Burundi: We've played this scene before.

A statement from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.


UN experts call for determined Security Council action to prevent mass violence in the Great Lakes region


GENEVA (16 July 2015) – A group of United Nations human rights experts* today urged the Security Council to take immediate action to prevent Burundi from sliding back into violent conflict ahead of presidential elections, a crisis which will not leave the other countries in the region, including Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, unaffected. Thus far, 145,000 persons have fled to neighbouring countries in fear for their lives.

This is something that should scare the shit out of the whole world. Once again we are seeing the Great Lakes Region of Africa descend into chaos and once again the world is looking away. Six million lives have been lost in the DR Congo since 1998 and lets not forget the genocide in Rwanda and a further 800,000 lives. 


“The world is witnessing an escalating pattern of politically motivated violence in Burundi, enabled by the country’s decades-long tradition of impunity,” the experts warned. “The international community must not simply stand by and wait for mass atrocities to unfold, thereby risking a major conflict of regional proportions before it finally decides to act,” the Special Rapporteurs added, pointing to repeated cycles of mass violations that Burundi and the Great Lakes region have witnessed in recent history.

New Zealand is the currently president of the Security Council as we were when the Rwandan Genocide occurred and once again the Security Council is dithering. The difference being the last time we held the presidency we acted with honour.

" As the death count grew, our Ambassador, Colin Keating, pressed hard for the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda to be strengthened, and for the Council to declare this atrocity as genocide.

As the Council’s President in April 1994, we even had to threaten to hold a public debate to shame certain countries for their refusal to acknowledge what was happening.

In the end, mainly because of the unwillingness of some of the Council’s permanent members, those efforts were unsuccessful and 800,000 innocent people were butchered – many with jungle knives."

For fucks sake our ( NZ ) official position is that we oppose the great power Security Council veto. Yes we failed Rwanda but we tried. We may fail again...we will certainly fail if we don't try. The world voted us onto the Security Council not the vested interests of the west.

The situation in Burundi has already involved serious human rights violations. “It is accumulating the well-known and visible marks of a society which previously suffered divisions leading to grave violence. This can escalate into major conflict through the use of outright repression against, and intimidation of, the population at large, the instrumentalization of the police, the closure of independent media, as well as the detention of the opposition and other civic leaders. We also witness efforts to coerce the judiciary, some of whose highest members have fled the country claiming their lives were at risk. In the meantime, armed militias, with the collaboration of authorities, exercise violence against civilians. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the results of the 29 June elections have generally not been endorsed,” the experts raised alarm. 

In short we have all the ingredients for another ethnic conflict that like the rest will engulf the the Great Lakes Region with potential consequences that don't bare thinking about except that we will have to do a lot more than think about them if   when they come to pass.



“The absence of independent media and a climate of repression and fear to exercise civil rights and express opinions, notably by peacefully taking to the streets, have marred the recent elections and will also be defining the forthcoming presidential elections, now scheduled for 21 July. The postponement by six days of the presidential elections does not remedy this blatant deficiency,” the mandate-holders stated.

It might be time for the world as represented by the Security Council to remind certain African dictators of a supposedly African proverb popularised by American President Roosevelt.

" Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far,"  


“If the government persists in holding presidential elections under the current circumstances – something even the former first Vice-President objected to after also having fled the country – they will in no way confer any legitimacy on the to-be-elected authorities. On the contrary, the elections are highly likely to result in major instability and confrontations in Burundi, with the potential to spread to the region,” the experts warned.

The big and forever unanswered question being who will benefit from the instability ? Oh of course the West, instability is opportunity.... just look at the illegal exploitation of resources multi-nationals have achieved in the DR Congo....and the cost... six million Congolese lives.  


On 9 July, the situation on Burundi was most recently discussed by the Security Council. The seven independent experts strongly echoed the call made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights to immediately disarm the youth militia Imbonerakure which is spreading major violence and intimidation among the population. The experts join the High Commissioner in recalling that the people of Burundi “have a right to go about their lives peacefully, in freedom, equality and dignity; without fear, and with equitable access to their country's many resources and opportunities.”

The Imbonerakure are targeting Tutsi communities and it would seem are predominantly a Hutu organisation.To quote Marrilion's Fish " You've played this scene before ".  


“The Security Council has a unique role for peace and security and for preventing conflicts worldwide. This is a crisis that is eminently preventable – everyone can see the risks. What is lacking is action,” underscored the independent experts. “Given the painful history of Burundi and the region, the long engagement of the United Nations in the country to re-build peace, the Security Council must be all the more alerted to the increasing potential of an escalation of massive violence,” the experts added.

And New Zealand as the current the president of the Security Council have failed enormously. We have failed our own legacy... even worse we have failed the trust the world mandated us with. 


“Burundians, who live in the world’s third poorest country must be spared another cycle of violence, with the misery and destruction that violence always leave on its wake. They look to the Security Council to live up to its unique role in the prevention of mass atrocities,” the experts urged.

