CNARED with new Executive Board

The National Council for the Respect of the Arusha Agreement and Rules of Law-CNARED, a platform that gathers the opposition in exile and part of the internal opposition, has just elected a new executive board, this 28 February, in Belgium.

Charles Nditije: « We want to restore the Arusha Peace Agreement through an inclusive dialogue.”

Charles Nditije, 63, Chairman of Uprona party- the wing not officially recognized by the Burundian government and who lives in exile, has been elected to chair CNARED. “The main challenge is to impose CNARED as a key interlocutor with the Burundian government that has so far refused to negotiate with this opposition platform”, he says.

Nditije says he will continue with the steps taken by his predecessor to achieve the platform’s goals. “We must do our best so that the Arusha Agreement is respected and the rule of law is established in Burundi”, he says. The newly elected chairman of CNARED says the current government is running a controversial and illegitimate third term after violating the Arusha Agreement. “We want to restore this Arusha Agreement through an inclusive dialogue”, he says.

For him, the intervention of the EAC, the Facilitation in the Inter-Burundian crisis and the AU to press the current regime into inclusive peace talks are very important for CNARED.

“Our main objective is to convince Nkurunziza to negotiate with the main opposition platform-CNARED-without any condition”, he says. He, however, says the Facilitation should be supported by the EAC, AU and UN experts in order to be impartial.

“If the facilitation succeeds, we hope that the government of the national union will be established in accordance with the criteria stipulated by the Burundi Constitution”, Nditije says.

In order to succeed, the CNARED chairman says the new executive board must work hand in hand with Civil Society organizations, human rights defenders’ associations so that they should request the ICC to start the inquiry on human rights deterioration in Burundi.

Less expectations…

Tatien Sibomana, one of the political actors from Uprona party-the wing not recognized by the government says the elected chairman, Charles Nditije, did not represent Uprona in CNARED. “He has been elected like any other person who would have declared his candidacy. Those who elected him know why they did so”, he says.

Tensions have run higher within Uprona party of the opposition since the past few days. The president of this party has been suspended from his duties. The conflict arises from the dialogue session convened by the facilitator in the Burundi crisis earlier this year.

President Pierre Nkurunziza said on 24 February 2017, during community development works on Murengeza hill of Mpanda Commune in the western province of Bubanza, that Burundi’s current institutions are the result of the elections and that no one other than the Burundians has the right to interfere in the affairs of the country. He referred to the past years when some people tried to overthrow the government elected by the population.

President Nkurunziza once again made it clear that elections are the only way to come to power, and that the institutions in place will not disappoint the people who elected them.