“Today, we’ve got adjourned sine die, as a result of yesterday we agreed that we’ll all be right here by 9 o’clock within the morning”.
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“We will use this interruption to determine if we will continue this dialogue, because we have seen that while we were in the process of talking, the others were preparing something else”, the minister said.
Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana said that the government had skipped the dialogue because of statements made by the opposition about the need for democratic institutions, which he said suggested they hoped to take power through a coup.
Talks between Burundi’s government and opposition were planned to resolve a major political turmoil over a controversial presidential bid by incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza’s for a third consecutive term in office.
Although Kiyonga asserted some progress had been made and that there was nonetheless an opportunity to convey the federal government again to the desk, a supply from the 5-nation East African Community (EAC) – which designated Uganda as the primary mediator – stated the method now seemed to be “lifeless”.
Burundi, a landlocked coffee-producing nation, has been roiled by unrest since late April’s announcement that President Pierre Nkurunziza will run for re-election, a decision that opponents say violates a two-term limit stipulated in a 2005 peace accord that ended a 12-year civil war.
Ugandan Defense Minister Kiyonga, however, said the talks were not yet “dead” and that he was trying to arrange a meeting with Nkurunziza.
The Burundian government has failed to meet the opposition demands.
The opposition, however, maintained that the government quit because discussions had shifted to the upcoming elections.
Nkurunziza campaigned in Kabarore on Friday, vowing that next week’s election will go ahead despite threats of an opposition boycott and violence from members of the military involved in a failed coup.
This is while the key presidential election is due to take place in the impoverished central African nation on Tuesday.
If the government persists in holding presidential elections under the current circumstances – something even the former first Vice-President objected to after also having fled the country – they will in no way confer any legitimacy on the to-be-elected authorities.
The opposition argues that weeks of violent crackdown on protesters by security forces means free and fair elections are impossible.
Western diplomats refer to it as an armed militia of Burundi’s ruling CNDD-FDD party.
Burundi’s elections, originally scheduled for 15 July, have now been postponed by six days to 21 July in order to mitigate the effects the tensions may have on the final vote.
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The opposition says Nkurunziza must go after serving his two constitutionally allowed terms.
