Africanews
The regime in Burundi faces a rough time as neighbouring countries implement sanctions aimed at forcing it to accept an international peacekeeping force. Though commendable, the sanctions move may fizzle out if the new Burundi leader plays his cards well. |
The July 25 coup in Burundi complicates an already explosive situation. New President Pierre Buyoya claims he came to power to save Burundi from ethnic bloodshed, but two days after he took power, the Tutsi-dominated army admitted it had killed 30 Hutus after a rebel attack that set a coffee plantation in central Burundi on fire. This admission came as aid agencies claimed 150 civilians had been killed by the troops. The irony of it is that two days later, the army changed its story saying it had killed 50 Hutus.
The worry of the international community is based on the fact that since 1993, 150,000 peopleumostly civilians have been killed in fighting between rebels from the Hutu majority and Tutsis who control the army and most of the state apparatus.
The result of this massacre has been an endless stream of refugees fleeing into the neighbouring countries of Tanzania and Zaire, worsening a refugee crisis full to the brim since over a million Rwandese Hutus fled to Zaire and Tanzania following a massacre in 1994.
The latest crisis heightened after President Sylvestre Ntibantunganya who took over in a power-sharing deal in 1994 as a means of reconciling the Hutus who comprise 85 per cent and Tutsis who comprise 14 per cent of the 5.8 million population backed a peace-keeping plan to involve foreign troops during a regional summit in the Tanzanian town of Arusha in June.
The plan was also backed by Tutsi Prime Minister Jean Nduwayo. But soon after President Ntibantunganya returned home from the summit, he was denounced as a traitor by Tutsi hardliners. The final spark came on the weekend of July 22 when 300 mainly Tutsi civilians were massacred by suspected Hutu rebels. When President Ntibatunganya attended their funeral on July 23, he was stoned and had to be rushed from the scene by his bodyguards. His Prime Minister never made any effort to defend him. The President later that day fled to the US ambassador's residence as troops took position near key buildings in the city. On Thursday, July 25, the army announced that it had taken power and installed former President Major Pierre Buyoya as President.
It is important to note that all previous Hutu Presidents were killed. In October 1993, the first Hutu President Melchior Ndadaye was killed in a coup bid allegedly sponsored by Major Buyoya who had lost presidential elections earlier that year. Mr Nduwayo's successor Mr Cyprien Ntaryarmira was killed in a plane crash in April 1994 together with Rwandese President Juvenal Habyarimana.
In fact as the Burundi crisis heightened, many observers worried that the young
President u born in 1958 may end up where his two predecessors ended.
The coup has received cold international reaction with neighbouring countries
ordering sanctions on the new regime.
At a summit in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on July 31, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Rwandese President Pasteur Bizimungu, Zairean Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo, Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi and the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity Salim Ahmed Salim ordered sanctions on Burundi.
A dash to the Ugandan capital by Buyoya a day before the summit to try to convince President Museveni to back his new regime did not yield fruits. President Museveni refused to recognise him as President and demanded that he should accept an international peace-keeping force.
Following the Arusha meeting, Kenya said on August 5 it was suspending rail,
road and air links with Burundi as part of the sanctions.
A spokesman in the Office of the President said the sanctions would also
restrict movement of people between the two countries, which do not share a
land border. Similar moves were taken by Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Kenyan government officials said its main fuel storage depot at Eldoret in the Rift Valley province had already received instructions not to honour Burundi orders. The same action was taken in the port of Mombasa.
Economic analysts said if applied successfully, landlocked Burundi, which relies on ports of Mombasa and Tanzania's Dar es Salaam for all imports and exports, would grind to a halt within weeks.
Burundi is also bracing for an exodus of foreigners after the US embassy advised US nationals to leave, a move expected to be followed by others. But the international community is appealing to regional powers not to stop vital relief aid Tom reaching the needy in this landlocked country.
The leaders who met in Arusha have called on all the parties especially the armed factions inside and outside Burundi involved in the conflict, to undertake immediate and unconditional negotiations in order to:
But an embargo will be hard to police and enterprising traders have already started looking for ways round it by using surrogate trucking, getting Rwandans to do the transport or changing final destinations.
The sanctions move is commendable as it shows the region's resolve to end the Burundi crisis once and for all. The rationale of the international force is based on the fact that the Burundi army can not be trusted to keep the peace in the country since it is dominated by Tutsis.
However, Major Buyoya, having ruled Burundi for six years in the past and having done a lot of ground work since he left office, is seen as too smart to let power slip from his hands. He could be in power for the next 10 years. Just after he took power, the US admitted that it had funded his democracy foundation to the tune of $145,000. And, just a few weeks before the coup, he was reading at Yale University in the USu allegedly to plan a new book. Trained in Belgium, France and Germany, Buyoya is perceived as a less of a Tutsi extremist than Colonel Jean Baptiste Bagaza, the officer he ousted as President in a bloodless coup in 1987. In his first spell as President, Buyoya tried to stem a volcano of tribal hatred with a charter of National Unity giving the country's three tribes equal rights.
Major Buyoya was born on November 24, 1949 in the village of Rutovu in southern Burundi. He attended secondary school in Belgium which ruled Burundi until 1962, and went on to join the Burundian army. He won a Diploma in Social and Military Science at Brussels military academy in 1975 and took a course at the officers' school of France's armoured corps in 1976.
Major Buyoya had further training in West Germany from 1980 to 1982. Returning to Burundi with the rank of major, he was given the command of a battalion. Buyoya has three daughters and a son and lists his hobbies as football.
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