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Burundi: The Education And Defence Ministers Respond to Questions of MP's
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Burundi Réalités (Bujumbura)
1 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007
Bujumbura
The education minister, Dr. Saidi Kibeya, and the defence minister, Lt General Geramain Niyoyankana, finally responded to the questions of members of parliament all related to the relocation of so-called FNL dissidents to Karurama in Cibitoke province.
This relocation caused more than seven hundred students from Cibitoke secondary school to return home in fear for their security.
Explanations given by the education minister, Dr. Saidi Kibeya, did not win over the MP's. Some members of the parliament demanded the education minister to resign for having favoured FNL deserters over the students. The education minister is also blamed for firing the principal of Cibitoke secondary school illegally. Dr. Saidi Kibeya sought to impose cohabitation between students and FNL dissidents in vain. In his last efforts to convince the students' parents to send their children back to Cibitoke secondary school, he met their opposite on as well as that of members of the parliament from this constituency.
The defence minister, Lt General Niyoyankana, said that FNL dissidents will be relocated to Randa within one week. Contradicting the facilitator Charles Nqakula who told the UN Security Council last Wednesday that the disarmament phase has been reached, the Defence minister says that the identification process of the so-called dissidents is still on-going.
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The defence and education ministers failed to respond to the invitations of members of the parliament twice before this. Some MP's considered this disrespectful to the national assembly which has power to control the executive branch. The recent address of the facilitator Nqakula to the UN Security Council did not improve relations between the defence ministry and the parliament. MP's have never been informed as to the way the government will handle these dissidents whom some deputies label as FNL deserters rather than FNL dissidents. The recent statement issued by the defence ministry was not welcomed by MP's who consider it to go towards fuelling insecurity.
At the end of this session, decisions and promises were made in the national assembly. The national assembly plans to take charge of the issue between FNL-PALIPEHUTU and the government of Burundi. A parliamentarian commission with the aim of facilitating the talks between the government of Burundi and FNL-PALIPEHUTU is to be set up. The former principal of Cibitoke secondary school and his assistant in charge of conduct and discipline must be reinstated and students must return to the Cibitoke secondary school after the deserters are relocated to another place.
The parliamentarian session that reached these decisions was chaired by Hon. Alice Nzomukunda. She was thanked for the democratic conduct of the session which had been lacking in that house for more than two years.
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