The only option is to relocate the Burundian refugees

Editor, RE: “Don’t use Rwanda as a scapegoat in Burundi crisis” (The New Times, February 15). In Burundi, as in Rwanda in 1994, yes, of course it will always be easier to seek to designate scapegoats than get on with the harder work of dealing with the root cause of the problem. And officials of big powers, who want to run the world and be seen as the “exceptional nation” without whom the world would be long gone to the dogs, but who nevertheless don’t wish to do any heavy lifting in a backwater like Burundi where their own vital national interests (as they define them) are not at play, will find scapegoating more profitable than actual action. For them, the lives of the natives don’t matter very much. But given the need to look as if they are doing something, better point fingers at their usual fall-guy to deflect from the fact they have absolutely no policy beyond empty admonishments of Bujumbura which they are perfectly aware President Pierre Nkurunziza and his henchmen know they can just ignore without consequence. This is especially so Nkurunziza doesn’t lack powerful supporters among America’s own allies and, for varying reasons, even among American power-brokers of different stripes. Plus, Washington itself still needs warm Burundian bodies to act as cannon-fodder in the Somali killing fields and would prefer not to rock Nkurunziza’s boat. Thus do not expect any real change in the current international policy vacuum on Burundi any time soon—not in Washington, not in Addis Ababa, not in New York nor in Brussels. The inertia is just too overpowering. In such circumstances, to cover up for the fact no one is prepared to lift their smallest finger to do anything beyond empty rhetoric, the reflex is always to try to finger a fall-guy to deflect from your own failure. And who better in that role than neighbouring, well-organized Rwanda whose leadership has the unconscionable habit of openly stating things as they see them and often telling even the Big Powers that they are naked when that seems obvious! As Nkurunziza’s propagandists themselves are desperately trying to externalize blame for the bleak situation their government has wrought in Burundi whose consequence is a growing humanitarian and refugee crisis, we now effectively have a confluence of interests between Bujumbura and international actors to point fingers at the same scapegoat. It is absolutely right for Kigali to tell those international actors to look elsewhere for their scapegoat by handing over to them immediate responsibility for the refugees, ask them to take them off our territory as we refuse to be their souffre-douleur. If, as Bujumbura alleges and those international actors seem to agree, Rwanda is recruiting from the Burundi refugee camps for a rebellion which as Bujumbura again claims is responsible for the rising number of atrocities in Burundi (including bodies dumped on the streets of people last seen as they were being taken into custody by Burundian police and intelligence operatives) then the best solution is to take those refugees off our territory so that they cannot be recruited for those purposes. And please do it quickly, don’t string out the process; Rwanda absolutely must decline the role of fall-guy for your failure to deal with the source of the problem: Nkurunziza’s unconstitutional third term and the associated murderous campaign to root out opposition to it. Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

The only option is to relocate the Burundian refugees