EAC mum as Burundi descends into chaos

Burundian riot police walk past a street fire during a protest on the outskirts of Bujumbura yesterday. At least five people have died since clashes broke out on Sunday after the ruling CNDD-FDD party designated President Pierre Nkurunziza its candidate in the June 26 presidential election.  PHOTO | AFP 

By The Citizen Reporter

In Summary

• The European Union also issued a statement yesterday calling for calm and warning that the violence, arrests of human rights activists and clampdown on the media would undermine the credibility of the electoral process. African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has also publicly raised concerns about the political situation in Burundi.

Nairobi. East African Community member states remained quiet on Tuesday as protestorss opposed to President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term in office clashed with police for the third day in Burundi, and as the unrest spread to other parts of the country.

Mr Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, a leading human rights activist arrested on Monday, was released without charge on Tuesday evening as international pressure grew on authorities in Burundi to allow peaceful protests.

Officials in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda were yet to publicly comment on the latest unrest in Burundi, despite the number of civilians fleeing the EAC member state rising to over 20,000.

In Nairobi, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Karanja Kibichio told Nation FM on Monday evening that he would travel to Burundi on Friday to donate 150 laptops to the Election Commission but refused to be drawn into the third-term debate.

“As a friendly country, our role is to support the decision of the people of Burundi,” he said. “Our role is not to interrogate whether decisions are constitutional or not.”

In Gitenga, Burundi’s second largest city located 100 kilometres east of the capital Bujumbura, police fired tear gas and stopped a planned march by students and other residents in the country’s worst spell of instability since the end of the civil war in 2005. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called for an investigation into the killings of protestors and said he was sending his Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Said Djinnit, to Bujumbura to meet President Nkurunziza and other government officials in an attempt to defuse the crisis.

Shots could be heard in the capital and several suburbs as police battled to remove burning barricades strewn across streets leading into the city centre.

Six people have been killed since the protests broke out on Sunday, a day after the CNDD-FDD, the ruling party, nominated Mr Nkurunziza as its candidate for the June 26 election.

Opposition supporters as well as political and civil society activists say a third term would violate the country’s constitution and the terms of the Arusha Agreement signed to end a decade of civil war in which about 130,000 people were killed.

Mr Nkurunziza’s supporters say his first term, between 2005 and 2010, does not count because he was elected by legislators and not directly by the population. The government has described the protestors as an “insurrectional movement”, shut down independent radio stations and arrested hundreds of people.

“Despite the arrests, we will continue,” Vital Nshimirimana, a political activist who has gone into hiding to avoid arrest, told Radio France International by telephone. He said the protests would continue until President Nkurunziza renounces his claim for a third term in office.

US government officials have publicly asked President Nkurunziza not to seek re-election and the US embassy in Bujumbura said it was watching the situation closely and would “hold accountable those responsible for violence against the civilian population”.