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Burundi defends security forces, sees no need for peacekeepers

Wednesday December 16 2015
BU arms

Suspected fighters are paraded before the media by Burundian police near a recovered cache of weapons after clashes in the capital Bujumbura on December 12, 2015. PHOTO | REUTERS

Burundi has dismissed criticism of its security forces, saying they acted professionally after insurgents attacked military bases in the capital, and also said there was no need to send foreign peacekeepers to the African nation.

The UN Security Council has considered actions that include sending a peacekeeping force to deal with Burundi's crisis, which pits supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza against those opposed to his third term in office.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council last month that Burundi was on the brink of war but said there was no immediate need to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping force, encouraging the council to choose other options.

READ: UN chief proposes peacekeepers for Burundi but urges talks first

In the latest flare-up, gunmen attacked military bases on Friday. The UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said on Tuesday the authorities had responded with house searches, arrests and alleged summary executions. The fighting killed almost 90 people.

READ: Burundi nears 'outright civil war', says UN rights chief

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"The security forces intervened with the greatest possible professionalism," the government said in a statement late on Tuesday. "It would therefore be irrelevant to talk of bringing foreign forces into Burundi."

"Those who recommend it hide many other intentions," said the statement, issued by a government spokesman.

Burundi has accused neighbouring Rwanda and some Western nations of meddling in its affairs, saying they are stoking the crisis in the poor African nation.

In another statement, Burundi's ruling CNDD-FDD party accused former colonial power Belgium of providing "weapons to the terrorists and medically assisting them when injured".

READ: Burundi seeks extradition of 13, plans for talks

Several officials have fled to Belgium since the crisis erupted.

The United States and other Western powers have voiced mounting concern that Burundi, which emerged from civil war in 2005, could plunge back into ethnic conflict, destabilising a region that witnessed a genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Like Rwanda, Burundi also has an ethnic Hutu majority and Tutsi minority.

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