Burundi president accused of using referendum to grab power and threaten peace deal

‘This reform is a direct threat to the balance achieved through the Arusha agreements’

A PEACE deal that ended Burundi’s civil war 13 years ago hung in the balance yesterday after its president was accused of using a referendum to mount a power grab at the expense of the country’s ethnic cohesion.

After nearly three years of terror in which at least 1,700 people have been killed, Burundians queued dutifully to give Pierre Nkurunziza, their president, what he wanted: a constitutional amendment that should allow him to remain in power until 2034. Although an official result is not due until Sunday, few expect the result to go against the president.

Most of the opposition have either gone into exile or joined armed groups beyond Burundi’s frontiers. Those who have stayed have faced a campaign of repression that has seen hundreds of people summarily executed and thousands more detained, according to human rights groups.

The vote will consolidate Mr Nkurunziza’s hold on power after he defied international criticism to run for a third term in 2015 that appeared to flout the provisions of Burundi’s post-war constitution. More worryingly, the referendum will also allow the president to end the power-sharing agreements that were the linchpin of the peace treaty that ended a civil war which claimed as many as 200,000 lives between 1993 and 2005.

Under the Arusha Accords, mid-wifed by Nelson Mandela in the Tanzanian town of the same name, Burundi’s Tutsi minority agreed to give up power to Mr Nkurunziza’s Hutu majority in exchange for a share of rule.

But the referendum has granted the president the authority to end the right of Tutsis to hold any of the significant offices of state by abolishing one of the two vice-presidential positions.

Instead, a powerful new post of prime minister, to be held by Mr Nkurunziza’s ruling party, will be created. “This reform is a direct threat to the balance achieved through the Arusha agreements,” the International Federation of Human Rights said. “It hands much of the state’s authority to the clique of Pierre Nkurunziza.”