COMESA urges urgent need to end Africa’s wars

Source: Daily Mail (Zambia)

Addis Ababa, 29 March 2015 - The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) has called on member states to exploit the region’s distinctive competences strategically and with determination if the set target to end war is to be attained by 2020.

Speaking at the 14th meeting of COMESA ministers of foreign affairs, which opened yesterday, COMESA secretary general Sindiso Ngwenya said it was urgent to manage and resolve existing conflicts.

“It is equally important that at the same time efforts are made to ensure that the factors that lead people to pick up the guns are addressed comprehensively so that as we move towards 2020 any conflicts that are resolved should remain resolved,” Mr Ngwenya said.

The meeting was held under the theme ‘Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialisation’.

The 50th anniversary of the organisation of the African Union, the Heads of State and Governments set a target to end war by 2020.

He said as a result, COMESA has prioritised the development of programmes on postconflict reconstruction and development.

“Through our trade for peace programme, we have been supporting border communities at the Great Lakes Region to increase their benefits from trade,” he said.

This is by firstly packaging information about trade and making it more accessible to small-scale cross-border traders.

Mr Ngwenya said COMESA has established 10 trade information desks at various border posts of the Great Lakes Region.

“These have been instrumental in not only providing such information as pricing, taxes and market but also to sensitise traders about tools such as the simplified trade regime,” he said.

Mr Ngwenya said COMESA has this year started another phase of the programme, which is aimed at reinforcing infrastructure at these border posts, starting with the reconstruction of border offices at Goma and Kavimvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to serve traders more efficiently.

This is being done with support from the KfW Bank done under the framework of the African Peace and Security Architecture.

During this phase, markets will also be constructed at Goma, Rabavu, Gatumba and Kavimvira at approximately US$3 million dollars.

“We are hoping that investing in empowering our communities at the border area and encouraging interaction between them will be an incentive to avoid getting into activities that can disrupt the benefits accrued from trading relations,” he said.

Mr Ngwenya said COMESA is also investing in an early warning system that is able to provide indications about structural factors that need to be addressed long before they manifest.

And Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs Berhane Gebre- Christos said there is need to redouble efforts to strengthen the requisite mechanism for conflict prevention.

“It is obvious that the threat posed by groups such as Al Shabab, AQIM and LRA is not only the problem of a few countries and regions but each and every one of us, our counter terrorism should begin from a clear understanding of this fundamental reality and we should all demonstrate a firm commitment to fight this menace,” Mr Gebre- Christos said.

Zambia [was] represented by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Rayford Mbulu and other senior Government officials.

AU urges respect of laws during Burundi’s elections

Source: Xinhua

Visiting African Union Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has urged the respect of the Arusha Agreement and the National Constitution during Burundi’s forthcoming elections, the AU chief said Friday [27 March] after meeting Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza.

27 March 2015 - “The African Union (AU)’s stand is that existing laws like the Arusha Agreement, the National Constitution and other local laws in Burundi must be observed. It’s not for us (AU) to choose this or that law, but what is crucial is that the law must be respected,” said Dlamini-Zuma.

According to her, one of the most important things is that Burundi has gone out of conflict and that it “must remain peaceful”.

Dlamini-Zuma stressed, “Everybody — from the government to the civil society — must do everything to maintain peace or do nothing that will endanger peace.”

She indicated that there should be “confidence and a sense of security” in the country (Burundi), in the parliament and in the government.

“We both agreed that Burundi needs peace more than any time. As there is peace, it must be maintained at all costs and at all times,” she said.

The Burundian opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, most civil society organizations as well as dozens of officials in the country’s ruling party, the Council for the Defense of Democracy- Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), are opposed to the third term of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza during the forthcoming presidential election.

While suggesting that a president (of Burundi) cannot serve the country for more than two terms, the Burundian Constitution is not clear on how many terms Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has already served, as he was elected by the Parliament in 2005 and directly re-elected by citizens in 2010.

The Arusha Agreement however stipulates that no president should go beyond two terms of five years each.

Burundi is to hold this year general elections between May and September, with the presidential election to be held on June 26.

Burundi’s president calls on citizens to participate in country’s elections

Source: Xinhua

Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza on Friday signed a decree where he called on the east African country’s citizens with the voting age to massively participate this year in the communal, legislative, presidential and senatorial elections.

29 March 2015 - The decree stipulates that all polls will take place between 06: 00 and 16:00 local time, but the head of a polling station can decide whether the poll can be extended to 17:00 or beyond “depending on circumstances.”

The decree also stipulates that Burundian citizens with the voting age (18 years) are invited to participate in the communal elections that will be combined with legislative elections on May 26.

Applications from political parties, coalitions of political parties or independent candidates should be received between March 30 and April 8.

The decree also stipulates that at least 100 candidates will be elected MPs during the legislative elections.