I am ashamed to be a New Zealander today. John Key a new flag will not disassociate us from a genocide we did nothing to prevent. If our old brand has more honour than our new brand it would be better to abandon the exercise.

Burundi: More Bat shit crazy and New Zealand is once again chairing the Security Council.

Yet another African President who can't read the writing on the wall and thinks the presidency is a job for life.

 

Burundi: Power and opposition committed to continue dialogue despite differences

July 16, 2015 1:26 (Last updated July 16, 2015 1:30)

AA / Bujumbura / Jean Bosco / Rénovat Ndabashinze

After two days of consultations, conducted under the aegis of the new mediator of the crisis in Burundi, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the Burundian parties agreed Wednesday to continue the dialogue that no compromise has yet been reached on the issue of the controversial third term of Pierre Nkurunziza.

That would have to be the stupidest mediator appointment in the history of stupid mediator appointments. A bit like putting a rabbit in charge of a lettuce patch.

In it, the author says, back in 1986: "The problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power."

And who wrote it? The current president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in the job for 25 years

The presidential camp, always hostile to the idea of ​​further postpone the date of the presidential elections (as advocated by the East African Community (EAC)), proposed to resume dialogue after the elections.

So the Presidents plan is to discuss with the opposition his third term in office after the election that he will corruptly win giving him a third term in office. Bat shit crazy springs to mind.

 "The government agrees on the principle of dialogue, but now the urgency is to organize the presidential election to avoid an institutional vacuum," said Alain-Aimé plenary Nyamitwe, Burundian Minister External relations.

You couldn't make this shit up nobody would believe you. 

Ugandan President had presented a set of proposals capable of resolving the crisis in the country since April 26, when the Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza was invested by its candidate in the next presidential party, ruled unconstitutional by a candidacy civil society and the opposition.

Only Museveni could achieve a set of " proposals capable of resolving " such a crisis... even Rwanda's Kagame has recognised that you need to actually change the constitution first.   

One of the opposition leaders told Anadolu on condition of anonymity that "Yoweri Museveni, in particular, proposed the opposition to go to the presidential elections, to accept the results, let Nkurunziza still govern the country for two years with a transitional parliament and a national unity government even organize elections at the end of this period. "

Hilarious..the election hasn't actually happened yet but the result is clearly in and Nkurunziza has won.

A scenario that excludes the presidential clan. Willy Nyamitwe, Nkurunziza adviser, in charge of communication, notes in this in a press statement that "it is inconceivable that Burundi has already held elections in 2005 and 2010 to return to a transitional government, we are agree to a national unity government after the elections, and this is also recommended by our Constitution, "he has said Wednesday.

Coast of civil society is a mixture of satisfaction and anxiety prevailing at the corresponding Anadolu, present at the plenary meeting thereof held on Wednesday. 

If you can figure out what that means you are doing better than me although my guess is nothing at all.

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, president of the association for human rights and the protection of detained persons (APRODH) said rather "reassured" about the outcome of the dialogue.

On the side of the opposition, Charles Nditije, the Coalition of Independents "Amizero y'Abarundi" (Hope Burundians), also said "confident".

I am pleased to hear that all are " reassured " and " confident ". I am not.


" In scenes reminiscent of Rwanda's 1994 genocide in which at least 800,000 people (mainly Tutsi and moderate Hutu) were killed, Burundian Tutsi refugees say local security forces have prevented a massacre after they dispersed members of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the country's ruling party, who had threatened to kill them in their refugee camp, IBTimes UK has learned.

Burundi: Scenes of violent clashes between police and protesters in Bujumbura
Under Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD party umbrella, the Imbonerakure (the Kirundi word for "those that see far") have been waging a campaign of intimidation and violence to help Nkurunziza win a controversial third term in the 26 June elections."

This is a very volatile situation..

"The findings made ​​in the presence of the facilitator provide a solid foundation on which we can resume dialogue which had been suspended moult times in the past," he said, recalling that two UN facilitators were dispatched to Burundi since the outbreak of this crisis, before being disqualified, respectively, the power and the opposition.


In other words they don't give a shit about the UN and international opinion is irrelevant. The irony from a New Zealand perspective being that we currently chair the Security Council. The last time we ( New Zealand ) chaired the Security Council the Rwandan genocide occurred and despite our best efforts the Security Council refused to act. I hope someone is awake in New York.

Since his arrival on Tuesday, Burundi, Yoweri Museveni, was, by turns, talks with Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza, representatives of opposition parties, the presidential party and movement, civil society, different faiths and with media and former Heads of State.

Museveni has failed to bring about a resolution.


" Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has left crisis talks between Burundi's rival political factions without a deal, but last-ditch efforts to end months of violence continue. "

Following these exchanges, the Ugandan president proposed Wednesday during a plenary session in Bujumbura, the various parties to immediately put around the negotiating table to find a compromise.

"Dialogue must resume immediately, under the facilitation of my defense minister" for his part urged the Ugandan mediator, announcing that it was his defense minister Crispus Kiyonga expected in Bujumbura on Thursday, which will relay the in the dialogue.

