Burundi’s Government Threatens to Unleash Army on Opposition Protesters

Senior ministers in Burundi warned Monday that the landlocked African nation's government would not shy away from mobilizing the army against demonstrators protesting President Pierre Nkurunziza's plans to seek a third term in an election scheduled for June.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday in Burundi's capital of Bujumbura, Defense Minister Pontien Gaciyubwenge warned that he was prepared "to accompany the other security actors in resisting the detractors of peace" at the request of the commander-in-chief.

Protests have escalated over the past few months ahead of the election. Many fear that incumbent Nkurunziza, who has been in power since 2005, is preparing to defy the two-term limit imposed by Burundi's constitution and remain in office.

More than a thousand people swarmed the streets of Bujumbura on Friday. Police fired tear gas and water cannons todisperseopposition protesters. Protesters hurling stones allegedly injured two police officers, according to the news site France 24, and the city center remained on lockdown for several hours on Friday.

Authorities arrested 120 protesters, 65 of whom were charged over the weekend with "taking part in an insurrectional movement" and now face up to ten years in prison. Demonstrators who are found to have been armed during the protest could be imprisoned for life. The public prosecutor in Bujumbura noted that stones are considered weapons under Burundian law.

Related: Tensions rise in Burundi ahead of June presidential election

Presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe denied that Friday's arrests and the government's willingness to call on the army amounted to a crackdown on the opposition. Speaking to VICE News on Tuesday, Nyamitwe said that there was "room for the opposition, but not for a revolution or an insurgency."

"We are experiencing electoral fever," he added, explaining that the government would do everything in its power to protect the peace. "The powers that be will not allow a return to war. We want free, transparent, and peaceful elections."

But protesters insist that the government is restricting their right to express their opposition.

"The police are preventing us from demonstrating peacefully against Nkurunziza's third term," opposition leader Chauvineau Mugwengezo, honorary president of the Union for Peace and Democracy Party (UPD), told the BBC. He pointed out that the police had escorted a demonstration by the ruling party on Saturday.

The international community has expressed concern over rising violence in the country. On Friday, the United Nations Security Council asked both the opposition and the government to "abstain from any acts of violence or intimidation either before, during or after the elections."

A report titled "Elections in Burundi: Moment of Truth" that was published earlier this month by the nonprofit International Crisis Group (ICG) noted that the organization was concerned about "the ever-rising tension and the vanishing prospect of free and democratic elections" in the country.

Thierry Vircoulon, ICG's central Africa project director, told VICE News that it was "important for the international community to be present in Bujumbura, and for the UN to be poised to intervene."

Burundi, which was under Belgian administrative authority until 1962, has recently emerged from a long history of violent civil conflict. Ethnic violence between the Tutsi and the Hutu left 300,000 dead in a bloody civil war that lasted from 1993 to 2005.

In 2000, various warring parties and factions signed the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement to bring stability to the country and provide a framework for a transitional government. Parliamentary elections took place in 2005, followed later that year by a presidential election that Nkurunziza won.

The 2000 peace framework and Burundi's constitution stipulate that the president is limited to two terms, but Nkurunziza's deputies have argued that because he was first elected by the members of parliament rather than by a popular vote, he is entitled to run for re-election again.

Nkurunziza's party, the CNDD-FDD, will convene by the end of the month to decide whether or not he will represent the party in the forthcoming elections. Though dozens of senior party officials urged the incumbent president to abandon his push for a third term last month, momentum within the party appears to have shifted.

Vircoulon said that Nkurunziza "is taking control of the party again," and believes it is looking more and more likely that he will be nominated for a third term. If Nkurunziza does stand, ICG has asked the UN to "negotiate with the ruling and opposition parties for an end to the protests, and to remind them of their commitment to peaceful elections."

When asked about the president's plans for the elections, Nyamitwe said that it was "up to the party to decide who will stand in the 2015 presidential elections."

More than 8,000 people — mostly children — have fled Burundi since the start of April to seek refuge in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and in Rwanda. Regional observers worry that the current political unrest risks morphing into a regional conflict.

Follow Mélodie Bouchaud on Twitter: @meloboucho