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BURUNDI: VP's resignation eases political deadlock

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:44:04 GMT

Friday, November 09, 2007

The resignation of First Deputy President Martin Nduwimana should help break a crippling political impasse and expedite peace talks in Burundi, according to an opposition leader.

Nduwimana resigned on 7 November, saying he wanted to give the country's institutions a chance to resume work.

“I handed my resignation to the head of state who accepted it,” Nduwimana said. “I don’t want to be an obstacle to peace.”

Burundi is struggling to recover from the devastation of a civil war that broke out in 1993 and raged for 13 years, pitting rebels from the Hutu majority against a long-dominant Tutsi minority.

Most of the numerous parties to the conflict have signed up to a peace process, but one Hutu rebel group, the National Liberation Front (FNL) continues to hold out.

“I hope the government will now have enough power and capacity to speed up negotiations with the FNL, but also rein in paramilitary groups who are robbing and killing innocent civilians,” Pierre Claver Nahimana, a leading member of parliament for the opposition Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), told IRIN in reaction to the resignation.

FRODEBU and another opposition party, the Union for National Progress, to which Nduwimana belonged until it ousted him in August, have been pushing for the replacement of the entire cabinet amid accusations of corruption and human rights abuses.

The two parties also boycotted parliament and the row has prevented any legislation being debated since August.

“The people of Burundi are distraught to see large amounts of money embezzled and the government doing nothing, while their living conditions are worsening day after day,” Nahimana said.

Nduwayo Gaspard, a political analyst and university lecturer, was less optimistic about the effects of the resignation.

“I don’t see where a deputy president could get the power and strength to give the country a new direction. The two deputy presidents have no powers and cannot impose anything, they do not even have control of the ministers,” Nduwayo said.

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Nkurunziza strikes deal to end political stalemate

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:57:43 GMT

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

After many weeks of a political deadlock that saw the Burundian parliament fail to pass any laws, President Pierre Nkurunziza has announced a deal with opposition parties to end the stalemate, a move welcomed by political analysts and observers as positive for the country's peace process.

"Burundi needs to settle this internal political crisis; and we can only welcome Nkurunziza's change of tone since his previous speech in August, which was critical of the opposition," David Mugnier, the central Africa project director of the International Crisis Group (ICG) said on 1 October in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Mugnier was commenting on Nkurunziza's announcement that he had reached an agreement with opposition parties represented in the National Assembly to end the standoff that had paralysed the country's political institutions.

Speaking on national radio and television on 27 September in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, Nkurunziza said the agreement had been reached on power-sharing in the government, to guarantee the right of political parties to meet freely; to fight corruption; and to reinstate opposition members dismissed from the government.

Nkurunziza's announcement follows weeks of consultations with the main opposition parties, the Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (FRODEBU) and the Union pour le progrès national (UPRONA).

However, FRODEBU chairman Leonce Ngendakumana said: “To address cases of corruption and embezzlement and the reform of the security forces will take long but the organisation of political parties or the reinstatement of local leaders dismissed is very easy.”

For about a month, FRODEBU and UPRONA had stopped participating in parliamentary debate, resulting in delays in bills being passed and other parliamentary procedures. They were protesting at not getting the portfolios they are constitutionally entitled to according to their performance in the 2005 general election. Nkurunziza's Conseil national de défense de la démocratie-Forces de défense de la démocratie (CNDD-FDD) won the elections.

While seeing Nkurunziza's latest announcement as a positive move, Mugnier cautioned: "Let's wait for the results on the ground," adding, "If Burundi could move beyond this political crisis it could see a revival of the country's peace process."

Internal pressure

However, Jean-Marie Gasana, a senior analyst for Africa at the NGO Forum on Early Warning Response (FEWER), said it was one thing for Nkurunziza to make the promise to resolve the stalemate, "but it is another to see which will be the real centre of decision-making within the ruling party that will get things done".

He said Nkurunziza's deal with the opposition parties was a result of internal political pressure as well as external diplomatic and economic pressure.

