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Sunday 31 January 2016

[AfricaRealities.com] A provocation on Burundi

 


While I am not an expert on Burundi, I, like many others right now, am watching with dismay as violence in the country continues. My recent research has been on atrocity endings and Burundi today echoes with one finding from my work: the difference between halting (or in this case forestalling) mass atrocities and advancing democratization. These two valuable endeavors, history informs us, are not the same. While clearly strongly institutionalized democracies are the best system for protecting civilians from mass violence inflicted by their own government, the timeline, processes and priorities of mass violence and institutionalizing democracy are not the same, and in some cases, they can work at odds with each other.

From the vantage point of comparative study of atrocity endings, the most potent factor is to stabilize the political situation, removing as many uncertainties as are possible, while increasing pressure to protect civilians from violence. The task: clarify the political issues and forge international (especially regional) consensus, while increasing pressure and specificity of demands regarding the patterns of violence, and adding resources to support the actual work of protection, be it international monitors, police or military units.

So how might this apply to Burundi? Stabilizing and clarifying the political situation is not the same as expanding the arena for democratization, which often includes more uncertainties, ambiguities and diverse voices. Efforts to deepen democratic practice and atrocity prevention part ways at some along the continuum when violence is underway. If stabilization and ending political uncertainty are the critical ingredients for atrocity prevention when violence is on-going and seems likely to escalate, as many believe is the case in Burundi, then fully recognizing the electoral triumph of Pres. Nkurunziza is necessary. Calm his fears that international efforts in the name of protection are not actually regime change efforts. Such an approach may be unsavory, but it is not illegitimate. Here is why:

It is my understanding that the President's party, the CNDD, would have won the presidential election with whichever candidate they put forward. In short, they had the votes.

While the maneuvering that Nkurunziza engaged in to find a legal loophole allowing him to seek a third term would not likely hold up under any neutral scrutiny of the key documents (the Arusha Acccords and the constitution), he did maneuver through the existing foundational documents and institutions. The constitutional court, which reviewed his third term arguments, was undoubtedly biased as the judges are presidential appointees, but that is not a situation he created, that is the structure of Burundi's system. He did win an election, yes, a deeply flawed election, but one where some opposition members did manage to win or hold their seats as well. As a colleague pointed out to me, in Senegal, the president attempted a similar move by seeking an arguably illegal additional term, but he did not have the votes, so ran and lost the election. Burundi's opposition could not achieve this.

The political opposition, in short, did not have the votes. This does not mean they deserve to be politically excommunicated—or brutalized as has happened with some–but it does mean their efforts to shift the conversation about legitimacy to extra-systemic political and military action is at least as illegitimate as the President's third term, if not more. They have abandoned the pretense of following the rules, whereas he warped the existing rules.

Outside pressure and threats of military intervention to overturn even controversial and flawed elections, when the opposition did not have the votes to win in any case, is a deeply problematic position. Yet this is the undercurrent of U.S., other western states' and the AU's approach to Burundi. In the name of genocide prevention, "not another Rwanda," the glimmer of intervention and remaining ambiguity in international positions on the elections is arguably likely to increase and prolong the period of violence.

One option that errs on the side of atrocities prevention would be to recognize the results of the elections as they stand. This need not by any means translate into carte blanche for Nkurunziza. His comments that seemed to signal willingness to abandon the historical accommodation enshrined in the Arusha Accords should be countered with resolute opposition by the international community. It is time, the message should be, to return to and re-validate the institutions established as the foundation of Burundi's post-conflict dispensation as the very ones to pave the way for Burundi's political future. In other words, it is time for everyone, internationals and the opposition included, to return to politics without relying on trump cards.

Further, ethnic polarization in public discourse should be unequivocally denounced. More than denouncing the inflammatory speech, Burundi's political leaders should be responsible for issuing statements that intentionally calm violence. Any efforts to stabilize the political situation should be accompanied by fervent pressure that the leaders who benefit act like real leaders.

Would such a program help correct the distortion of democratic institutions initiated by the President's bid for a third term? No, I do not think it does. This harm has been done, but it is unclear to me how it could be undone by caveat at this point without considerably more violence than what we've already seen.

Deepening democratic processes is not a crisis-driven endeavor. Democracy is nothing if not systemic—a set of practices that get worn into the regular course of political contention, channeled through institutions established for this purpose rather than routed around them. It is a language of engaged and accountable reform; it lacks drama and requires consensus and community building over the longer haul. For people outside a country who wish to support the growth of democracy, the greatest contribution is slow steady application of principles that return contention to debate and nonviolent organizing.

We do not see such an approach at present regarding presidential term limits in Africa from the AU or the wider international community, which has responded to various efforts to alter constitutions as if each case could be entirely isolated from every other case. Absent systemic and predictable responses, and given the very real and apparently escalating threat of widespread violence in Burundi, an atrocities prevention approach that errs on the side of stability would be more realizable than one predicated on 'fixing' democracy through crisis intervention.

