Nkurunziza’s Return to the Political Scene: When the International Community Encourages Dictatorship

The international community has unanimously condemned, in terms that could not be more explicit, the coup attempt in Burundi made by General Niyombare against Pierre Nkurunziza. The U.S. bases its position on the fact that Nkurunziza’s power is legitimate. In principle, it is understandable that until his second term reaches its end, he continues to be the legitimate president of Burundi. It is also understandable that regime changes achieved through unconstitutional means are firmly condemned by all. But these noble principles, it must be stressed, should only apply to truly democratic regimes. This is not the case, evidently, when it comes to Pierre Nkurunziza’s regime. Indeed, the same international community, with the U.S. at the helm, forcefully denounced Nkurunziza’s candidacy for a third term as leader of his country. The African Union, notably, based on the Arusha Accords and Burundi law, found it unconstitutional. To this outright opposition by the international community, we must add the country’s own living force, both moral and political. Everyone urged Nkurunziza to step down. But nothing helped.

No Dictator Can Be Legitimate

The strong man of Bujumbura decided to taunt everyone by pursuing a frenzied march toward the confiscation of power. In his stride, he ordered his police force to suppress by all means anyone unwilling to wait idly by as democracy is assassinated in their country. And that’s what the police did brilliantly, right under the noses of those who took offense today to General Niyombare’s attempt to put an end to the criminal excesses of Bujumbura’s master with a coup. In response to Pierre Nkurunziza’s armed takeover of Burundi’s democratic institutions, General Niyombare attempted another armed takeover. Under these conditions, it’s amazing to see the U.S. hide behind Nkurunziza’s legitimacy to justify its opposition to the general’s coup. What legitimacy are the Americans talking about? If legitimacy means listening to reason in law and justice, we must have the courage to admit that the power of Pierre Nkurunziza has lost all legitimacy, since he has taken the liberty of consciously violating what made his power legitimate, that is, his country’s constitution and the Arusha Accords. And now Pierre Nkurunziza has no use for legitimacy. What worries him is staying in power for as long as possible, walking over the bodies of his fellow countrymen as he leaves, as he is currently doing. No dictator can be legitimate. Certainly General Niyombare is a putschist, but Nkurunziza, for having perpetrated a coup against his country’s democratic institutions, is one as well. Faced, thus, with these two evils, we must choose the lesser. And the lesser, in the present case, is General Niyombare’s coup against the arbitrary and dictatorial ways of Pierre Nkurunziza.

By Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Nkurunziza’s Return, the International Community has Acquitted Him of Assassinating the Ideals of Democracy

The Burundian people found a lot of hope in the action of the rebels. And they made it explicitly known by streaming into the streets of Bujumbura with joy. They had more reason to do it than the leader of the coup did himself when, in a declaration that he addressed to them, he emphasized that his goal was not to seize power by force, but to rid the country of a tyrant and to thereby allow democracy to continue along its merry way. From this point of view, you could say that his action is not only legitimate, but also patriotic in the sense that it favors the general interest over the interest of the individual. The international community should thus perceive it as a necessary evil. In the political history of nations, coups of this sort have taken place. For example, this was the case in 1974 in Portugal during the Carnation Revolution, which swung the country in the direction of democracy and favored the march of the African people toward independence, those who were under Portuguese colonial rule. Closer to home, I can cite the example of the coup carried out by the Nigerian army in order to prevent President Tandja from clinging to power by fiddling with his country’s constitution.

For all these reasons, we should not hesitate to say that the international community, by condemning General Niyombare’s coup while it was happening, also contributed to its derailment. Because of this, the international community encouraged, in a way, the dictatorship of Pierre Nkurunziza. And beyond Pierre Nkurunziza, it encourages all the dictators below our tropics who are following the situation in Burundi with the greatest interest. Doing so, it rolled out a red carpet for Nkurunziza’s return to his country’s political scene, and granted him a political and even moral exemption for assassinating the ideals of democracy. And these are not the cries of outrage that many are currently sounding, calling for a fair trial for the alleged coup plotters; evil is good for something. The African people can, from now on, learn this lesson: As long as a dictator doesn’t attack the interests of the West, he can massacre his people however he wants and whenever he wants. It is up to Burundians to assert themselves as the Burkinabes did on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31, 2014. Because the slave, as Thomas Sankara said, who is not aware that he can rid himself of his chains, “doesn’t deserve for us to feel sorry for him. Only struggle liberates.”