Burundi urges facilitator to identify "real" refugees

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-22 02:42:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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BUJUMBURA, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Burundi has urged former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, the facilitator of the Burundi dialogue, to visit refugee camps to identify "real" refugees, the Burundian justice minister said Monday.

In an interview with Xinhua on Monday, Aimee Laurentine Kanyana urged Mkapa, the facilitator for the East African Community (EAC)-led Inter-Burundi Dialogue, to check whether those refugees had fled Burundi fearing for their personal security.

Mkapa and other facilitation delegates visited Burundi from August 14 to 19. The main objective of the visit to Burundi was aimed at requesting Burundian authorities to promote "inclusiveness" in the Inter-Burundi Dialogue, which aims to find a solution to the political crisis in Burundi.

"Burundi is now enjoying peace and security. We don't understand why Burundian refugees don't return home. That's why we requested the delegates from the facilitator to visit refugee camps hosting Burundian people to check reasons that push them to remain in refugee camps," said the minister during the interview.

"Some people flee problems in their families, others flee because they have robbed banks or because they are taken big bank loans that they are unable to pay back; others flee because they have committed big offences and others flee because they will be transferred to Europe or to America," Kanyana said.

According to her, the facilitation in the dialogue should visit those refugees and talk to the UN Refugee Agency in order to "review" the profile of refugees.

"At the internal level of the dialogue, there was no discrimination. Even at the external level of the dialogue held under the auspices of the East African Community (EAC) facilitation team, there is no discrimination either," Kanyana said.

She added that the Burundian government will "never accept" to sit on the same table with people who attempted to overthrow the east African country's democratic institutions on May 13, 2015, and people who "organized the insurgency" in April 2015.

"We have called for the repatriation of the external dialogue because there is no reason of holding talks out of Burundi," Kanyana said.

Launched in December 2015, the Inter-Burundi Dialogue talks at the external level under the East African Community (EAC) auspices, with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as the mediator, have made no concrete progress.

In January 2016, the Burundian government boycotted talks in Arusha, Tanzania, arguing that it could not sit on the same table with what it called "non-peaceful" stakeholders.

In March that year, the EAC heads of state summit appointed the former Tanzanian president as the facilitator of the dialogue.

Mkapa organized separate consultations with stakeholders in the dialogue, but real negotiations have not yet taken place.

Burundi plunged into a crisis since April 2015 when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term bid.

His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup on May 13, 2015.

Over 410,000 people have fled to other countries mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis.

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