CIVIL society organisations operating in Bujumbura and a number of other international Organisations and institutions have jointly declared their disappointment at the East African Heads of State’s decision to snub Burundi from their summit agenda.
At their press conference convened here
yesterday under the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), the 17 civil,
community-based and international organisations stated that they were
deeply concerned that the Burundi crisis was not part of the summit’s
agenda, despite the worsening situation.
Moreover, they said that despite the
fact that it is Burundi’s turn this year to produce a new Secretary
General for the East African Community, have warned that Bujumbura is
not fit to bring to Arusha the name of the proposed official.
“Burundi is a troubled country; people
are dying, thousands other displaced and many fleeing to other
countries. Although it is Bujumbura’s turn to take over the EAC
Secretary General post from Rwanda, we can confidently declare that the
country must not be permitted to fill that position,” declared
representatives of CSOs and CBOs from Burundi as well as international
organisations during their joint meeting here.
Five presidents from Kenya, Rwanda,
Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania will convene at Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge
near here for their 17th ordinary EAC, which will address many issues,
including the inclusion of South Sudan into the EAC and launching of the
new regional passport.
“It should not be business as usual;
people are dying in Burundi, we have so far 250,000 others who have fled
from the country; thus ending the crisis in Burundi should remain the
top priority for our presidents.
Everything else must wait,” explained Mr
Donald Deya, the Executive Secretary of PALU. A few months ago, the
Head of Communications at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha, Mr Owora
Richard Othieno, had stated that an emergency extraordinary summit for
the heads of state was in the works to address the issue of Burundi.
Later, however, a special taskforce
under Uganda President Yoweri Museveni was formed to deal with the
Burundi crisis. But in between, the East African Legislative Assembly
(EALA) organised a public hearing, which ran in two sessions to address
the same
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