BUJUMBURA January 10th (ABP) – Burundian democratically elected institutions will never negotiate with the coup plotters, according to the statement of the Burundian government issued on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. The latter follows the different reactions of Burundian socio-political actors in relation to the exchange of correspondence between the Burundian Head of State, Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, and his Ugandan counterpart and incumbent chairman of the East African Community (EAC), Mr. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
Through that statement, the government of Burundi indicates that the correspondence that the Ugandan Head of State sent to his Burundian counterpart on December 8, 2018 “contains a number of statements that provoked many considerations and different comments from some socio-political actors of Burundi.
These include the “perhaps unintentional” confusion on the part of President Museveni between the National Council for the Defense of Democracy / Force for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD / FDD) and the National Inter-Burundian Dialogue Commission (CNDI), the revisionism of Burundi’s tragic history since independence to date, the Burundi government’s negotiations with the coup plotters, the “false comparisons between Rwanda and Burundi, the underestimation of the conflict between Rwanda and Burundi, as well as the questioning or non-recognition of peace and democracy in Burundi.
For the government of Burundi, the statement says, negotiating with the coup plotters means endorsing and legitimizing the return of the facto powers, a step back and a perpetual cycle that undermines the will of the people every time after the elections and that the Burundian government is determined to cut short permanently and irreversibly with this velleity.
The place of the coup plotters, continues the statement, is before the judicial bodies and not on a table of dialogue. Instead, Bujumbura is asking the host States to help Burundi in this way by extraditing them to the country for justice to be done.
For the government of Burundi, the revisionism of the tragic history of Burundi since independence to date, making a Manichean reading of the good and the bad is not likely to reconcile people. This is a step backwards as Burundi is already reconciled with itself, as evidenced by the establishment of all the transitional justice mechanisms provided for by the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement, which are enshrined in the Constitution of June 2018 and which are at work successfully, specifies the same statement.
Currently, the same statement continues, the Burundi Government’s main concern is the preparation of the 2020 elections as an arbitrator because only political parties and independents will compete.
The Government of Burundi also commends the massive return of refugees to their homeland and thanks all countries that contribute to this return. It urges “other countries to stop becoming an obstacle to the return of Burundians to their country”.