Many Burundians are tired of empty promises since CNDD-FDD came to power two years ago, Gasana said, adding that it remained to be seen whether or not the latest deal would have a positive impact on the country's development, "given that everyone [politicians] in Burundi is now playing a card to position themselves for the elections", due in 2010.

Gaspard Nduwayo, a Bujumbura-based political analyst and senior political science lecturer at the University of Burundi, said the inaction by the National Assembly had had "serious" consequences for the nation as "the government was itself paralysed".

He said: "The president could not appoint people to some posts, could not propose [to] the national assembly to debate urgent laws; he simply could not work.”

Instead of agreeing on power sharing, Nduwayo said, the political parties should have agreed on some principles and a programme to boost the nation's economy.

Deal with rebels

Nkurunziza also addressed the issue of the implementation of a peace accord reached in September 2006 between his government and the country's remaining rebel movement, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) of Agathon Rwasa.

“We reassured all those who believe [that] the government has plans to wage a military campaign against the FNL," he said. "Even if FNL combatants have on several occasions attempted to provoke the security forces, they did not fall in the FNL trap.”

But, reacting to Nkurunziza’s call, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana said the condition to resume talks with the government was "simple and clear: the appointment of a new mediator”. The FNL has rejected South African security minister Charles Nqakula as mediator, accusing him of bias, and walked out of the talks.

In a report issued on 28 September, the ICG said that for Burundi to move beyond its long civil war and to strengthen democratic institutions and ensure respect for the rule of law, a genuine peace agreement was needed with the FNL, "which is not strong enough to fight a new war but remains a power in most western provinces".

"This requires a new commitment by the government to a negotiated solution, not a military one, and a revived facilitation effort especially by regional states," ICG said. "The country needs a genuine peace agreement to put the conflict behind it, as evidenced by the fact that the rebel delegation’s hasty departure from Bujumbura in July 2007 precipitated widespread fear fighting would resume."

Source: IRIN

BURUNDI: Calm returns as army warns it may crack down on rebels

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:30:17 GMT

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Residents of Buterere commune near the Burundian capital of Bujumbura have returned to their homes after fleeing clashes between rebel factions that left 20 fighters dead.

An uneasy calm enveloped the commune, with residents saying the fighters had left the area. The Burundian army, however, vowed to crack down on the rebels unless they abandon their current positions.

"Our defence forces did not react quickly to calls to chase the combatants away from the population's neighbourhood," the defence minister, Lt-Gen Germain Niyoyankana, said on 5 September.

Urging the residents of Buterere to alert the armed forces when there were rebels in the area, he added: "They are the ones to suffer most when security is disturbed."

The clashes, which broke out on 3 September, forced hundreds of families to flee their homes as factions of the rebel Forces nationales de libération (FNL) clashed at Mugaruro where one of the FNL wings opposed to leader Agathon Rwasa had retreated into a small forest.

The Buterere administrator, Moise Ndayisenga, said residents and local administrators had been urging the FNL factions to move out of the area, pending their assembly for demobilisation or integration.

A local resident said: "We are happy the combatants have gone."

The defence minister urged the rebel leaders and combatants not to waste time and join other Burundians in building the country. "They should come and share with others what is available and discard the thinking that they can succeed in using weapons," he told reporters. "The army will not allow the formation of rebel strongholds, and will react strongly - with arms if necessary."

He called on the army not to engage in politics. "Officers who take part in political meetings do this on their own and not on behalf of the defence forces," Niyoyankana warned.

Earlier, FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana had accused the government of creating a faction in the FNL to force a return of combatants who remained in the Democratic Republic of Congo when the movement returned to Burundi in 2003.

The clashes were the latest sign of tensions within the FNL. Two years ago, a breakaway faction accused Rwasa of gross human-rights violations. More recently, the FNL walked out of a ceasefire monitoring team set up after it signed a truce with the government in September 2006.

The team was to start work in February but it has been delayed by the wrangles. Burundi peace mediator and South African security minister Charles Nqakula has, however, said the Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism would be relaunched soon so that the country's peace process could be concluded by the end of the year.

Source: IRIN