Burundi: Is it a weakness of Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council in the face of Gitega’s rule or a hidden agenda for Burundi?
The front-page news that blackmailed the Gitega authorities was the decision of the UN Security Council to remove Burundi from its political agenda. A decision that fell on December 4, 2020. This means that there will be no more reports issued to the Security Council every three months. Antonio Guterres will have to cover the country as part of his regular reports on the Great Lakes region and Central Africa.
It is a victory for the military clique in power in Burundi that will kill, torture, imprison, exile whoever it wants without any observation, without any hindrance. This is therefore another failure for the United Nations, which has just shown itself once again powerless, incompetent. This is even the observation made by Thierry Vircoulon, coordinator of the Observatory for Central and Southern Africa of the IFRI (French Institute of International Relations). Failed to fail, it remains to be considered that this institution has no importance in respecting human rights.
We allow us to cite a few examples that show this inaction of the security council. Everyone remembers that the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis was prepared and executed without any reaction; yet they were warned. During the third illegal and illegitimate term of the late President Pierre Nkurunziza which was followed by protests suppressed in blood by the security forces manipulated by the authorities, the Security Council decided to send troops, then police, then observers etc….. The power refused everything and nothing was done. Burundians continued to be executed like sheep at the slaughterhouse with total impunity. And Evariste Ndayishimiye, secretary general of the cnddfdd at the time, never stopped taunting Europeans and the United Nations with every public address. And yet, he is currently President of the Republic after an electoral hold-up. The member states of the Security Council are posing as the great defenders of human rights and democracy in the world. In its communiqué, the UN Security Council was not even ashamed to write “the generally peaceful elections marked a new phase” What new phase? What has changed in Burundi? How many deaths does it take to say that there is insecurity?
As recently as last month, Antonio Guterres gave a false report to the chairman of the security council on the basis of the erroneous data sent to him by a commission sent to Bujumbura in mid-September 2020. From this report came bad recommendations. For example, he proposed the socioeconomic reintegration of imbonerakure. We have had the opportunity to demonstrate that Gitega’s power will never be able to dismantle this militia as long as it is in control of the Burundian state.
Today, the Security Council has just taken this decision to remove Burundi from its political agenda at a time when this same power, in addition to the human rights violations that have become its daily life, had just refused Boutros Boutros Ghali’s request to extend the mandate of the office of the UN special envoy until 31 December 2021. It is the same power that has driven undying staff out of the human rights office and their return to Burundi is not for tomorrow.
How can we justify this weakness of the United Nations in the face of a power that persists and does what it wants without any scruples and which taunts all countries at a time when it is at the bottom of the world in economic terms? That sounds incomprehensible. In other case, the way in which decisions are made at the board level is inadequate; or these countries have no concern about what is happening in some African states like Burundi. Or they deliberately let the situation escalate in our countries in order to find easy doors to enter. Weak and corrupt powers are easier to manipulate. If China and Russia, permanent members of the Security Council, are fighting tooth and nail to defend Burundi despite the multiple human rights violations committed by its leaders, it is not out of love for Burundians; it is simply because they face a corrupt power that lets them plunder all the country’s resources to enrich the rich at a time when the Burundian people remain the poorest in the world.
URN HITAMWONEZA believes it is high time that the Burundian people woke up and took charge of the fight for their survival; never again rely on the United Nations. Instead of taking harsh measures against criminals, thieves of the May 2020 elections, the Security Council of the United Nations provides them with diplomatic support. A golden opportunity for Gitega’s power to strengthen its imbonerakure militia and support for the negative forces that committed the Rwandan Tutsi genocide in 1994 and who are swarming in Burundi with the aim of completing the rampant genocide in Burundi and extending its actions throughout the sub-region; Rwanda and eastern Congo. The same Security Council will come after the fact to say that it did not know in time what was coming about when there was no ever shouting. The weakness of the powers of this underground part of Africa would be an opportunity for these Security Council members to penetrate and exploit it for the benefit of their respective countries. It is up to us Burundians to take courage with both hands and drive out of power the military clique that seeks only their interests by plunging all the people into fire and blood. Burundi needs a strong power that ensures the security of all Burundians without exclusion, the only basis for any development.