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APPLY NOW for PfAL Scholarships 2016/17 at LSE


Programme for African Leadership scholarships for graduate study at the London School of Economics and Political Science

 

The Programme for African Leadership (PfAL) at the London School of Economics and Political Science is delighted to announce that it is making available scholarship funds for bright African students applying for Masters study on selected programmes starting in the 2016/17 academic year.  A full scholarship will cover fees and living costs, and the value for each student will be assessed according to financial need.

As well as studying for a prestigious London School of Economics MSc programme, all PfAL Scholarship recipients will participate in an additional programme of workshops and seminars throughout the year.

Successful candidates will also gain membership into the growing PfAL network of African leaders.
 

Eligibility


Applications are invited from ambitious, hard-working and committed candidates from sub-Saharan Africa who aspire to take up leadership positions in their home countries following their degree.  The following applicants are particularly encouraged to apply:
  • Applicants who have not previously studied outside Africa
  • Applicants from Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda
  • Applicants from Nigeria and Ghana, particularly those with interest in public sector careers.

How to apply 


To apply you must complete a three-stage application process, details of which can be found through the link below. Please note that Phase 1, the PfAL Pre-Application Form, will remain open until
Friday February 19th 2016 initially.  Once the February 19th deadline has passed, any subsequent applications will be considered on a rolling basis only up until a pre-determined quota is reached.



Best wishes,

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pfal@lse.ac.uk 


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Friday 29 January 2016

[AfricaRealities.com] African hero, now living in San Antonio, will run for Rwanda presidency

 


African hero, now living in S.A., will run for Rwanda presidency

January 28, 2016

WASHINGTON - Paul Rusesabagina, a San Antonio resident who gained fame for saving hundreds of lives in Rwanda in the 1990s, on Thursday declared his candidacy for the presidency of the east African country ruled for two decades by a dictator.

Rusesabagina called on the United States government and leaders around the world to halt foreign aid to Rwanda and support for its longtime president, Paul Kagame.

"Today, I publicly declare that I have decided to combine humanitarian with political action to liberate the Rwandan people from the dictatorship," Rusesabagina told a gathering of supporters and journalists in a downtown Washington conference room.

"All facts and available data show that the (Kagame) government thrives on chaos, corruption, impunity, injustice," he said.

Rusesabagina became known internationally in the 2004 film "Hotel Rwanda," which depicted his heroism in saving the lives of 1,268 people in his hotel during the genocide mass slaughter in Rwanda in 1994. American actor Don Cheadle portrayed Rusesabagina.

Rusesabagina, 61, fled Rwanda in 1996 hours after a failed attempt on his life, he recounted in an interview. He and his wife, Taciana, moved to San Antonio in 2009 to be near friends after he was threatened in Brussels, where they had been living. They keep a residence in Belgium.

The candidacy Rusesabagina announced is unlike a traditional campaign and, for now, amounts to an effort to rally people in Rwanda while pressuring the United States and other governments to acknowledge abuses by Kagame during his 22 years in power.

Kagame said earlier this month that he will seek another term in office in 2017 under a recent constitutional change. He has been president since 2000, but in control of the nation since forces he led ended the genocide of Tutsi people in 1994.

It is unlikely that Rusesabagina will return to Rwanda anytime soon to campaign, given the danger. In a report last year, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch noted ominously that "real or suspected opponents inside and outside the country continue to be targeted." 

Rusesabagina said: "It will not be the business of one individual. It will take not a village, but a whole country to be mobilized. And we have started mobilizing," 

He added: "Human rights are abused every day and every night. There is no freedom of media. But we have a very strong network outside the country. And each and everybody outside the country has a link within the country."

Bob Krueger, a former Democratic congressman from New Braunfels and briefly a U.S. senator, introduced Rusesabagina at the gathering. In the Clinton administration, Krueger was ambassador to Burundi and Botswana. He left Burundi after gunmen with AK-47s opened fire on his motorcade.

Krueger referred to Kagame as "the most ruthless, murderous dictator on the huge continent of Africa…He needs to be replaced, not by killing him and not by revolution but by honest elections in Rwanda overseen by a large, intensive, multinational force of international observers."

And then, Krueger added, Rwandans can look to Rusesabagina, who he described as an ordinary man "who never carried a gun and never killed a soul, but by his bravery, saved over 1,200 people in a hotel and many more in his community, capital and nation."

bill.lambrecht@hearstdc.com



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Posted by: Nzinink <nzinink@yahoo.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)
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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.
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Hassan Rohani : "C’est à Riyad de faire le premier pas" pour rétablir les relations avec l'Iran - Best of des vidéos de la semaine

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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.”