KIRUKU: Drums of war: Why wont anybody stop this unfolding genocide?

KIRUKU: Drums of war: Why wont anybody stop this unfolding genocide?

By Anne Kiruku, East African News Agency

As the crisis in Burundi escalates alarmingly and threatens to degenerate into a Rwandan-style genocide, the core values and mandate of the East African Community are increasingly coming into question.

The lack of tangible action by EAC leaders to intervene and mediate successfully between warring groups in the partner states or around the region is worrying to many observers.

It is quite unfortunate, indeed, that the tension between Hutus, who make up to 85 per cent of the population, and the minority Tutsi ethnic bloc, should have been allowed to reach the current level.

The Tutsi constitute only 14 per cent of the country’s population.

Of all the five EAC heads of state, only President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has outrightly condemned the violence that has claimed 240 lives since April. While Kagame may be accused of having an interest or even intention of helping the Tutsi in Burundi, other EAC leaders who would be seen as  more neutral have chosen to maintain silence.

Apparently, some killings are being spearheaded by the security forces, while others are retaliatory attacks. Disarmament orders issued on November 2nd by President Pierre Nkurunziza have only made a bad situation worse: There have been more flare-ups of violence, with bodies being dumped on the streets almost on a nightly basis. Weekends are particularly fertile times for killing sprees.

The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the violence in EAC’s most impoverished nation, which is also the second poorest country in the world. The French-drafted resolution requests the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, to increase the international organization’s peacekeeping mission.

The Belgian foreign ministry has already advised its nationals whose presence is not essential to leave the country as soon as normal measures allow. The European Union has reduced its workers, too, leaving only a skeleton staff to perform basic functions.

When the crisis broke out in Burundi in April after President Nkurunziza’s political party announced  that he would be running for a third term, none of the EAC heads of state came out to openly condemn the move, yet it was against the Arusha Accords which ended Burundi’s 12-year civil war.

That conflict alone had led to the deaths of 300,000 people. Again none of the EAC heads of state came out to speak openly against Burundi’s sham presidential election in July, which was not monitored by any credible body and was also boycotted by a significant section of the population, denting the whole exercise.

Naturally, Nkurunziza won those mock elections.

The regional leaders have now apparently decided to maintain that loud silence even as killings increase in Burundi. As security forces lead the march to anarchy – with journalists getting arrested and the media all but gagged – the rest of the region’s leaders have Burundi as the least of their concerns.

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