AU sends special delegation to defuse Burundi situation

The African Union says it will be sending a team of envoys to Burundi to help “defuse current tension.”

The decision was reached on Tuesday evening after a meeting of AU’s Peace and Security Council members, following chaos that have rocked Burundi since its current President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would be standing for a third term.

AU Commission Chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the team, whose number was not immediately given, will help identify “practical measures” in resolving the crisis in Burundi.

“We are sending a high-level AU delegation to help defuse situation in Burundi,” she wrote on her Twitter page on Tuesday evening. Accused of looking on, the AU Peace and Security Council met on Tuesday to assess the situation in the East African Community’s poorest member after chaos erupted on Saturday.

Burundian Envoy to AU Alain Aime briefed the sitting which was chaired by Mozambican representative to the AU Manuel Jose Gonclaves. Burundi is a member of the AU Council but the Burundian representative was not allowed to sit through ‘deliberations.’

“(The Council is) gravely concerned at incidents in Burundi in [the] past few days; deeply deplores loss of human lives and strongly condemns all acts of violence,” it stated in a summary statement on Tuesday.

SIX KILLED

“PSC notes with concern the flow of populations towards neighbouring countries due to the prevailing situation in Burundi resulting fears. “AUPSC appeals to humanitarian organizations to provide all necessary support to populations affected by events in Burundi,” the Council added in a series of tweets.

The ten-member AU body mimics the UN Security Council in its objectives for peace, security and stability but its substantive decisions must mostly be approved by the AU assembly.

It can actually institute sanctions during “unconstitutional change of governments” in member countries but it has mostly done this during coups as was in Egypt, Central African Republic, Libya and Guinea Bissau.

Six people have been killed and thousands fled to neighbouring Rwanda, since the protests broke out in Burundi on Sunday, a day after the ruling party, National Centre for the Defence of Democracy – Forces for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) nominated President Pierre Nkurunziza as its candidate for the June 26 election.

Security agencies followed the protests with a crackdown on protesters, arresting and releasing a number of human rights activists, and shutting down an influential radio station.

On Tuesday, the Burundian Senate took the case to the Constitutional Court even though Mr Nkurunziza has refused to back down on his candidature. The AU says it welcomes the judicial move.

“[I am] pleased to note that the Burundi Senate has taken the 3rd-Term question to the Constitutional Court. It must decide responsibly,” Ms Zuma said on Tuesday evening.

The violence has been condemned by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who 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.

DEEP REGRETS

US government officials have publicly asked President Nkurunziza not to seek re-election and the British government said it “deeply regrets” Nkurunziza’s nomination.

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.

Burundi has known full peace only since 2008 when the government signed a ceasefire agreement with the last active rebel group the Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People – National Liberation Forces (Palipehutu-FNL).

The chaos were solved through what the AU calls an ‘African solution’ and the country has been the only known case where African countries concerted to successfully bring peace after years of civil war.

But the tiny country with a GDP per capita of just $268 has been in chaos even before independence from the Belgians.

In a recent paper, Simon J A Mason, an expert on mediation at the Center for Security Studies observed that the country first seed of violence was sowed by divisive elites.

“Ethnic violence is the result not of ancient tribal hatreds, but of divisive colonial policies and the post-independence struggle for power among politico-ethnic elites in a polarised country,” he wrote in the paper.

The current crisis can be traced to 1990s when a series of regional efforts led to a power-sharing deal in 2003. In 1993, Melchior Ndadaye, the first elected Hutu president was assassinated. A year later, his successor, Cyprien Ntaryamira was killed after a plane which was also carrying Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali.

RWANDA GENOCIDE

The incident led to genocide in Rwanda but about 250,000 people were killed in Burundi after Hutu uprisings were brutally quelled by the then Tutsi-dominated army.

In 1996, Pierre Buyoya became president in a coup but refused to negotiate for peace.

The violence compelled regional leaders including then Kenya’s President Daniel Moi, DR Congo’s Mobutu Seseko, Ethiopia’s Meles Zenawi, Zambia’s Frederick Chiluba, Rwanda’s Pasteur Bizimungu and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni to unusually impose economic restrictions on Burundi.

In 1998, 17 parties were convinced to negotiate in mediation efforts initially led by former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere and later South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. The talks would later be called the Arusha Process.

The Hutu and Tutsi parties signed the Arusha accords in 2000 and formed a transitional government from 2002 to 2005 after signing the Arusha Accord. In 2001, Pierre Buyoya was selected to lead the interim government.

In 2005, Nkurunziza was endorsed in 2005 by legislators to be President for five years in a power-sharing deal that was meant to absorb all the ethnic communities in the country, even though there were rebels still opposed to the Arusha settlement.

He would later sign a ceasefire in 2007 and was voted in a General Election in 2010.