‘Possible Genocide’ In Burundi Prompts UN Action
The United Nations (UN) yesterday responded to reports of a “possible genocide” in Burundi by adopting a resolution which condemns the violence, torture and human rights abuses engulfing the region and lays the legislative framework required for the deployment of peacekeepers to try to stop the killing.
The French drafted bill was agreed on Thursday as fears grew among delegates that relations between Burundi’s Hutu and Tutsi populations have deteriorated to the extent that a genocide analogous to that which occurred in Rwanda in 1994 could take place.
At least 240 people have died in the Central African state since April when President Pierre Nkurunziza declared his intention to run for an unconstitutional third term in office. The 51-year-old was elected in July with almost 70% of the vote, however, the polling was widely condemned as having failed to live up to the conditions required of a credible free election.
Nkurunziza has consistently criticized the international community for medalling in what his administration see as internal Burundian affairs. For instance, presidential spokesperson Nyamitwe Willy told AFP on Thursday that a peacekeeping mission would not be welcomed by a Burundi government which refuses to acknowledge the existence of any genocidal conditions in their state.
“It’s neither for the UN, nor the EU, and even less so the AU, to decide in the place of the Burundians”, Willy said.
This hardline stance has dispirited UN leaders who the Daily Telegraph reports admitted that they are not well positioned to prevent an escalation of genocidal violence in the region which has already seen more than 200,000 of its 10 million population flee to neighbouring countries.
“We are more poorly positioned to respond to the warning signs today than we were in 1994”, central and west Africa chief at the UN human rights office, Scott Campbell, stated.
Obama expresses 'deep concern' over situation in Burundi: White House https://t.co/OZoss4xXVl pic.twitter.com/uijLl5l6fA
— Reuters (@Reuters) November 12, 2015
Despite these strategic disadvantages, the Burundi government’s adoption of a violent rhetoric redolent of that employed by Hutu majority leaders in Rwanda during the genocide have forced the UN into action. The senate president Reverien Ndikuriyo, for instance, recently threatened to “pulverise” regime opponents by telling the police to go to “work”, the very term used by Hutu leaders to order the genocidal killings of at least 800,000 mainly Tutsi people in Rwanda 21 years ago.
A statement issued by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, highlighted further rhetorical parallels between the Nkurunziza regime and the orchestrators of the Rwandan Genocide and urged delegates to use “all possible influence…to halt what may be an imminent catastrophe.”
“Phrases such as these recall language that this region has heard before, and should not be hearing again. They could signal the imminence of much worse, and more widespread, violence,” Zeid warned.
#Burundi: Reckless and threatening speeches by the president have created panic https://t.co/JdxH2zyxec pic.twitter.com/SkUKBENQxp
— Jim Murphy (@jimmurphySF) November 12, 2015
The Guardian reports that the redeployment of peacekeeping troops currently stationed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one option being considered by the UN as means of preventing a possible genocide.
Some 20,000 troops compose the MONUSCO force aimed at stabilizing the DRC and a Security Council source told the Guardian that the force is supported “by a rapid reaction brigade made up of elite troops from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania that could also be deployed”.
It is a testament to the precariousness of the situation in Burundi that on Sunday the Rwandan president Paul Kagame implored its people to avoid repeating their mistakes and sliding into genocide.
[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News]
