Burundi minister accused
2009-07-09 10:31
Bujumbura - Burundi's opposition leaders have accused a government minister of trying to create a one-party state, saying they have been banned from holding rallies.
Three opposition groups joined forces on Tuesday to criticise the Interior Minister Edouard Nduwimana who they claimed was acting "like a militant".
Nduwimana is a member of the ruling Cndd-FDD party, a former Hutu rebel group which fought the Tutsi-dominated army during years of civil war in Burundi.
The minister organised a huge rally with thousands of supporters on Saturday for the ruling party, while his opponents were not allowed to hold any meetings, the groups said.
Behave like a militant
They alleged he was trying to gain the political upper hand ahead of elections in 2010, and such actions threatened to change Burundi into a "de facto one-party state".
"The interior minister, Edouard Nduwimana... refuses to rise above party politics and prefers to behave like a militant from his FDD party," declared Pancrace Cimpaye, spokesperson for the main opposition party Front for Democracy in Burundi (Frodebu).
"This refusal to allow other parties political freedoms has only one aim, which is to transform Burundi again into a de facto one-party state," Cimpaye said, reading a statement from the three opposition parties.
"It is motivated by the fear of losing elections which must be held in several months."
Acts of intolerance
Cimpaye added other parties faced enormous difficulties to hold "even a simple meeting" of their officials.
He also claimed "acts of intolerance" were being perpetrated against the ruling party's opponents, such as the arrest of opposition leaders.
General elections are due to take place in 2010 in Burundi, a central African state struggling to emerge from 13 years of civil war that pitted the Tutsi-dominated army against Hutu rebel movements.
The country's President Pierre Nkurunziza, a former Hutu guerrilla commander, came to power in 2005 in the country's first post-war polls.
- SAPA
