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Is Burundi ready to become an SADC member?

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Is Burundi ready to become an SADC member?

Is Burundi ready to become an SADC member?

3rd May 2019

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Common sense would suggest that a country that has been experiencing political instability for 14 years, on the back of a 12 year civil war (1993 - 2005), would focus exclusively on peace- and nation-building before its elections scheduled for 2020, as opposed to creating for itself a long-term complex entanglement of political and economic commitments in five intergovernmental organisations.

The country in question, Burundi is a member of the four regional economic communities (RECs) or inter-governmental organisations with overlapping and concurrent memberships: (i) Common Market of East and Southern Africa, (ii) East African Community (EAC), (iii) Economic Community of Central African States and (iv) International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. Consequently, one would expect the Burundian government to explore ways to exploit political, security or economic opportunities that may exist, as a result of the synergy between the four RECs. However, instead of promoting the coordination and harmonisation of the four RECs’ overambitious programmes, it seeks to join yet another organisation with institutional weaknesses, expensive bureaucracy, as well as a poor implementation record because of its predisposition for unfeasible and over-ambitious targets.

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Is the prospect of Southern African Development Community (SADC) membership going to provide more opportunities of cross-border investment and trade flows as opposed to the aforementioned inter-governmental organisations? To what extent, is SADC’s consideration of Burundi’s application a rational move in its efforts to build viable, and sensible RECs, considering that the multiplicity of RECs on the continent has not been very effective?

Being a member to multiple RECs is not only inefficient in terms of prospects for deeper economic integration, it is also costly. At present, Burundi has not been able to fulfil some of its financial obligations to the aforementioned intergovernmental organisations and yet it seeks to add another financial burden to its negligible budget and accumulating debt. There are reports that the country continues to accrue debt in all these aforementioned organisations. The much publicized debt is the $10-million it owes the EAC. To make matter worse no policy has adopted by the government to put in place a repayment plan.

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Burundi’s 2017 application was suspended by the Inter-state Politics and Diplomacy Committee of the SADC’s Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation because of political instability and uncertainty following President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term, which violated the 2005 Constitution that is anchored on the 2000 Arusha Accords. The country’s present political crisis, which the government will try to obscure from the SADC’s evaluation team, is rooted in the failure by Nkurunziza and the National Council for the Defense of Democracy–Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) to abide by the Arusha Accords which ended the protracted civil war from 1993–2005.

Nkurunziza and the CNDD-FDD are unwilling to engage in dialogue with opposition parties in order to restore peace. Their authoritarian tendencies of being unwilling to face criticism and open political debate should be an alarming warning to the SADC of what to expect. Fast forward to 2019, Burundi’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ezechiel Nibigira’s special envoy, commissioned by President Nkurunziza, to renew the assessment process for the country’s readiness to join SADC, declares that it is in a fit state. This proclamation is questionable and fallacious considering the country has been characterised by authoritarian rule, political assassinations, forced disappearances as well as detentions, torture, restrictive regulation on international nongovernmental organisations’ (NGOs) operations, and a prohibition on media houses such as Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The criteria for Burundi to become an SADC member state are enrished in the Treaty of the SADC of 1992 which the country would have to sign and ratify. Article 4 stipulates that the public administration and all political process in member states should be guided by human rights, democracy and the rule of law principles. Equally important, Article 5 outlines the community’s objectives to be the promotion of “common political values, systems and other shared values which are transmitted through institutions, which are democratic, legitimate and effective”. Finally, it maintains that all member states should be committed to “consolidate, defend and maintain democracy, peace, security and stability in the region”. The Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation which will visit Bujumbura and carry out thorough evaluations in Burundi in May 2019 and is mandated to “promote the development of democratic institutions and practices within the territories of State Parties and encourage the observance of universal human rights as provided for in the Charter and Conventions of the African Union and the United Nations.”

In order for Burundi to qualify as an SADC member state in accordance with the treaty, firstly, it has to decriminalise freedom of expression. To illustrate, Burundi’s media regulator the National Communication Council has been leading a systematic campaign to censor/repress/silence/suppress international media which are held to biased towards the ruling party, the NCDD–FDD and its leadership. According to Reporters Without Borders (2019) Burundi is ranked 159th out of 180 countries worldwide in terms of press freedom. The media landscape in the country is characterised by security forces routinely harassing, detaining and torturing journalists. There is regional consensus amongst some SADC members (such as Namibia which ranks 23rd, South Africa: 32nd, and Botswana 44th) that media organisations contribute to democratisation processes.

Above all, in order for Burundi to meet the requirements to be an SADC member it has to understand that NGOs play a vital role in the process of democratic consolidation. For example, at the beginning of this year (2019), a number of international NGOs suspended their operations following government introducing new ethnicity laws in December 2018. The new laws include strict financial controls on their financial transactions, administration fees and a requirement to hire 60% ethnic Hutu staff and 40% Tutsi.

When it comes to human rights Burundi has a dismal track record and yet wants to join a community whose mission is to ensure compliance with international human rights principles. The same year it submitted its SADC mmembership application, the country became the first African country to withdraw from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Out of the 23 Africa states that are members of the ICC, 12 are SADC member states: Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa, Mauritius, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Comoros, Madagascar and Seychelles. It is important to highlight that SADC gives ‘global relevance’ to a supranational court that can transcend beyond national sovereignties.

Earlier, this year, Burundi requested the United Nations to close its human rights office after 23 years. Furthermore, according to Human Rights Watch, the country’s security services and Imbonerakure, the ruling party's notorious youth league; have committed human rights violations on a large scale since 201 when Nkurunziza began his controversial third term. The Organ on Politics was scheduled to carry out evaluations in the country in 2018, but the government asked for a postponement on the grounds that it had to conduct a constitutional referendum. Human Rights Watch asserts that the reason for the postponement was because the country was trying to conceal from the SADC human rights violations such as “summary executions, rapes, abductions, beatings, and intimidation of suspected political opponents”.

In this context, is Burundi ready to join a community that boasts some of the most progressive democracies on the continent (e.g. Botswana, Namibia and South Africa) anchored on principles of human rights, democracy and rule of law? Would its admission serve as an inspiration for concrete economic and political reforms post the 2020 elections? The latest development from the country is that it has begun preparations for the 2020 elections and will not accept any external funding. The preparations are supposed to include discussions with opposition parties and civil society organisations on an electoral code. However, there are concerns about inclusivity in these discussions as a number of opposition leaders have not been invited to some meetings.

Against this background, does the SADC’s Organ on Politics need to visit Burundi in May to examine if the country can become the second East African country (after Tanzania) and seventeenth member of SADC (after Comoros, which was admitted in 2017), taking into consider all these reports? If approved, will Burundi abide by the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections? It will be interesting to see Burundi's fate after the holding of the SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in August - will it be saddled with an “authoritarian democracy”, while nonetheless still reaping in full the benefits of SADC membership.

Written By Michael Khorommbi, Researcher on Regional Integration and Peacebuilding in Africa, Part-time Lecturer St Augustine College of South Africa, Junior Regional Analyst at Political Economy of Southern Africa BA, Opinionista at Daily Maverick, B(Hons) Peace Studies & MSc Regional Integration (in progress)
 

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