21 March 2008
Bujummbura — FNL dissidents looted three homes in the Mitakataka sector of Bubanza commune during the night of March 19. According to the victims, the FNL dissidents robbed them of 125,000 francs. Despite the intervention of security forces, the FNL dissidents succeeded in returning back to the waiting area of Randa although both sides traded gunfire. The inhabitants of Mitakataka recognised one of the attackers.
The movements of FNL dissidents remain out of control despite the presence of the African Union peacekeepers in charge of security of the waiting sites of Randa and Buramata where more than 2,000 combatants are stationed.
Theoretically, FNL dissidents were disarmed before being gathered in the waiting sites. In reality, since the beginning of this year, the rearmament of the FNL dissidents resumed with the South African peacekeepers that guard the waiting sites completely unawares.
This is not the first raid that the government-backed dissidents have carried out from the waiting site. In February, the police caught an FNL dissident in the city of Gatumba in the act of robbery. It was later revealed that the robber was a dissident officer from Buramata.
The future of these government-backed FNL dissidents remains uncertain. With the resumption of negotiations between the government and the mainstream section of PALIPEHUTU-FNL, the dissidents created unrest in the waiting areas in an attempt to call attention to their situation. At that time the representative of the African Union succeeded in mollifying the situation. Yet the only predictable way-out for these FNL dissidents is for to be sent home, as in the past the government send home FNL combatants loyal to Jean Bosco Gatayeri.
The government of Burundi has not succeeded to resolve the PALIPEHUTU-FNL issue. The current head of state made it his first priority in his inaugural address back in 2005. Afterwards he made two ultimatums that the PALIPEHUTU-FNL survived.
Currently, negotiations between the government and PALIPEHUTU-FNL are deadlocked. PALIPEHUTU-FNL and the government of Burundi have failed to agree on the important issue concerning the provisional immunity for FNL leaders. PALIPEHUTU-FNL has rejected the bill passed by the parliament which omitted the name of the movement. This movement has also rejected the decree that President Nkurunziza issued a year ago to strengthen the faulty immunity bill. In the meantime, the ruling party is not ready to concede. The leader of the ruling party, Hon Jérémie Ngendakumana, said yesterday that they will not go back on a bill that has already been passed through the parliament.
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