Burundi: Happy New Year Anyway (Part Six)
(Report on the fight against impunity)
Impunity has become a great scourge for Burundi. Who would stop this Burundian way of life to establish justice for all? Either way, it’s not Evariste Ndayishimiye or someone else from the cnddfdd system as long as the military clique that came out of this system continues to hold the country hostage.
President Ndayishimiye showed the first gestures of goodwill at the beginning of his power; perhaps he believed he could show the difference with his predecessor even though he had announced during the election campaign that he would continue the work of Pierre Nkurunziza. Some of his actions will be stopped as soon as they begin, others will simply be upset. As positive gestures, we can notably cite:
Evariste Ndayishimiye initially showed a good intention to bring order to his imbonerakure militia, but he did not take two steps. People remember the arrest and imprisonment in August 2020 of imbonerakure and administrative staff from Kayogoro in Makamba who intercepted and abused Burundians from Tanzania. Some have even been killed. This gesture would have irritated the members of this militia and the practice did not, impunity remained the way of life within this group.
Another goodwill gesture to put the imbonerakure militia back in its proper place was made by the soldiers of Camp Cibitoke who arrested and beaten imbonerakure after stripping them of military effects when they were doing military exercises at the stadium in this province on morning of August 23, 2020. We do not yet know if this group of soldiers would have done it on their own initiative and if it is so if they would not be prosecuted for this commendable gesture or if they did it on order ” from above ” as they say. In the same vein, the governor of Kayanza, Colonel Remy Cishahayo, did not hesitate, as soon as he took office, to declare to the imbonerakure that they have no right to patrol, that this work is reserved only for law enforcement. It will unfortunately be denied a month later by Ezechiel Nibigira on August 29, 2020 by ordering the imbonerakure militia to resume their work immediately after his speech. He left to say it from the same province of Kayanza. Again, we assert that it is not his own initiative, it is a message sent to him by the military clique in power. It is during these months of August and September 2020 that the leaders of this militia at the national level will travel to all the provinces to re-mobilize them, to put them back to work. Military training and the distribution of additional weapons then resumed.
Another demonstration of good intention was made in the direction of the fight against fraud and illicit businesses. Everyone is aware of many cases where loincloths and other defrauded products from DR Congo have been intercepted and transported by national police vehicles. The spokesperson for this institution said every time these people will be punished, but the trafficking has never stopped. The most recent dates from December 14, 2020. 785 loincloths were unloaded from the boats in Bujumbura, on the nautical circle side, coming from the DRC, passing through Lake Tanganyika. The arrested people were tried in flagrante delicto on December 15, 2020 with 10-year prison terms. What is certain is that these people will not spend those years in prison because they are only employees of the great personalities of the cnddfdd system. On the day of this seizure, it is said that police vehicles and prominent personalities were lurking around the place. It is not said that these loincloths were sold to pay the money into the public treasury as announced by the police and the OBR.
On the same date of December 14, 2020, 101 women and girls had been arrested in a hangar by the police ready to embark on the Arab countries. A good gesture to stop the trafficking of human beings in Burundi. But, since this trade is done by great personalities within the cnddfdd system, 20 of them were released and left in a group of 130 women who took the plane on December 18, 2020. This means that the one who has arresting these women has less power than those who do this illegal trade in human beings.
It would come as no surprise to anyone when one recalls that Evariste Ndayishimiye ordered all leaders to prepare to declare their assets before taking office as provided for in the constitution; it was during a prayer crusade organized in Ngozi from August 20 to 23, 2020. He will say a month later, on September 25, 2020, during his first public conference in Gitega, that someone’s property is a secret that should not be exposed. Thus, the President of the Republic violated the constitution that his own party had voted in 2018. They may have forgotten to remove this article from this document shaped by the military clique to allow him to stay in power
URN HITAMWONEZA reminds Burundians to beware of tantalizing, well-intentioned speeches by President Evariste Ndayishimiye. He makes you believe that he loves the people, that he works for your benefit, but everything remains at the level of declarations. He knows very well that he cannot change anything about the way the cnddfdd system manages the affairs of state; but he knows how to lull you to sleep with speeches to make you believe that you have a saint in front of you, but you will find that he has no strength to make any decision without the agreement of the military clique. It was she who dictated to him the decision to withdraw the declaration of their assets from the government program. In short, those who have had a lot of money stolen since 2005 are the real masters in Burundi; “Whoever has the money has the power,” it will be said. The country will have peace for all and development only when we all mobilize against this handful of men who have taken an entire people hostage.