Burundi: Is President Evariste Ndayishimiye on the verge of getting rid of the FDRL-Interahamwe?
People do not dare to venture onto this terrain. But many wonder if the new power has the will and / or the capacity to get rid of this group of genocidaires who committed the genocide of the Tutsi in neighbouring Rwanda in 1994. Let us recall that these genocidaires are wanted around the world, some have been arrested and tried, others are still in hiding in several countries around the world, and still others are in the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi and are still preparing to attack Rwanda once again. Among the people who committed this genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis in 1994 are Burundians. They are mostly Hutu extremists who fled Burundi after the genocide of the Tutsis following the assassination of Melchior Ndadaye in 1993, or who have never left Rwanda since 1972 and who have always been to the school of the ideology of ethnic and regional divisions in Rwanda. They are in our country; they don’t care because they are protected by the cnddfdd power. Yet the are known. Their day will come.
The Burundian government has never been willing to accept that FDRL members are in Burundi in large numbers, that even some have been recruited into the defence and security forces. They are even in the close guards of some authorities. However, some of their leaders have settled down well in Burundi since the beginning of cnddfdd power, others have regularly received Burundian identity cards and diplomatic passports to facilitate their movement in other countries where they thought that they could be stopped. We are also talking about the agreements that would have been signed between the government of the late Nkurunziza (or quite simply the cnddfdd as the State Party) and the FDRL. We haven’t had the text yet, but the time will come for it to come to light. The agreement would consist in smuggling the minerals extracted from the DR Congo to Burundi for sale abroad. The money from this sale would be used to buy the weapons on behalf of the Burundian government, and then deliver them to the FDRL in the DRCongo. In turn, they would have helped in the training of the imbonerakure militia, either in Congo or in Burundi. It is not yet known whether in this document, they would not have mentioned that Burundi facilitates their passage, serves as their rear base and supports them in combat logistics to attack Rwanda and thus return to help Burundi get rid of the Tutsis and form a Hutu empire (Rwanda and Burundi dominated by the Hutu powers). People talk about it, the likelihood of it being a reality is great. We have always observed that each time there is an attack on Rwanda, the route was the same: leave the DR Congo, go through Burundi to launch the attack and return back by the same route. Tin cans marked “Burundi National Defence Forces, made in China” were seized from captured fighters after the recent attack in June 2020.
Does Evariste Ndayishimiye have the will to get rid of these men today? Nothing is certain yet. There are a few facts that may mislead the public into its willingness to do so. During the attack in June 2020, information in our possession says that after crossing the DRC-Burundi border, members of the FDRL passed through one of the military positions which denied them passage. They rushed towards another who couldn’t resist. But, on their return after the attack on Rwanda, the Burundian position reportedly shot at them and killed two of their fighters. The same sources tell us that operations to pursue these FDRLs were allegedly carried out in the Kibira, but without specifying the results. Information that passed on social networks at the beginning of July 2020 spoke of two Burundian soldiers killed in exchanges of fire between the Burundian army and FDRL, but that it was by the simple fact that they did not recognize each other. . The fdrl left the Kibira for refuelling and recruiting missions. Today, information circulating on social networks speaks of two members of the FDRL who were transferred on July 23, 2020 from Ruyigi prison to Gitega prison. They had been arrested in Bujumbura in February 2020, and then transferred to Ruyigi. They are accused of violating territorial integrity, participating in armed gangs and espionage. The two respond to the names of Emmanuel Ngirwenatwo and Paul Munyentwari respectively. During the open court, witnesses told SOS Medias that they said they were arrested in Bujumbura on suspicion of belonging to the Rwandan rebel movement FDRL.
We say these are gestures that deceive public opinion, otherwise we remain convinced that the will is not there yet. We say this because a good will to solve this problem would be expressed by the beginning of a dialogue with the neighbour to the North. Even if the Burundi defence and security forces decided tomorrow to attack the FDRL who are installed in the Kibira without notifying the Rwnada for the coordination of operations, that would push them to disrupt the security of the Rwandan brothers. I don’t think we’re at this point yet.
Does Evariste Ndayishimiye have the means to do it? If there was the will, the means would not be lacking. But, these FDRL members have firmly established themselves in Burundi, have had sufficient time to forge many business relationships, and they have grown too strong. Too strong more than the Burundian state, we do not think so. But doing it abruptly risks creating other problems for him that can weaken him and why not take his life. These genocidaires are like suicide bombers, they are not afraid of anything. They are today like a cat locked between the 4 walls and who feels being chased. His reaction is suicidal.
URN HITAMWONEZA finds that Gitega’s power is today between a rock and a hard place: on the one hand, to continue with the achievements of the former regime of the late President Nkurunziza (without forgetting that both come from the same cnddfdd system), and on the other hand to manage the country differently by favouring good relations with the international community, starting with the direct neighbours. The wisest answer would be for him to abandon his plan of genocide (which risks being fatal for him) and get rid of these genocidaires at any cost.
The Burundian people should be careful because it is they who risk being the innocent victim of a very deadly war like the genocide which risks breaking out from this confrontation.
The countries of the EAC, the African Union and the United Nations Security Council should keep a watchful eye on Burundi.