Amid
Burundi
Crackdown, ICP
Asks & UN
on Djinnit,
Now to UNSC
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May
6, with video
-- Amid
protests and
crackdown
after Pierre
Nkurunziza was
nominated to
run for a
third term as
President in
seeming
violation of
the Arusha
Peace Accord,
Inner City
Press has
asked the UN
about Burundi,
most recently
on May 4 and 5
and now May 6,
below. Now
it's said the
UN's Said
Djinnit will
belatedly
brief the
Security
Council on May
7 - we'll be
there.
On May 6,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN, " I
don't know if
you have an
update on
Burundi?"
Moments later,
beyond an
if-asked, a
statement was
handed to UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq,
who answered
Inner City
Press with
this:
"Regarding
Burundi, after
a plenary
session
yesterday,
Burundian
stakeholders
continued the
political
dialogue.
Our Special
Envoy for the
Great Lakes
region, Said
Djinnit, is
facilitating
work in
smaller
committees.
The objective
of the
dialogue
remains to
seek common
grounds for
creating
conditions for
the holding of
peaceful,
inclusive, and
credible
elections in
Burundi.
Meanwhile, we
welcome the
arrival in
Bujumbura of
the foreign
ministers of
the East
African
community, and
we look
forward to
working
closely with
the region on
this."
The UN is
relentlessly
upbeat - and
marginalized.
Watch this
site.
On
May 4, Inner
City Press
asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric:
Inner
City Press: On
Burundi, I
want to know
if you have
any statement
on the
violence in
the capital in
which at least
two people
have been
killed today
protesting the
third-term run
of the
President?
Spokesman
Dujurric:
Sure, we
continue to
follow the
events in
Burundi with
great concern
and deplore
the loss of
lives and
injuries as
well as the
destruction of
property that
we've
seen. We
reiterate our
calls to all
the parties to
reject
violence,
exercise
maximum
restraint, and
avoid using
inflammatory
language, as
well as to
take the
necessary
appeasement
measures to
create
conditions for
dialogue.
In this
regard, the UN
mission on the
ground, MENUB,
has been
encouraging
all
stakeholders
to seize the
opportunities
of the
dialogue that
is organized
by the
Ministry of
Interior with
the support of
the UN on 5
and 6
May.
That is
tomorrow and
Wednesday.
And we trust
that
stakeholders
will see and
build on this
dialogue as an
opportunity to
defuse
tensions and
seek common
grounds for
creating
conditions for
the holding of
peaceful,
inclusive, and
credible
elections in
Burundi.
Later
on May 4, Ban
Ki-moon met
with Uganda's
Yoweri
Museveni, but
no UN read-out
was issued. On
May 5, Inner
City Press
asked for
this, and
about the
judge who fled
the country
amid death
threats. Video
here.
, 
