Burundi General Seeks To Oust President He Accuses Of Dividing Nation

General Leonard Ngendakumana, a deputy to the leader of the aborted uprising, accused the president of dragging the central African country back into civil war, comments that will alarm a region with a long history of ethnic conflict.

A Burundi general who was part of a failed coup attempt in May said his group was still working to oust President Pierre Nkurunziza, accusing him of stoking ethnic divisions in a country still trying to recover from civil war.

"At that time (in May), we just failed to remove Nkurunziza from power," General Leonard Ngendakumana told Reuters in an interview on Thursday outside Burundi. "The aim is still there."

The president, whom Ngendakumana served as a senior intelligence officer in government and during the civil war as a rebel fighter, has plunged Burundi into its deepest political crisis for a decade by seeking a third five-year term.

Reuters report continues:

Opponents say the president's re-election bid violates the constitution and a peace deal that in 2005 ended the civil war, which had pitted majority Hutu rebel groups, like the one led by Nkurunziza, against the army, then led by minority Tutsis.

Nkurunziza cites a court ruling saying he can run again.

Government officials dismiss charges that Nkurunziza, who has Hutu and Tutsi parents, has divided the nation on ethnic lines and say his opponents are stirring trouble because they fear defeat in a presidential vote, set for next week.

Ngendakumana, 46, who asked that his precise location was not disclosed, said the president and his allies were behind stoking ethnic tensions and were arming the ruling CNDD-FDD's youth-wing Imbonerakure, widely seen as a Hutu force.

"This situation can lead to a genocide," he said.

Next door Rwanda, with the same ethnic mix, suffered genocide in 1994 that killed 800,000, mostly Tutsis as well as moderate Hutus.

The United Nations, African states and Western nations have also expressed alarm about the arming of Imbonerakure.

More than 140,000 Burundians have fled the country. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday that many refugees had cited "Imbonerakure militia as the main threat".

CNDD-FDD officials deny charges its youths have been armed. They say it is a mixed ethnic group that is devoted to political campaigns and other party activities.

Ngendakumana, a Hutu who was fired from his intelligence post in February after helping write a report for the president advising him not to run again, said international pressure on the president had failed.

"The only way to reach this objective is to use force," he said, adding that he was working with coup leader General Godefroid Niyombare and in "organizing ourselves in military units" to help protect people from police or Imbonerakure.

Protesters have regularly clashed with police.

Presidential spokesman Gervais Abayeho said anyone threatening Burundi's security "will meet the full force of our defence and security forces."

Ngendakumana said the international community could ratchet up the pressure by delivering on threats to impose sanctions.

"If political pressure has failed, the international community should jump to another stage," he said.

The United States and the European Union have threatened sanctions against those it blames for stoking violence.

Imbonerakure: Burundi Militia Keeps Up Terror

Jean Claude Niyonzima, a suspected

member of the ruling party's Imbonerakure

youth militia, sits under soldiers.

(Jerome Delay, AP)

AP reports Burundi's pro-government militia is keeping up a terror campaign that has sent waves of refugees fleeing across borders and claimed the lives of demonstrators and rights activists, the UN rights chief said on Thursday.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told the Security Council that "militants from other groups are also employing violence" which he labelled a "new and disturbing development" in Burundi.

The central African country has been engulfed in turmoil over the president's bid for a third term in office and international alarm has been growing over a return to war in Burundi.

UN officials have repeatedly called on President Pierre Nkurunziza to disarm the Imbonerakure militia, which Zeid said were responsible for many of the killings over the past two months.

The Imbonerakure, which means "those who see far", are the ruling party's youth wing, which is fiercely loyal to Nkurunziza, who has been in power since 2005.

Zeid said UN rights monitors have "documented dozens of killings in the past two months, most of them shootings of demonstrators and human rights defenders by members of the Imbonerakure militia and security forces."

More than 145 000 people have fled to neighbouring countries in an exodus sparked "not b

Russian support

The Security Council was holding its eighth meeting on Burundi but has so far been unable to come up with a strong stance due to resistance from Russia and some African countries, which view the crisis as an internal matter.

Burundi is due to hold presidential elections on Tuesday, following parliamentary polls that UN observers said were neither free nor credible, with widespread intimidation and violence.

"Burundians appear to be braced for an explosion of the murderous violence that has so frequently engulfed the country," said Zeid.

Burundi's UN Ambassador Albert Shingiro told the council that supporters of a failed coup attempt in May were responsible for the violence in the country.

Parliamentary elections were "peaceful, calm and safe" and turnout was "strong, very strong in fact", said the ambassador.

The envoy suggested that the presidential vote could be pushed back for a week, but that under the constitution, the election must be held before July 26. 

UN Rights Chief Warns Violent Explosion Is Close In Burundi

The U.N. human rights chief warned Thursday that an explosion of violence is close at hand in Burundi, sparked by the president's decision to seek a third term and a crackdown by security forces and the youth wing of his ruling party responsible for dozens of recent killings.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein told the U.N. Security Council that "the risk to human life, and to regional stability and development, is high" as a result of escalating politically motivated violence and Burundi's history of recurring bloodshed and atrocities.

He said his office has documented dozens of killings in the past two months, most of them shootings of demonstrators and human rights defenders by the youth wing and security forces.

Zeid urged the government to disarm the Imbonerakure youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party immediately.

One of the poorest countries in the world, the small Central African nation shares both a history of ethnic strife and a border with Rwanda, the scene of a genocide in 1994.

Burundi has been hit by violence since the April announcement that President Pierre Nkurunziza would run for a third term in presidential elections set for July 15. Protesters say Nkurunziza must go because the constitution limits the president to two terms, but the president's supporters say he is eligible for a third term because he was chosen by lawmakers — and not popularly elected — for his first term.

Zeid said by videoconference from Geneva that the president's decision "has undermined a decade of steady progress in building democratic institutions."
He cited reports of demonstrators opposing a third term being imprisoned and subjected to torture and ill-treatment, as well as extrajudicial killings. He added that refugees fleeing Burundi have reported "targeted campaigns of intimidation and terror," and say the Imbonerakure militia are "the main threat."