Two demonstrators were killed after Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced on Saturday that he would seek a third term.
The nation’s bishops, the national intelligence services, the opposition and at least 300 civil society organisations, along with the US government, the United Nations (UN) secretary-general and the European Union have opposed the move.
“The truth is clear. The president elected by the people of Burundi must not exceed the two terms of five years stated in the constitution,” said a statement signed by the country’s eight bishops on March 6, 2015. “Leaders and politicians should not fall into the trap of misinterpreting the constitution to suit their vested interests.”
The supporters of Nkurunziza, a member of the Hutu ethnic group, said that the president was put in place by a peace deal in 2005 brokered by the international community, and that his first term, which ended in 2010, does not count. Article 96 of Burundi’s constitution says the president is elected by universal direct suffrage for a mandate of five years, renewable one time.
Nkurunziza, a born-again Christian, said that anyone opposed to his third term is “opposing the will of God”.
In response to widespread calls by the opposition to Burundians to demonstrate against the third term, the government banned all demonstrations and Pascal Nyabenda, the ruling party president, said that anyone demonstrating their opposition would be considered to be obstructing elections.
Seventy percent of the population of Burundi is Catholic, and the Catholic Church plays an important role in the country’s political life. A newly formed Truth and Reconciliation Commission, appointed to investigate the inter-ethnic crimes that took place between independence in 1962 and 2008, is headed by Bishop Bonaventure Nahimana, a former director of the bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission.
For the bishops, the issue at stake is the quality of the young and fragile democracy that has been in place in Burundi since a 2003 peace agreement addressed the inter-ethnic conflict in which at least 250,000 lost their lives. The agreement brokered a kind of power-sharing arrangement between Hutus and Tutsis, although strong ethnic tensions still persist.
“The real solution to the problem is a true democratic process. One important feature of any good democracy is the timely and peaceful renewal of its institutions through free and fair elections. We invite our leaders and other politicians to read and interpret the constitution in the spirit of the Arusha Peace Accords,” the bishops said in their March statement.
Also in March, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Nkurunziza and urged him to “reflect very carefully” on the consequences that seeking a third term would have on the peace accords. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, also said that the president should step down and not seek a third term, or face possible violence.
In mid-April, 65 of 120 people demonstrating against a third term were charged with “participation in an insurrectional movement.” In February, when Godefroid Niyombare, Burundi’s chief of intelligence, warned the president against seeking a third term, he was fired, after only three months in the job.
In recent weeks, the houses of opposition leaders have been searched by the police, and opposition activists have alleged that high-ranking military officers have been arming and training Imbonerakure, youth affiliated with the ruling party, who the Catholic bishops said “seem determined to use violence.” Last week, a civil society campaign known as “Stop the Third Term” wrote to the UN Security Council, asking the UN to disarm the Imbonerakure.
Radio Publique Africaine reported that the president of the Constitutional Court, Charles Ndagijimana, met in mid-April with high-ranking police authorities and even with Nkurunziza to discuss the position that he should take on the constitutionality of a third term.
Thousands of Burundians have been displaced by the new violence, seeking refuge in neighboring countries. In mid-April, the UN refugee agency reported that more than 8,000 people have fled to neighboring Rwanda and Congo to escape pre-election violence and intimidation by the Imbonerakure.
The Burundian Catholic Church has spoken out against violence, miscarriage of justice and human rights violations. In February, prominent RPA journalist Bob Rugurika was released on bail after Msgr Antoine Pierre Madaraga, vicar general of the Diocese of Ngozi, called for his release on the Catholic-run Radio Maria. Rugurika was imprisoned in January after broadcasting claims that the state intelligence services were implicated in the September 2014 rape and murder of three Italian Sisters of Mary in Bujumbura.
The bishops’ justice and peace commission will organise poll observers for elections that will start on May 26 with legislative elections. Presidential elections will follow on June 26. More than 600 observers are currently in training as part of the commission’s Good Governance programme, which also deployed observers for the 2010 elections.
“Be ready for the elections and do not cave in to any form of intimidations or anything that could jeopardise the peace and security of all, lest you corroborate the position of those who are against the electoral process,” the bishops warned citizens in their March pastoral letter, which was read out at Mass in all churches.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.