East
African Legislative Assembly, Arusha, Tanzania: January 12, 2016: EALA
will from Wednesday (January 13, 2016) hold a four-day public hearing
workshop on the humanitarian crisis in Burundi.
The
EALA Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee (RACR) has
called for the public hearing workshop that is intended to review the
petition by the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) submitted to EALA in
November 2015 on the subject matter.
The
Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution is set to
establish the facts of humanitarian atrocities as reported in the
petition and to make recommendations to the House during the next
Sitting scheduled to commence on January 24th, 2016 in Arusha.
Participants
are expected from the Committee Membership, government officials from
the Republic of Burundi, Civil Society Organisation representatives from
Burundi, representatives from the country’s Political Parties and the
petitioners.
On
November 16th, 2015, four Civil Society Organisations led by PALU
petitioned EALA to urgently undertake specified number of actions within
its mandate to contain the situation in the Republic of Burundi.The
petition was presented to the Speaker of EALA, Rt. Hon Daniel F. Kidega,
in Arusha by PALU and the East African Civil Society Organisations’
Forum (EACSOF).
In
addition to PALU (Principal Petitioner) and EACSOF, Atrocities Watch
Africa, Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union, East
Africa Law Society (EALS) and the Kituo Cha Katiba (KcK) also appended
their signatures to the petition.
In the
petition, the Civil Society representatives urged EALA inter alia to
call upon the Chair of the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of
the African Union to take concrete steps towards preventing Burundi
from descending into genocide or mass atrocities. Such measures the
petition stated include, enhancing the numbers and capacity of the Human
Rights Monitors and Military monitors deployed to the country. They
further called for the sanctions regime of the African Union to be
activated.
The
petitioners also urged the House to make strong recommendations to the
Summit of EAC Heads of State that the Republic of Burundi should not
assume the rotating Chairmanship of the EAC until it resolves the
political, human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country.
The
petition calls on EALA or a relevant Committee within, to immediately
hold a public hearing in Arusha, Tanzania, that would welcome Burundian
and East African citizens to testify to the occurrences in the country
and to suggest proposals for resolution to the crises.
The
petition stated that there were numerous reports of cases of
assassinations, extra-judicial and arbitrary killings of over 130
persons (at time of presentation) and thus implored EALA to condemn what
it terms arbitrary killings as well as the inordinate use of force by
the police, security officials and members of a youth wing group,
Imbonerakure.
The
petitioners in addition, want EALA to request the African Union to
intervene in the political and humanitarian crisis citing its
comprehensive and far reaching legal and institutional framework that
includes the Constitutive Act of the African Union, 2000 and the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights amongst others.
The
EALA Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee has been
following developments in Burundi for some time now and accordingly, the
crisis is labeled as one of the severest challenges to peace and
stability to the EAC. At the Plenary Sitting held in Nairobi, the
Committee tabled the Report on the Goodwill Mission to the refugee camps
hosting Burundi citizens in the Republic of Rwanda and the United
Republic of Tanzania.
The
Report among other things, called on the EAC Partner States to support
immediate interventions towards sustaining peace in Burundi and the EAC
at large. It also urged the EAC Partner States to expedite the
enactment of a regional legal framework for the management of refugees
and to harmonize laws on how to handle intra-refugees’ matters in the
region.
Last
week, The Minister for Foreign Affairs, EAC, Regional and International
Relations of the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Chairperson of the
EAC Council of Ministers, Hon. Ambassador Dr. Augustine Mahiga,
convened a Consultative Meeting in Arusha to deliberate on the way
forward on the situation in Burundi.
The
meeting noted with appreciation and expressed support for the steps
taken in particular by the EAC, the AU and the UN and the resultant
Communiques and related pronouncements including by the EAC Emergency
Summits of 13th May and 6th July 2015; by the AU Peace and Security
Council on 17th October, 13th November and 17th December 2015; the
United Nations Security Council’s Presidential Statement of 28th October
2015 and the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 2248 (2015)
of 12th November 2015.
The
meeting further expressed concern on the continued political crisis in
Burundi and its potential to degenerate further with far reaching
humanitarian implications. It thus reiterated the need for the parties
to embrace political dialogue as the only feasible way to end the
impasse.
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