1. In an official speech released by the office of President Nkurunziza on Friday, May 15, 2015 in the last paragraph he says that people “will not be allowed to set fire to the country”, and in what BBC says analysts think is a reference to Rwanda, President Nkurunziza says “any war will be fought on the other side of the border.” He also associated the abortive coup with the Cibitoke invasion of December 2014 and demonstrations against his bid for third term of office.
2. In another development President Nkurunziza had himself ordered deportation of a Rwandan national who was CEO of the second leading telecommunication company in Burundi, accusing him of spying on behalf of foreign intelligence and participation in subversive meetings in Kigali aimed at destabilizing Burundi.
3. The attitude of Rwandan authorities, especially the Minister of foreign affairs and President Kagame himself reveal blatant biases against President Nkurunziza, as can be seen from Minister Mushikiwabo’s amplified accusations against Imbonerakure of ganging up with FDLR, which for her would justify Rwanda’s intervention in the guise of stopping genocide.
4. During his State visit in Switzerland, President Kagame diverted the attention of the students’ who had asked him about his bid to change the constitution for life presidency by saying that what is happening in Burundi has nothing to do with third term in office, that the issue is “what have you done during your term in office”. Should this statement mean
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that President Nkurunziza has underserved his people during his 10 years in office? Any wise person would wait until Burundians cast their ballots.
5. President Kagame’s interest is not only creation of chaos in Burundi to justify his bid for the constitutional change, but to also question the genuine formula of power sharing in Burundi. Indeed the democratic success in Burundi threatens Kagame since all stakeholders always invite him to get insights from Burundi, where Hutu-Tutsi issue is no longer a taboo, that power sharing is done alongside ethnic representations in national unity.
6. The same anti- Nkurunziza attitude is expressed by the pro-Kagame Belgian lawyer, Bernard Maignain, who after sending in the UN last month a file, similar to the controversial Dalaire fax to the UN in 1994, detailing the preparation of Genocide in Burundi by Nkurunziza administration, is now advocating for an international community intervention against the drummed up genocide, which in reality is a situation which is under creation by Kagame himself.
7. The justifications of the coup aired by Major General Niyombare included among others the accusations made by both Kigali and Me Bernard Maignain, that Nkurunziza administration has a good relationship with FDLR that its combatants are fighting alongside Imbonerakure and the Police. Such grave accusation explains clearly how the architects of the coup were in connivance with Kigali and other actors such as those leading the demonstrations in Bujumbura, who last time attached a young man taking him for FDLR combatant by the mere fact that he was speaking broken Kirundi.
8. Vandalism and killings committed by demonstrators in Bujumbura are a clear indication of provocation that the civil society had planned so that the army and the police could react violently, in which case their external supporters were to justify their invasion in the guise of stopping genocide.
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8. The suggestion of Me Bernard Maignain after the arbortive coup of international military intervention as it was advocated for by some media in Kigali coincides with the letter written by former presidents of Burundi, headed by Pierre Buyoya, whose former Minister of Defense was number two of the coup leaders, asking for the intervention of the East African Standby Brigade.
9. It goes without saying that the neutrality of such an intervention would be questioned because of overt conflict of interests. Indeed, following previous approaches of superpowers on the conflict in Burundi, USA, France and UK are likely to sideline with Rwanda and Uganda, in which case, D.R Congo, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa, supported by Russia and China will not forsake their ally of good will, President Pierre Nkurunziza.
10. Coming back to the failed coup of Friday 15, 2015, there are dark areas which need to be clarified: considering the experience and skills of both mechanized and para troupers battalions that were involved in the coup and the invitation of the leader of the coup by the US Ambassador in Bujumbura in the afternoon on Thursday May 14, 2015 on one hand; and movements of President Nkurunziza from Dar es Salaam to Kampala before he could return to Bujumbura by road on the other, one can easily conclude that some important deals had been made between President Nkurunziza and those who facilitated his comeback.
11. Had the army loyal to President Nkurunziza got overpowered during the fight and suddenly got rescued by the deals, the Nkurunziza administration would have nothing to worry about.
12. However, if President Nkurunziza betrayed his loyalists by making deals that would undermine the interests of the majority who had spent three hard nights waiting for him, while his opponents were celebrating with the impostors, the Great Lakes region of Africa should get ready to
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face consequences of multiple rebellions, starting from Niyombare’s, Sinduhije’s, Radjab’s without forgetting FDLR and FNL.
13. The blood thirsty and power-greedy dangerously extremist Tutsi dictator Paul Kagame, who shockingly indeed is enjoying impunity in the eyes of the modern civilized world which reveres justice and human dignity, after mowing down the millions of innocent men, women and children in the Great Lakes region, who is now murderously hunting down his fellow Tutsis who stand for human equality and see all other fellow citizens as equal sons and daughters of the soil as betrayers of his dreaded Tutsi supremacy.
14. In intervening to tranquilize the volatile situation in Burundi, especially if the supporters of Nkurunzinza rise up against him should he renege from vying for the third term of office, which to them may amount to betrayal, the international community is duty bound to urgently bring to book dictator Kagame for all this chaos and the rivers of blood in the region.
Liberty International Foundation
Reverend Christopher Mtikila EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN