Preventing genocide: Enough rhetoric from AU, it’s time to walk the talk

Editor, RE: “AU commits to combat genocide ideology in Africa” (The New Times, April 18). If the UAPSC was not a respectable institution I would have asked, “are they serious?” Genocide ideology is rife and at work in Burundi under President Pierre Nkurunziza’s regime only for the PSC to come out and tell us how they are committed to fight genocide ideology. In Burundi, the regime-backed militia, Imbonerakure (formed in the likeness of genocidal Interahamwe militia that executed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda) are killing, maiming innocent people and openly advocate mass rape as a weapon but the PSC vow to combat genocide. Nkurunziza’s unofficial spokesperson Jacques Bigirimana officially announced on VOA that genocide is a ready strategic tool for the government in Bujumbura. And Burundi’s senate president did convey a similar message in a public speech earlier on. Countless international organisations’ reports have warned of an impending genocide in Burundi. Yet what is coming from the African Union’s Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa is nothing but rhetoric. It looks they will keep talking at best and even promise to act after genocide has been committed in Burundi – just like the UN betrayed Rwandans during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, or the Bosnian Muslims who surrendered their weapons after the UN promised to protect them only to be mercilessly slaughtered. Can the AUPSC walk the talk? Jean Kanyaru

Opinions

Preventing genocide: Enough rhetoric from AU, it’s time to walk the talk