Burundi Fears As Government Readies To Crush Resistance; ICC Prosecutor Warns Against War Crimes While US Slams 'Inflammatory' Government Rhetoric

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza delivers a speech after being sworn-in for a controversial third term in power, at the Congress Palace in Kigobe district, Bujumbura on August 20, 2015 ©Landry Nshimye (AFP)

Inflammatory language and divisive rhetoric: Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's determination to end months of protest and opposition to his rule has sparked deep concern among analysts, diplomats and international powers. With almost daily battles between gunmen and security forces, Nkurunziza this week issued an ultimatum to gunmen to lay down their weapons by Saturday night.

Tensions are rising, partly driven by government speeches loaded with "dangerous" and "war-like" rhetoric with ethnic overtones, said a Burundian academic.

Burundi was slowly getting back on track after its 1993-2006 civil war, which killed 300,000 people. Then, the battlefields were green hills and farmlands where rebels from the majority Hutu people clashed with an army dominated by the minority Tutsi.

AFP, in three separate reports, continues:

Recently, the central African nation has seen months of violence triggered by Nkurunziza's successful bid to win a third term in office, with the government calling the gangs of gunmen "criminals".

A protester opposed to the Burundian President's third term is snatched by members of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, armed with sticks in the Kinama neighborhood of Bujumbura on May 25, 2015 ©Carl de Souza (AFP)

The United Nations has also warned that Burundi risks sliding back into conflict after a dramatic rise in killings, arrests and detentions. The UN Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss the situation, France said on Friday, with foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal denouncing the wave of "hate speech" threatening to inflame the country.

- 'Holiday time is over' -

Last week, Senate president Reverien Ndikuriyo threatened to "pulverise" opponents who did not lay down arms.

"Today, the police shoot in the legs... but when the day comes that we tell them to go to 'work', do not come crying to us," he said.

The term "work" is loaded in the region, a euphemism used in neighbouring Rwanda's 1994 genocide when at least 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were killed by Hutu militia.

"The language is unambiguous to Burundians and chillingly similar to that used in Rwanda in the 1990s before the genocide," the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank warned in a report issued late Thursday.

Vice-President Gaston Sindimwo has repeated warnings with the simple threat: "Holiday time is over."

The opposition has denounced the "messages of hate and division". Jeremiah Minani, head of the CNARED coalition, set up to oppose Nkurunziza's third term, warned that "genocide is on its way".

But a senior police officer dismissed the warnings.

"It's a lie. Nobody is preparing a genocide," the officer told AFP, but added police would do "anything to defend the democracy for which we have shed our blood."

While the crisis is largely political, ethnic tensions are not far below the surface.

Opponents say Nkurunziza's re-election breached the terms of the Arusha peace deal that paved the way to end civil war.

They now fear a government crackdown when Nkurunziza's amnesty expires, after which police will be let loose to "use all means".

"Burundi again faces the possibility of mass atrocities and civil war," the ICG warned in a report issued late Thursday. "Escalating violence, increasingly hardline rhetoric and the continued stream of refugees (more than 200,000) indicate that divisions are widening, and the 'national dialogue' is doing little to relieve the mounting tensions," the group said."

Some 200 people have been killed in Burundi since violence broke out in April, according to the UN.

- 'Our leaders want revenge' -

International leaders are concerned.

"The United States expresses its extreme concern that the five-day ultimatum issued by the president will trigger violence beginning this coming weekend," US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power said in a statement on Thursday.

Power said the government, militias and opposition forces were resorting to "dangerous, irresponsible rhetoric" that risks inciting even greater violence.

African Union Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday warned the crisis might "create conditions for more instability, with devastating consequences for Burundi and the whole region."

Residents of some largely opposition neighbourhoods of the capital Bujumbura have fled fearing violence.

"We prefer to leave.. because our leaders want revenge," said a mother of four, leaving the city's Mutakura district.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, pictured here during a press conference in Tbilisi on October 16, 2015, slammed what she called "highly troubling and incendiary rhetoric" by high-level officials in Burundi ©Vano Schlamov (AFP)

Meanwhile the prosecutor of the world's only permanent war crimes court warned late Friday she was ready to act if wide-scale abuses were committed in Burundi, which has been rocked by months of political unrest.

"Any person who incites or engages in acts of mass violence ... is liable to prosecution before" the International Criminal Court, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said.

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's determination to end months of protests over his rule, which were sparked by his successful quest for a controversial third term in office, has sparked deep international concern.

With almost daily battles in the capital Bujumbura between gunmen and security forces, Nkurunziza has issued an ultimatum to Burundians to hand over illegal firearms by Saturday night.

Bensouda slammed what she called "highly troubling and incendiary rhetoric" by high-level officials in the central African nation surrounding the deadline.

She said she had told Burundian leaders that if there is any conduct "whether by security forces, militias or any armed forces" that could "amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, no-one should doubt my resolve to fulfil my mandate so that the perpetrators do not go unpunished."

Bensouda reminded all sides in the upheaval that "Burundi is a state party to the ICC" and that the court therefore had jurisdiction over war crimes "committed by Burundian nationals or on the territory" of the country.

The ICC was set up in 2002 to investigate and try those responsible for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, where national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

The United States joined the international chorus of alarm at the deteriorating situation in Burundi on Friday, accusing the government there of inciting violence.

At least 200 people have died in the turmoil and 200,000 fled the country, recalling the climate in the run-up to the country's 1993-2006 civil war, in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed.

On its own part, the United States joined an international chorus of alarm at the deteriorating situation in Burundi on Friday, accusing the government there of inciting violence. Thomas Perriello, US special envoy for the Great Lakes region, condemned what he called "inflammatory and dangerous government rhetoric indicating the potential for wider-spread violence as early as this weekend."

Washington joined with the United Nations, the African Union and France in expressing concern, and Perriello told AFP: "We absolutely deplore any effort to incite violence or undermine regionally-mediated peace talks."

Burundi has been engulfed in violence triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza's successful bid to win a third term in office, with bodies found dumped in the streets on a nearly daily basis.

At least 200 people have died in the latest turmoil and 200,000 have fled the country, recalling some of the darkest periods of recent history in the Great Lakes region of east central Africa.

Burundi itself was wracked by 13 years of conflict until a peace deal in 2006, and this week, independent watchdog the International Crisis Group warned of the "possibility of mass atrocities and civil war."

International alarm has grown over a five-day deadline that expires on Friday for Burundian civilians to hand over weapons or face a new regime crackdown.