Burundi journalists, activists seek refuge in Rwanda
KIGALI - Burundi journalist union president Alexandre Niyungeko sits at a computer in a cafe in Rwanda. He should be busy covering his country's key parliamentary elections on Monday.
Yet, like scores of fellow journalists, as well as civil society activists and opposition politicians, he fled weeks of pre-election unrest to Kigali, capital of neighbouring Rwanda.
Around 70 people have been killed in weeks of opposition protests that have been brutally suppressed, triggering an exodus of around 127,000 into neighbouring countries.
Tightly controlled Rwanda -- which has a similar ethnic makeup as Burundi -- is seen as a safe place to wait and see how the coming elections play out.
"It is difficult to see how the people threatening us could cross the border without the knowledge of the Rwandan authorities," Niyungeko said, adding that he left Burundi due to threats against his family.
In Kigali, where security forces have earned a reputation for a tight grip on power, he feels "more secure" than elsewhere.
The troubled central African nation of Burundi has been in crisis since late April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war in 2006.
Many fear a repeat of that violence, which split the country along ethnic lines between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, as well as between rival factions within those groups.
Opposition parties on Friday said they would boycott all polls, with parliamentary elections set to go ahead on Monday despite international concerns over their credibility, ahead of the presidential vote on July 15.
Several journalists who have been covering Burundi's crisis, which has seen weeks of street demonstrations, a violent police crackdown and a failed coup by a section of the army, have complained of being subjected to threats -- including death threats -- by members of the police or other braches of the security forces.
Yet, like scores of fellow journalists, as well as civil society activists and opposition politicians, he fled weeks of pre-election unrest to Kigali, capital of neighbouring Rwanda.
Around 70 people have been killed in weeks of opposition protests that have been brutally suppressed, triggering an exodus of around 127,000 into neighbouring countries.
Tightly controlled Rwanda -- which has a similar ethnic makeup as Burundi -- is seen as a safe place to wait and see how the coming elections play out.
"It is difficult to see how the people threatening us could cross the border without the knowledge of the Rwandan authorities," Niyungeko said, adding that he left Burundi due to threats against his family.
In Kigali, where security forces have earned a reputation for a tight grip on power, he feels "more secure" than elsewhere.
The troubled central African nation of Burundi has been in crisis since late April over President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, a move branded by opponents as unconstitutional and a violation of a peace deal that ended 13 years of civil war in 2006.
Many fear a repeat of that violence, which split the country along ethnic lines between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis, as well as between rival factions within those groups.
Opposition parties on Friday said they would boycott all polls, with parliamentary elections set to go ahead on Monday despite international concerns over their credibility, ahead of the presidential vote on July 15.
Several journalists who have been covering Burundi's crisis, which has seen weeks of street demonstrations, a violent police crackdown and a failed coup by a section of the army, have complained of being subjected to threats -- including death threats -- by members of the police or other braches of the security forces.
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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Voice of the Poor, the Weak and Powerless.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Post message: AfricaRealities@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: AfricaRealities-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: AfricaRealities-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: AfricaRealities-owner@yahoogroups.com
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Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
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-https://www.facebook.com/africarealities
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http://www.primescholarships.com
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