Nkurunziza, Kagame skip Burundi crisis meet in Tanzania as East African leaders call for elections delay

Uganda President Museveni (L) Kenya's Uhuru (R) and South Africa's Zuma behind them, walk to the Burundi crisis meeting in Dar es Salaam Sunday. (Photo/UK/FB)

Monday, June 1, 2015

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East African leaders meeting in Tanzania Sunday for a summit on the crisis in Burundi sparked by a divisive bid by President Pierre Nkurunziza to stand for a third term, have called on the government in Bujumbura to postpone elections by a period not less than a month and a half.

In a meeting in the Tanzanian commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the leaders also called for the immediate disarmament of all youth groups affiliated with political groups.

An extremist militia group Imbonerakure, which functions as the youth wing of President Pierre Nkurunziza ruling party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), has been accused of being behind a campaign of intimidation that has led to to the flight of over 100,000 Burundians to neighbouring countries..

The Burundian president, however, did not attend, casting doubt on whether he will heed the call, and underlining yet again how intractable Burundi’s conflicts are.

Nkurunziza’s spokesman said he instead will be pushing ahead with a controversial re-election campaign that has sparked weeks of deadly civil unrest and a regional refugee crisis.

It was during a first crisis meeting on May 13 in Tanzania’s economic capital, attended by Nkurunziza, that a top general launched an unsuccessful bid to oust him.

Once bitten, twice shy, the president was seen as being wary of again leaving the country.

“President Nkurunziza will not go to Dar es Salaam,” Gervais Abahiro told AFP. “He will be represented there by his foreign minister. He is campaigning and decided to delegate his minister.”

Slap in the face

His decision, however, is likely to be seen as a slap in the face for East African Community (EAC) leaders. Traditionally the EAC had been comprised of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. It was expanded in 2009 to include Burundi and Rwanda.

The proponents of the expansion argued that the inclusion of the two countries would bring economic benefits, and help stabilise their politics, both being post-conflict countries. However, while Rwanda seems to have seamlessly integrated into the EAC and gained across the board, the benefits have been elusive for Burundi, vindicating skeptics who thought it wasn’t ready to join.

If EAC leaders, a small cozy club, cannot get everyone around the table on Burundi, which is also the poorest member of the bloc, their usefulness in crisis is likely to be called into question.

The summit in Dar es Salaam was attended by EAC leaders Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta, and host President Jakaya Kikwete. They were joined by South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma. Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa, were the lead Africa trio in the Burundi peace process that ended the long civil war in 2005, and they serve as the guarantors of the deal.

It is perhaps significant that Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a key regional player and Burundi’s neighbour, did not attend and sent a minister to represent him.

Suspicion across borders

Hardliners in Nkurunziza’s inner circle have blamed elements in Rwanda of being aligned to the opposition.

Meanwhile Rwanda officials have also spoken out forcefully about what they alleged was an alliance between pro-Nkurunziza militia and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an eastern DR Congo based remnant Rwandan Hutu rebel group of forces that were behind the 1994 genocide in Rwanda mostly against the Tutsi. Nearly one million people were slaughtered in the genocide.

The crisis in Burundi erupted after the ruling party designated Nkurunziza as its candidate for upcoming elections and for a third consecutive five-year term in office, something that opposition and rights groups say violates the constitution as well as a 2006 peace deal that ended a 13-year civil war.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the conflict, marked by massacres between the majority Hutu and minority Tutsi communities, and there are fears the current crisis—which has already prompted over 100,000 Burundians to flee the country—could plunge the country back into open conflict.

Calls for election delay

Asked to rule on Nkurunziza’s candidacy, Burundi’s constitutional court found in favour of the president, but not before one of the judges also fled the country, claiming that its members were subject to death threats.

Key international donors have withdrawn their support for the polls, as has the influential Catholic Church in Burundi, and on Saturday it emerged that a senior member of the election commission had also fled the country—further plunging preparations for the polls into disarray.

The country’s main opposition leader, Agathon Rwasa, also said elections would be a “masquerade” if they go ahead.

Burundi’s government has insisted that parliamentary elections will take place on June 5 despite the crisis, while a presidential poll is scheduled for June 26.

Diplomats have hinted that one possible outcome of the regional summit would be a call for another delay in the elections, although Burundi’s EAC partners are expected to stop short of telling Nkurunziza to relinquish his attempt to stay in office.

Tanzania, which has been openly critical of Nkurunziza, on Friday called on Burundi’s government to “listen” to its people.

“Our position is that we call on the Burundian people to remain calm and we urged the government to listen to them,” Tanzania’s foreign minister, Bernard Membe, told state-run TBC1 television.

UN special envoy Said Djinnit said talks between the Burundian government and opposition had made progress on several issues—including the reopening of independent media and the release of detainees—but not on the key issue of a halt to protests in return for Nkurunziza’s agreement not to stand again.

He said both sides “have agreed to resume their talks after the summit in Dar es Salaam.”

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