Editor,

Reference is made to Monday’s statement by Foreign Affairs ministry entitled, "Rwanda expresses serious concern over deteriorating situation in Burundi” (The New Times, May 5).

It’s a very timely statement! Not too soon, in order to give the authorities in Burundi time they needed to return the country to normality, to guarantee people’s safety and the security of their property as well as their right to have a say in their country’s future governance in line with the lawful constitutional order, but also not left too late to make a difference.

It was important to let Burundi’s national institutions to assume their republican responsibility to defend and protect the right of the nation’s sovereignty, its people, to express themselves freely on the fundamental issue of their governance, in line with the current and as yet un-amended constitutional order.

It tells those hell-bent on destroying Burundi if they are not allowed to have their way, that there are limits to invoking sovereignty on managing your internal affairs if what you do results in massive destruction of the lives of innocents and pushes thousands across borders into neighbouring countries.

Then, as the Chinese used to say of their declining imperial dynasties, "You lose the mandate of heaven to govern”

Mwene Kalinda