Burundi should not disregard EAC concerns

Editor, The issue is not the date for the election. The question is the legitimacy of presidential elections in which the incumbent is standing for a third term prohibited by both the constitution — as it is now — and the Arusha Accords that made it possible for that incumbent to be in office right now. The demand by the EAC summit for this postponement by weeks is a sick joke that the President Pierre Nkurunziza clique must have seen as a gift. It does serious dishonour to our sub-regional community that comes out of all this as lacking in leadership values and operating on the basis of expedience rather than principles. It tells our Burundian brethren and, through them, the rest of us East Africans that when in trouble as they become oppressed by their rulers they should expect no help whatsoever from the community. That it is less a community of the people but rather that of its rulers, including the worst and most incompetent. What a pity. We Rwandans learnt that lesson long ago. It seems it is now the hapless Burundians’ turn to learn this hard lesson. Mwene Kalinda ****************** The position of the EAC is not a gift to President Nkurunziza but to the Burundians. It will teach them that they can only rely on their own forces to deal with their problems. Why would anyone expect someone else to resolve problems in your own household? Unfortunately, I see this as the beginning of the end of the EAC as we know it. The next regime in Burundi will certainly be under enormous pressure to re-consider the level of its participation in the EAC. George Reactions to the story, “Burundi backs election delay” (The New Times, July 11)

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Burundi should not disregard EAC concerns