Violence feared ahead of vote on president’s power
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Burundians vote Thursday in a referendum that could keep the president in power until 2034 and threatens to prolong a political crisis that has seen more than 1,000 people killed and hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighboring countries.
Many in this East African nation do not see a positive outcome no matter the results of the vote, which President Pierre Nkurunziza’s government forced through despite widespread opposition and the concerns of the United States and others warning of continued bloodshed. The country descended into crisis in 2015 when Nkurunziza pursued a disputed third term.
Now Burundi’s 5 million voters are asked to approve a change to the constitution that would extend the length of the president’s term from five years to seven and would allow him to stand for two more terms after his current one ends in 2020. Nkurunziza has forcefully urged voters to support the referendum.
“Whoever opposes this election will meet God’s power,” the president warned earlier this month while campaigning.
Tensions are even higher after unidentified attackers armed with machetes and guns carried out a massacre Friday in the rural northwest near Congo, killing 26 people, many of them children. The government blamed a “terrorist group.”
Though it is not clear whether the attack was linked to Thursday’s referendum, it was “a very dangerous development,” United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein said Tuesday.
Zeid, who has called Burundi one of “the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times,” warned that “everyone will suffer” if Burundi explodes into violence during or after the vote.
Nkurunziza is one of a growing number of African leaders who are changing their countries’ constitutions or using other means to prolong their stay in power.
Some in Burundi’s opposition, which has faced hate speech from officials including threats of drowning and castration, say they have little choice but to fight back. Boycotting the vote is risky following a presidential decree that criminalized calls to abstain from casting a ballot.
“The only available option now is to use guns and we are determined to use all means to realize our cause,” said Hussein Radjabu, who was a Nkurunziza ally before being jailed on treason-related charges. He later escaped from prison and fled the country.
The referendum is rigged in Nkurunziza’s favor, Radjabu said by phone.
Burundi’s government strongly denies allegations it targets its own people, saying the charges are malicious propaganda spread by exiles.
The international community, however, has long expressed alarm. An estimated 1,200 people have been killed since early 2015, and International Criminal Court judges last year authorized an investigation into allegations of state-sponsored crimes.
Opposition leaders call Nkurunziza, declared in March by the ruling party as “supreme guide of all times,” a dictator unwilling to leave office.