SA sends voter material to Burundi
Thabo Mokgola
15 December 2004
South Africa has sent voter material to Burundi to help the war-torn country prepare for elections scheduled for 2005.
Presidential spokesperson Lakela Kaunda said the government and the Independent Electoral Commission were sending 14 000 ballot booths, 7 000 ballot boxes, 7 000 batches of indelible ink, 3 500 stationery packs, 3 500 stamps, stamp pads and ink, 28 000 security seals to secure the ballot boxes and 4 000 clear security bags.
"South Africa's assistance to Burundi follows the request of the chairperson of Burundi's Independent Electoral Commission, Paul Ngarambe", Kaunda said.
"Some of the aid will be used in the referendum to be held on 22 December that will see Burundians, for the first time, voting to adopt the current transitional constitution, after which preparations can be made for historic democratic elections to be held in 2005."
South Africa, through the leadership of Deputy President Jacob Zuma, has been
playing an important role as facilitator of the Burundian peace process since 2000. Zuma took over a mission that was initially headed by the late Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere and then former SA president Nelson Mandela.
Burundi is currently being administered under the terms of the Arusha Agreement, reached in 2000, allowing for a 36-month transitional government headed by Tutsi President Pierre Buyoya, followed by a Hutu, Domitien Ndayizeye.
Despite the ceasefire, there have been attacks thought to be carried out by the Agathon Rwasa's Palipehutu-FNL, which was not party to the peace process.
Burundi was once part of German East Africa. Belgium won a League of Nations mandate in 1923, and subsequently Burundi and Rwanda were transferred to the status of a United Nations trust territory.
Ever since its independence, Burundi has been riddled with political power struggles.
In 1962, Burundi became a kingdom under Mwami Mwambutsa IV, a Tutsi. A Hutu
rebellion took place in 1965, leading to brutal Tutsi retaliations. Mwambutsa was deposed by his son, Ntar V, the following year.
A series of coups followed, but the most notable occurred when the Burundi Democracy Front's candidate, Melchior Ndadaye, won the country's first democratic presidential elections in 1993.
Ndadaye, the first Hutu to assume power in Burundi, was killed within months during a coup.
The second Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was killed in 1994, when a plane carrying him and Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down. This led to a full-scale civil war that claimed the lives of more than 300 000 people.
Source: BuaNews
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