It adds that they will be elected from the country’s 18 provinces depending on the size of the provinces.

The presidential election will take place on June 26 and the run-off is due on July 27.

Applications for the presidential election will be filed at the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) from April 30 to May 9.

According to the decree, the senatorial elections will take place on the 18 provincial chief towns on July 17 and voters will be members of communal of communal councils that will have been elected on May 26.

Applications will be received from June 1 to June 15.

Burundi's Catholic Church steps in as leader hangs tough

Source: AFP

Kiryama (Burundi), 29 March 2015 - The Sunday service at the hill-top Kiryama church was packed as Catholic Archbishop Simon Ntamwana delivered a sermon, and a political bombshell, for the small central African nation of Burundi.

Addressing a congregation of hundreds in his central Burundi parish, Ntamwana read from the Old Testament story of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah who rebelled against God and brought destruction on his kingdom.

"We cannot choose other paths than those of love and of mutual respect for the principles that govern our country," he said.

To his congregation the message was clear: President Pierre Nkurunziza must not stand for re-election in June.

Days before, leaders of the influential Catholic Church penned a newspaper commentary criticising the president's desire for what opponents say would be an unconstitutional third five-year term.

In the article, Burundi's Catholic leaders warned that the country must not "fall back into divisions, clashes or war" and recalled that a peace deal that ended the civil war in 2006 and put Nkurunziza in office only allowed for two terms.

Officials from Burundi's ruling party, the CNDD-FDD, admit the statement has caused "immense damage" to the presidential camp, already hit by accusations of running an election campaign characterised by censorship and repression.

"Catholics represent between 75 and 80 percent of the population, so it is a social force, an influential force," said Julien Nimubona, a political science professor at Burundi University in the capital Bujumbura.

Nimubona said religion can be brought to bear on politics, pointing out that Nkurunziza, a born-again Christian, had once claimed a "gift from God" to govern.

Innocent Muhozi, a prominent figure in Burundian civil society, said because the Catholic Church "rarely emerges from its position of keeping a distance from politics", people listen when it does.

"In all major crises we've had, the Catholic Church has played a rather positive role," said Muhozi. "Every time the state was going crazy, the church has tried to calm it down."

- A history of conflict -

In 1972, the Church was quick to condemn the ethnic massacres and repression of the Hutu elite. Although criticised by some for not being outspoken enough, private Church correspondence show priests were wary of aggravating the situation.

The Church's opposition continued in the 1980s, against coup leader Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, who was forced out in 1987.

During the 1993-2006 civil war, the Church denounced a coup against the first elected president of the country, Melchior Ndadaye, and the subsequent wave of killings.

Occasional forays into the political arena have cost the Church dearly.

Archbishop Joachim Ruhuna was murdered in 1996 by the CNDD-FDD, the Hutu rebel group that went on to become the current government, after he condemned the killing of hundreds of ethnic Tutsi refugees. Seven years later Irish Archbishop and Vatican envoy Michael Aidan Courtney was murdered by different Hutu rebels.

Attacks against the Church have continued into peacetime, most recently in September when three Catholic nuns from Italy, aged between 75 and 83, were murdered at a convent north of Bujumbura. Mystery still surround the unsolved case, with some accusing Burundi's intelligence services of involvement.

With rare exceptions, "the Catholic Church has always been in conflict with the government," said Nimubona.

With elections due in June and the Church having so clearly stated its opposition to Nkurunziza's third term bid, the Church's level of influence will soon become clear.

"We'll see," said Nimubona, who said religion is just one factor in the election, alongside social divisions including ethnic sectarianism, and day-to-day issues such as unemployment and food prices.

But even in the ruling party stronghold where Kiryama church is located, the message was getting through.

"The Church, I support it," said Longin Ciza, a farmer. He said he was happy with the new roads and free schools that Nkurunziza has delivered since 2005, but said it was nevertheless time for him to go.

"When you work on something for 10 years, if you continue, you might ruin everything," he said.

Burundi president must do the right thing

Source: Business Day Live
(http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2015/03/30/burundi-president-must-do-the...)

By John Stremlau

30 March 2015 - SA [South Africa] gained universal acclaim for brokering a ceasefire among Burundi’s main warring Tutsi and Hutu factions in 2000, and then with diplomatic tact and tenacity helped forge and sustain a complex power-sharing agreement enshrined in the 2005 constitution, since tested in two national elections. But all this is now under threat.

Burundi is still an economically weak, politically fragile state of 10-million people — 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi. In 1972, the Tutsi-dominated army massacred about 200,000 Hutu civilians in response to earlier atrocities committed by Hutu insurgents, followed by more than 30 years of conflict and mass violence that a 2003 international commission estimated killed more than 500,000 people.

SA’s role began in 1998 with the United Nations (UN)-approved appointment of then president Nelson Mandela as