Yearbook 2007
Burundi. A harsh political climate caused concern in the
area that the system of power sharing between the hutu and
Tutsi people groups, which came into force in 2005, would
fall apart. According to
CountryAAH, the tutsidominated former ruling party UPRONA
accused the ruling CNDD-FDD, formerly a Hutu extremist
militia, of consistently favoring Hutus in the post of army
and police posts.
A ceasefire agreement between the government and the last
hutumilis FNL, which was concluded in the autumn of 2006,
did not lead to any permanent peace agreement. Negotiations
ended and the FNL delegation disappeared from the capital,
after which bloody fighting broke out between rival factions
of the FNL during the fall.
In January, the Supreme Court acquitted former President
and Hutu Domitien Ndayizeye and four other former senior
politicians from allegations of trying to overthrow the
government. However, two others were sentenced to prison for
20 and 15 years respectively. The charges had been severely
criticized both internally and abroad, as the details of the
alleged coup attempt were extremely vague. The charges were
believed to be linked to a fierce power struggle within the
CNDD-FDD, whose authoritarian chairman Hussein Radjabu was
deposed at a party meeting in February and was brought to
trial at the end of the year after being deprived of his
legal immunity. Several of Radjabus's close confidants,
including two ministers and the Speaker of Parliament, were
also cleared.
Burundi began breaking a long-standing relative isolation
during the year. In April, Rwanda and Congo (Kinshasa)
agreed to revive cooperation in the Greater Zealand Economic
Community (CEPGL), which has been down for 13 years, and in
June it was announced that Burundi and Rwanda will become
members of the East African Community together with Kenya,
Tanzania and Uganda. The most important element of this
cooperation is a customs union.
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