Troops Could Be Sent to Burundi if Violence Worsens: United Nations

Fears that could slide into a Rwandan-style civil conflict grew after the United Nations warned that it was “poorly positioned” to intervene in the country’s escalating political violence.

The United Nations (UN) moved Thursday, November 12, to pull Burundi back from the brink of “possible genocide”, adopting a resolution that called for urgent talks and laid the groundwork for peacekeepers to be sent to stop the killings.

The resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to deploy a team to Burundi to work with the government, African Union and other partners to “develop options to address political and security concerns”.

“Alarmed by the widening divisions, the threat for many more lives and a deep regional crisis, we pledged to work closely together and to mobilize all our means and instruments to prevent a further deterioration of the situation”, senior officials of the three bodies said in a joint statement.

Burundi’s President Pierre Nkurunziza is sworn in for a third term at a ceremony in the parliament in Bujumbura, Burundi, Thursday, August 20, 2015.

Diplomats say Western powers and the United Nations are discussing the possible deployment of peacekeepers to Burundi if violence spirals into a full ethnic conflict.

France took the lead on Monday by circulating the draft resolution, which threatens sanctions against Burundian leaders who incite attacks or impede peace efforts.

It dropped a reference to “targeted sanctions” that was in the initial draft, but “additional measures” can include sanctions – a point that Rycroft, the current council president, stressed.

The human rights chief told the UN Security Council that at least 240 people have been killed since protests began in this April and there have been hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention in the past month alone, targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and their families, people attending the funerals of those who have been killed, and inhabitants of neighbourhoods perceived to be supportive of the opposition.

The changes were made after Russian Federation and a few African countries argued that sanctions would not be helpful to encouraging a settlement.

“The (U.N.) Security Council is looking at how to react quickly should there be a need to move in forcefully with troops with preventive capacity”.

Burundi’s war from 1993 to 2006 left a few 300,000 people dead as rebels from the majority Hutu people clashed with an army dominated by the minority Tutsis.

The U.S. Special Envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes region, Thomas Perriello, said on Tuesday Washington had grave concerns about the deteriorating political situation in Burundi.