FNL rejects regional solution....!

Uganda and South Africa on Thursday unveiled a new initiative to revive the peace process in Burundi, although it was promptly rejected by rebels.

The four-point plan provides for the rebel movement's political branch to be renamed, its leadership integrated into state institutions and its fighters regrouped.

All targets would be be achieved by the end of the year, added the document presented by Ugandan Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and chief mediator Charles Nqakula, who is the South Africa defence minister.

The small central African nation has been struggling to emerge from a civil conflict that has left 300,000 dead since 1993.

A 2006 ceasefire between the government and the rebel National Liberation Forces (FNL) has been fraught with obstacles over how to share political and military power.

The group's political branch is the Palipehutu-FNL (Party for the Liberation of the Hutu People).

"This is a disgrace, they are asking the Palipehutu-FNL to change names and the president (Pierre Nkurunziza) is offering us scraps in terms of political jobs," FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana told AFP.

"We will not change our name and we want to negotiate what positions we are reserved," he added.

Although the government and the rebels agree on a number of issues, key differences emerged following recent talks including the government's recognition of the rebels' political branch as a political party and allowing its members to enter the government.

The government has refused to accept the FNL as a party with the name "Palipehutu," which means party for the liberation of the Hutu people, arguing the constitution forbids political parties with ethnic affiliations.

Source: AFP

Talk with Me! Contest in New Zealand features a Burundian

Birkenhead College year 12 student Emile Ntahogwisiga has been honoured by Governor-General Anand Satyanand for winning the writing component in the Talk with Me! competition.

Emile and his family moved to New Zealand three years ago. They knew no English and only a little French, he says.

Life here is a stark contrast to the tough conditions in a Tanzanian refugee camp, he says in the deeply personal essay. His family moved there from Burundi.

"Arriving in the refugee camp, I started to experience life.

"I was with my family but was too young to help them, my job was just to eat.

"Do you know how it feels to spend a day without any food? I know.

"I know how your eyes start to change and you no longer can see because of hunger. I know how other kids call you to play with them and you cannot because of the hunger."

Talk with Me! is a national secondary students creative writing and arts competition that aims to improve young New Zealanders’ understanding of the lives of refugees.

"For me, the refugee camp was a lovely place. That is because I was always playing with other kids the same age as me," Emile writes.

He is surprised to have won.

"It’s my life experience. When I read it I feel it."

He is enjoying life and new opportunities in New Zealand with his parents, five siblings and his brother’s family. While in Wellington collecting his prize of $250, and $1000 for Birkenhead College, Emile visited the Royal New Zealand Police College because he hopes to one day become a policeman.

"I’ve many thoughts, many things that I can do, but making a choice is so hard."

He is also loving being part of the Glenfield Rovers’ first division under-17 football team, having grown up playing the game with other children in the refugee camp.

"What I would love in my lifetime is to see countries like New Zealand that have a good heart, keep looking after those who cannot look after themselves," Emile writes.

"As for myself, I am someone living in another world."
Article retreived from Stuff New Zealand

Congratulations, Barack Obama!

Vugaduhabwe officially congratulate Barack Obama for winning the General Elections

Barack Obama Elected President of USA

Barack Obama wins overwhelmingly the 2008 general elections in USA making him the first African American (Black) to ever become president of the United States of America. It is a symbolic moment and seen by many as a reincarnation of Martin Luther King, and so King`s dream comes through! His election will set the pace for a transformed earth...And if you are one of the those people who think can`t make it, keep dreaming big, everything is possible with hope!

Alexis Sinduhije arrested: Who is next?

Bujumbura, Burundi - The leader of Burundi's opposition party -- the Movement for Security and Democracy (MSD), Alexis Sinduhije, and 40 militants of the party have been held under custody since Monday night in Bujumbura's police stations, for holding an "unauthorised" meeting, sources close to the defendants said here.

The police also searched MSD's offices and took away documents, the sources noted.

MSD's legal adviser, François Nyamoya, told the press that there had been, for a week, rumours about the possible arrest of Sinduhije and the party's militants, lamenting the "deliberate" months-long delay in the issuance of the party's certificate.

The young MSD leader worked for a long time as a journalist with the national radio station before founding the privately-owned Radio Publique Africaine (RPA).

Under his direction, RPA has been distinguished in Burundi's media by its unequalled investigative reporting on the national, social and political life, which has often caused it legal troubles.

Bujumbura - 04/11/2008
Source: Afriquenlingne.fr

Elections 2010

Nous vous proposons de lire ceque Nyangoma pense des éléctions de 2010. Clickez sur le lien en bas pour lire toute sa reaction lors d`une conference de presse a` Bujumbura.

"Des élections ont été organisées un peu partout, mais l’on constate que malgré une
impopularité notoire, de nombreux dirigeants ont pu garder les rênes du pouvoir après
plusieurs scrutins. Il ne s’agit pas de la magie mais de véritables laboratoires de la fraude
mis en place par les régimes chancelants. La tricherie se passe à toutes les étapes des
élections. Mettre à nu les techniques de fraudes, c’est rappeler aux acteurs politiques la
vigilance qui doit être la leur pour déjouer les ruses des ennemis de la démocratie".

Lire le tout ici

Grenade kills Innocent Children

Bujumbura, Burundi - Three school children were killed and 14 others wounded on Friday when a grenade they were handling exploded in their classroom. Police sources told PANA that the children thought the object they were handling in the school in Mutoyi, central Burundi, was a toy, but it exploded with tragic consequences.

Recently, the vigilance of a teacher helped to avoid such a tragedy in a school in Kinama, a popular neighbourhood on the northern periphery of Bujumbura, where a pupil had brought a grenade he had stolen from his father to class.

The fear of arrests by government is increasingly leading people to indiscriminately get rid of firearms they were illegally keeping at home, after the authorities launched a big campaign to disarm civilians.

Burundi is struggling to emerge from more than 14 years of civil war during which many citizens acquired weapons for self-defence.

According to official investigations, more than 100,000 households are still illegally in possession of light weapons and small arms in Burundi.

Source: www.afriquenligne.fr