Museveni is no fool. He knows that there will be no glory for him here and has opted to get out of " Dodge ".

More than 100 people have been killed since the party in power has formalized Nkurunziza's candidacy in the presidential election of 2015, according to the main advocacy group Human Rights and Detained Persons.

Meeting on 6 July in Dar Essalalm, the Heads of State of the East African Community (EAC) had asked to postpone the presidential "in order to give time to the new Ombudsman, Yoweri Museveni, to conduct a dialogue with various parties ". The government then announced the postponement of the presidential election on July 15 to 21.

Watch this space.

DR Congo: ICC - " When your conscience whispered, the vein lines stiffened. You were walking with the dead. "

The United Nations News Centre reports:

UN welcomes International Criminal Court conviction of former DR Congo militia leader

Germain Katanga sits in the courtroom of the ICC in The Hague during closing statements on 15 May 2012. Photo: ICC-CPI/REUTERS/Michael Kooren(NETHERLANDS)

7 March 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today welcomed the verdict issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against a former Congolese militia leader for war crimes in relation to a 2003 attack in the country’s east.

Hundreds of people were killed and many women were forced into sexual slavery as a result of the attack on Bogoro village in Ituri district.

This was the attack that in many ways launched the career of Bosco Ntaganda. Ntaganda currently awaiting trial himself at the Hague was to eventually lead the UPC.

" On 24 February 2003, hundreds of FNI and FRPI fighters including children under the age of fifteen attacked Bogoro with machetes, spears, arrows, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, rocket launchers and semi-automatic weapons According to the ICC, they circled the village and "converged towards the centre on a killing spree", killing at least 200 civilians, imprisoning survivors in a room filled with corpses, and sexually enslaving women and girls. Some residents of the village were killed by setting their houses on fire, others were hacked to death with machetes. The UN reported that 173 of the victims were under the age of 18."

UPC leader Thomas Lubanga claimed that 400 people were killed and 500 were missing after the attack. "The civilian population was very, very coldly massacred," he said.

The attack succeeded in pushing UPC forces out of Bogoro within a few hours and, ten days later, the Lendu and Ngiti drove the UPC from Bunia."

Germain Katanga, a senior commander from the group known as the Force de Résistance Patriotique en Ituri (FRPI), was convicted on four counts of war crimes and one count of crimes against humanity, namely murder, attacking a civilian population, destruction of property and pillaging.

Sometimes, not often but sometimes, justice has an irony, from African Arguments:

" Some four months later, on 10 January 2005, the Congolese army appointed a number of Iturian ex-combatants to serve as generals. Former rivals Bosco Ntaganda and Germain Katanga were among those who received this ‘promotion’, to the disgust of late Human Rights Watch researcher and historian Alison Des Forces, who said “the government needs to take these warlords to court."

“This is an important verdict for the victims of these horrific crimes, for international justice, and for the fight against impunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” said a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

“The Secretary-General reaffirms the strong commitment of the United Nations to support the independent work of the Court as the centrepiece of the international criminal justice system,” it added.

It is interesting how many African Leaders ( Kagame, Mugabe, Kenyatta.. et all ) despise the court, that I think says more about those leaders than it does about the ICC.

" To avoid prosecution, ruthless national leaders too often threaten, corrupt, or compromise judges and prosecutors at home, but those in The Hague should be beyond the reach of such obstructionism. The ICC is meant as a court of last resort for victims and survivors who cannot find justice in their own country and as a deterrent to leaders who have little to fear from domestic prosecution. The court has now been accepted by 122 states."

The Court said in a statement that, in light of the witness testimonies and the evidence presented before the Chamber, “it had been established beyond reasonable doubt that Germain Katanga had made a significant contribution to the commission of the crimes by the Ngiti militia, which was acting with a common purpose, by assisting its members to plan the operation against Bogoro.”

At the same time, the ICC’s Trial Chamber acquitted Mr. Katanga of the other charges that he was facing. In this regard, the Chamber found that there was evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the crimes of rape and sexual slavery were committed, and that there were children within the Ngiti militia and among the combatants who were in Bogoro on the day of the attack.

“However, the Chamber concluded that the evidence presented in support of the accused’s guilt did not satisfy it beyond reasonable doubt of the accused’s responsibility for these crimes.”

His sentence will still be significant.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for DRC, Martin Kobler, said the conviction “was yet another warning to armed groups to immediately cease attacks against civilians and lay down their arms.”

In a statement from the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC (MONUSCO), which he heads, Mr. Kobler also said that combating impunity is fundamental to stabilizing the country and establishing a durable peace.

I agree completely, Kobler has re energised MONUSCO and the remaining armed groups in the DR Congo need to get the message that the world will not tolerate crimes against humanity we will come for them no matter how long it takes and they will face justice. It is also something that leaders such as Kagame who supported M23 might want to consider.

Decisions on Mr. Katanga’s sentencing and victim reparations will be rendered later. The Prosecutor and the Defence may appeal the judgment within 30 days.

Located in The Hague, in the Netherlands, the ICC is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern – namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.