clique which could force her to abandon their plan of genocide in Burundi and in the region.
