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- Apr 3, 2012
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Burundian civil activists have allegedly unraveled a plot to smuggle into the troubled country a ship-full consignment of arms through the port of Dar es Salaam destined to the embattled President Pierre Nkurunzinza.
But chairperson of the East African Legislative Assembly’s (EALA) Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee (RACR) Abdullah Mwinyi said it was too early to substantiate the claims and called for the civil societies to submit the evidence to both EALA, RACR and relevant authorities in Tanzania.
"We want members of the civil societies to bring us evidence to the claims," Mwinyi said, reiterating in his rejoinder that there was a need to substantiate the claim with concrete evidence as Dar es Salaam Port is a gateway for several merchandise.
Though members of the civil societies were short of identifying the origin of the smuggled arms, they asked President John Magufuli to intercept its movement since it would fuel the burning conflict in Burundi.
"We are well informed of the arrival of the ship with the said ammunitions; we call upon President Magufuli not to allow the docking at the port," said Vital Nshinirimana at the Forum for the Reinforcement of Civil Society organized by EALA's RACR on the third day of public hearing workshop on the humanitarian crisis in Burundi in Arusha yesterday.
"This should not be happening when the country is on the brink of genocide, when assassinations, kidnaps and extra judicial killings had become the order of the day," said Nshinirimana, alleging that President Nkurunzinza had bought the huge chunk of firearms and used the Dar es Salaam port to smuggle the weapons into Burundi.
He also urged Tanzania against handing over chairmanship of the East African Heads of States Summit to be held next to Nkurunzinza saying he had neither moral right nor ability to head the highly esteemed institution.
According to Nshinirimana, mass graves had been identified in some parts of the country while over 60,000 protesters had been detained in the country since the outbreak of the mayhem last April.
"We still believe that most of these protesters have been executed by Nkurunzinza," and that 10,000 cases of sexual abuses had been filed at the country's ministry of child welfare, he said while using visual images to demonstrate mass atrocities to the visibly shaken EALA lawmakers.
Mary Louise Baricako from the Women and Girls Movement for Peace and Security (WGMPS) in Burundi told the forum that there was no point of starting a dialogue when bloodshed was at its peak in the troubled country.
“We are all deeply concerned with the horrible things happening in our country, Burundians are screaming for help, EAC has the responsibility of protecting us; if you cannot do that, then your existence is useless,” she said:
Adding salt to the wound, Alexandre Niyungeko from the Union of Burundi journalists told the hearing that eight journalists had been forced into exile in the past eight months of the unrest in Burundi.
"They would confiscate our mobile phones to check if we had any information that they would deem vital, and suffer the consequences," he said, implying harassment imposed on journalists.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
But chairperson of the East African Legislative Assembly’s (EALA) Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution Committee (RACR) Abdullah Mwinyi said it was too early to substantiate the claims and called for the civil societies to submit the evidence to both EALA, RACR and relevant authorities in Tanzania.
"We want members of the civil societies to bring us evidence to the claims," Mwinyi said, reiterating in his rejoinder that there was a need to substantiate the claim with concrete evidence as Dar es Salaam Port is a gateway for several merchandise.
Though members of the civil societies were short of identifying the origin of the smuggled arms, they asked President John Magufuli to intercept its movement since it would fuel the burning conflict in Burundi.
"We are well informed of the arrival of the ship with the said ammunitions; we call upon President Magufuli not to allow the docking at the port," said Vital Nshinirimana at the Forum for the Reinforcement of Civil Society organized by EALA's RACR on the third day of public hearing workshop on the humanitarian crisis in Burundi in Arusha yesterday.
"This should not be happening when the country is on the brink of genocide, when assassinations, kidnaps and extra judicial killings had become the order of the day," said Nshinirimana, alleging that President Nkurunzinza had bought the huge chunk of firearms and used the Dar es Salaam port to smuggle the weapons into Burundi.
He also urged Tanzania against handing over chairmanship of the East African Heads of States Summit to be held next to Nkurunzinza saying he had neither moral right nor ability to head the highly esteemed institution.
According to Nshinirimana, mass graves had been identified in some parts of the country while over 60,000 protesters had been detained in the country since the outbreak of the mayhem last April.
"We still believe that most of these protesters have been executed by Nkurunzinza," and that 10,000 cases of sexual abuses had been filed at the country's ministry of child welfare, he said while using visual images to demonstrate mass atrocities to the visibly shaken EALA lawmakers.
Mary Louise Baricako from the Women and Girls Movement for Peace and Security (WGMPS) in Burundi told the forum that there was no point of starting a dialogue when bloodshed was at its peak in the troubled country.
“We are all deeply concerned with the horrible things happening in our country, Burundians are screaming for help, EAC has the responsibility of protecting us; if you cannot do that, then your existence is useless,” she said:
Adding salt to the wound, Alexandre Niyungeko from the Union of Burundi journalists told the hearing that eight journalists had been forced into exile in the past eight months of the unrest in Burundi.
"They would confiscate our mobile phones to check if we had any information that they would deem vital, and suffer the consequences," he said, implying harassment imposed on journalists.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
