Parliament debates AU peacekeeper force

Fears of renewed civil war

NAIROBI, Dec 21, (AFP): Burundi’s parliament is debating Monday a proposed African Union peacekeeping mission that Bujumbura has rejected as an “invasion force”.

Lawmakers are expected to oppose the planned force, which was proposed by the African Union last week as international alarm grows over spiralling violence in the tiny central African nation.

“The purpose of this extraordinary meeting is to give voice to the people through its representatives,” the ruling CNDD-FDD party said of the debate in parliament’s two houses which will be broadcast live on state radio and television.

The new force, dubbed MAPROBU — the French acronym for the African Prevention and Protection Mission in Burundi — will have an initial renewable mandate of six months.

The 54-member African Union said Friday it would send a 5,000strong force to halt violence that has sparked fears Burundi is sliding back towards civil war.

It gave the government a fourday deadline to agree to the offer, but warned it would send troops anyway.

“Burundi is clear on the matter: it is not ready to accept an AU force on its territory,” Burundi’s deputy presidential spokesman Jean-Claude Karerwa said Sunday.

Invasion

“If AU troops came without the government’s approval, it would be an invasion and occupation force, and the Burundi government would reserve the right to act accordingly.”

The parliament in Burundi overwhelmingly backs the government after almost all of the opposition boycotted recent elections.

“On ‘MAPROBU’, the people of Burundi shall have a final say,” Foreign Minister Alain-Aime Nyamitwe said, adding that the government had “full confidence” in the security forces to do their job.

Burundi descended into bloodshed in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a controversial third term, which he went on to win in July.

Months of street protests in Burundi have devolved into regular armed attacks with gunfire disrupting the nights and dead bodies appearing on city streets almost every day.

On May 13-14, soldiers staged a failed coup bid. Bujumbura accuses neighbouring Rwanda of training and backing rebels, claims denied by Kigali.

“Army and police have defeated all attacks from inside or outside the country,” presidential press chief Willy Nyamitwe said Monday. “It never took more than two days.”

Attacks targeting the security forces have escalated, with rebels armed with assault rifles, rocketpropelled grenades and mortars attacking police convoys and targeting government installations.

Nkurunziza is himself an exrebel and a born-again Christian who believes he has divine backing to rule.

Last week UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was dispatching an envoy for urgent talks to end the crisis, warning that Burundi was, “on the brink of a civil war that risks engulfing the entire region.”

Ban has also raised the option of deploying UN peacekeepers to quell the violence but recommended that a UN team be first sent to bolster dialogue.

The upsurge in violence has raised fears of a return to civil war, a decade after the end of a 19932006 conflict between rebels from the Hutu majority and an army dominated by minority Tutsis, which left 300,000 people dead.