Human Security Centre Human Rights and International Security Research
Dwayne Menezes, director of the Human Security Centre, told Christian Today: “For a while now, both the government and the opposition, and forces loyal to each, have engaged in ethnically charged rhetoric, whether in the efforts of the government to intimidate the opposition through subtle and not-so-subtle threats of violence or the efforts of the opposition to intimidate the government by calling for international intervention that could change its composition.”
Not that the violence has gone unnoticed. On Human Rights Day Jeremy Lefroy, the Tory MP for Stafford (and HSC Advisory Board member), held an adjournment debate in the Commons on the political situation in Burundi.
“The people of Burundi have suffered enough,” said Lefroy, who is a Christian. “They are not interested in power struggles between elites who think it their right to rule; they want stability and the ability to live their lives free from fear. I urge President Nkurunziza, whom I have met on two occasions, to engage fully with such mediation.”
Such mediation is supported by Menezes, who told Christian Today “the time is not right for any international military intervention which would be likely to further exacerbate the conflict.
“However, it would be wise for such options to be weighed and planned should the need arise,” he said.
Read the full article.
