The Ministry of the Interior has held a meeting with foreign NGOs in order to give some clarifications on the decision suspending them for three months, which was taken by the National Security Council. Four documents are required for those NGOs to start operating again, he says.
Pascal Barandagiye: “NGOs that will present the four required documents will immediately be authorized to work again.”
Pascal Barandagiye, Minister of the Interior says foreign NGOs are obliged to present four documents so as to have permission to work. “They will present a cooperation agreement signed with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, a protocol on the implementation of the law governing NGOs in accordance with the national development plan, an agreement to respect the banking regulations in force in Burundi regarding foreign exchange as well as a progressive plan to correct constitutional imbalance,” he says.
Minister Barandagiye also says foreign NGOs will be allowed to resume activities as soon as they present the required documents. “From October 1st, there are zero foreign NGOs recognized by the Burundian law. The first foreign NGO to present the four required documents to the Ministry of the Interior will be registered as number one and will immediately be authorized to work”.
The Minister of the Interior calls on the representatives of those foreign NGOs to take this decision not as a threat but as a measure to regulate NGOs operating in the country. “The decision is not taken to chase away NGOs. Burundi is still willing to cooperate and work together with them. But there is need of order and regulations in this sector,” he says adding that there are NGOs that are working without being recognized while others aren’t working at all when in fact they were supposed to.
Alexandra Giudiceandrea, who spoke on behalf of the medical charity-MSF, asked whether or not MSF is going to close down as it operates in the health sector.
Barandagiye has said hospitals and schools have other agreements they signed with the ministries in charge of the sectors in which they operate and therefore don’t have to close.
“This decision does not oblige hospitals and schools to close. If you close hospitals and people die, you are the ones to be held accountable, not me or my government,” he said.
Some foreign NGOs operating in Burundi have already closed their doors.
CARE International Burundi, a foreign NGO that mainly collaborates with local NGOs for population development has issued a declaration calling its staff and partners to stay away from offices until further notice.
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