The buck stops with the Burundian government

Editor, RE: “South Sudan and Burundi: From Arusha with a bitter taste in the mouth” (The New Times, March 7) It is certainly true enough that the Burundi authorities have insisted there is peace and security on 99.9 per cent of their territory and that those who have died, including known opposition people who have been killed, often with their terribly mutilated bodies with arms tied behind their backs thrown by the roadside or in ditches, have been murdered by the opposition to frame the government. This despite the fact such dead people are often seen being picked up by the police, the army or SNR agents and are never seen again alive after that, including by their family members, their friends or acquaintances. Yes, it is not entirely beyond the realm of the possible that these people are killed by those who want to pin the killings on government agents. But if that were so and we now have an established pattern whereby people are picked up by the authorities and are next seen as dead (in a country where we are told 99.99 per cent of its territory is at peace and fully secure), why don’t those same authorities who claim those people are killed after their release take special care to release the detainees to their families and neighbourhoods in open daylight so that people see them returned from detention safe and secure. Aesop’s Fable about the sick lion is especially pertinent to the Burundi Government’s attempt to try to shift the blame for the repetitive and mounting deaths of those arrested in oppositionist neighbourhoods who are never seen alive again. Those who remember this particular fable will recall that an old and increasingly infirm king of the jungle, unable to hunt for his food, decided to provide for himself by subterfuge. He lay in his den pretending to be sick, taking care that his sickness was known far and wide among his animal subjects. One by one the beasts came into his den to express their sorrow to him, whereupon he pounced and devoured them. After many of the beasts had thus disappeared, the Fox discovered the trick and presenting himself to the Lion, stood outside of the cave, ensuring to maintain a safe distance between himself and the king of beasts, asking him how he was. “I am very middling,” responded the Lion, “but why do you stand outside? Pray come in and talk to me.” “No, thank you,” said the Fox. “I can see there are very many footprints entering your den, but I see none returning from there.” Where there is so much smoke, there is, in all probability, fire. To see all the badly mutilated bodies of people last seen as they were taken into custody by agents of the Burundi authorities and then witness the hundreds of Burundians fleeing their homes into uncertain futures in refugee camps in neighbouring countries or into miserable internally displaced camps and then hear someone say that the facts about the authors of the mayhem in Burundi are in dispute makes me wonder whether people can be that naive and credulous or whether it is, in fact, a case of wilful blindness. Mwene Kalinda

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The buck stops with the Burundian government