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Thursday, May 14, 2015

EAC condemns attempted coup d'état in Burundi

  Extraordinary meeting to resume in a week or two

Embattled Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza under tight security as he leaves a Dar es Salaam hotel yesterday for the city's Julius Nyerere International Airport, apparently ready to fly back home.
Heads of State of the East African Community and other delegates have strongly condemned yesterday’s attempted coup d'état in Burundi and put off their extraordinary meeting to be resumed in a week or two after the coup dust settles down.
 
The coup was attempted yesterday afternoon while President Pierre Nkurunziza was in Tanzania attending an extra ordinary meeting with the rest of the EAC Heads of State. 
 
Briefing journalists yesterday in Dar es Salaam after the meeting, President Jakaya Kikwete, as Chairman of the EAC Heads of State called on Burundi’s Major General Godefroid Niyombare to stop the coup and respect the rule of law.
 
Kikwete said the African leaders have proposed Burundi’s Presidential elections be postponed until the ground situation there stabilises.
 
“When the country is ready for elections, then it has to be done in respect to the Arusha Agreement of 2005 which put the current President, Pierre Nkurunziza in power,” Kikwete said.Among those who attended the meeting are Presidents of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta. 
 
Others are South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on behalf of President Jacob Zuma, Vice President of Angola Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, AU Chairperson Dr Nkosazana Damini Zuma, Richard Sezibera, Secretary General of the EAC, Ambassadors and diplomats representing their countries in Tanzania and several other top government officials.
 
Security was very tight at Serena Hotel in Dar es Salaam where President Nkurunziza was before joining his fellow Heads of State for the extra ordinary meeting at State House. However, following reports of the coup, President Nkurunziza did not attend the meeting and the agenda therein was switched to discussing the coup.
 
Among those at the lead of security efforts, was Intelligence and Security Service (TISS) Director Rashid Othman.
Until we went to print last night, it was believed that President Nkurunziza was still in the country however, unconfirmed reports said he had left for Burundi.
 
Burundi’s Major General Godefroid Niyombare who is leading the coup, accuses Pierre Nkurunziza for seeking an unconstitutional third term in office. The Major General  is believed to be backed by civil society groups in protests and in attempts to form a transitional government. 
 
"We consider it as a joke not as a military coup," presidential aide Willy Niyamitwe is said to have told Reuters yesterday. 
 
But crowds of people streamed onto the streets of Burundi's capital, cheering and singing, after the announcement of the coup and soldiers surrounded the state broadcaster building. 
 
Niyombare made his declaration to reporters at a military barracks in Bujumbura, while the president was in Dar es Salaam. 
Niyombare, also a former ambassador to Kenya, was surrounded by several other senior officers in the army and police, including a former defence minister. 
 
"Regarding President Nkurunziza's arrogance and defiance of the international community which advised him to respect the constitution and Arusha peace agreement, the committee for the establishment of the national concord decide, President Nkurunziza is dismissed, his government is dismissed too," he said. 
 
More than 20 people have been killed since street protests erupted in the impoverished central African state more than two weeks ago, according to an unofficial count by activists. 
 
The demonstrators say Nkurunziza's bid for another five years in office violates a two-term limit in the constitution and the Arusha peace deal, which ended an ethnically fuelled civil war in 2005 that killed 300,000 people.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN

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