Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Burundian Civil War
The Burundian Civil War happened over 20 years ago. It started in 1993 and ended in 2006. The country was split into two, the Hutu and the Tutsi. When the first Hutu president was assassinated the country fell into war. The country has still been on a rocky path since the end of the war. But in 2015 the president Pierre Nkurunziza decided that he was going to run for a third term. The country fought for democracy and thought this was unconstitutional. Nkurunziza ended up winning the third term which has thrown the country into chaos. President Nkurunziza has started passing laws that are limiting the people. He passed a law that limited what the press could say, to stop the press from "undermining national security". The country started throwing riots to show their anger at not being part of the reelection. So far over 200,000 people have fled and 700 people have died.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13085064
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I had actually not heard of this conflict before reading this blog, so good on you for educating me about this conflict. It seems, by complete coincidence, that Burundi's president seems to share a mistrust of the press like, our President, Donald Trump, does. Considering what is happening in the conflict can you say most definitely that there is a topic of loss among the conflict and how its effects are hurting the country?
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how the country was divided between the Hutus and the Tutsis. I can understand how those kinds of ethnic and cultural differences can lead to conflict, as it did in Rwanda in 1994. However, what part does this difference play in the conflict today? Is this a conflict between the Hutus and the Tutsis, the people and the government, or both?
ReplyDeleteI was going over this war in history and it's terrible what these people are going through. It's impossible to understand what the people of this country are going through.
ReplyDeleteHey Sean. I'm glad I could show you a topic that you have not heard of yet. To answer your question I would say there is definitely loss surrounding the topic. The country had fought for over 20 years to get democracy and to have a president just rip that a away feels like they are taking something that you deserved.
ReplyDeleteHey Katie, thanks for commenting. (You to Connor) The conflict of today is less about the Hutu's versus the Tutsis'. During the war the Tutsis' were in control but after the war the country came together and choose a Hutu president who was Nkurunzazi. The conflict is about the government versus the people. The people wanted Nkurunzazi as their president until he wanted to run for a third term. When they choose him as they president they set a rule that presidents could only run for two terms. By Nkurunzazi running for a third term it meant that he was disregarding their wishes. He was ignoring what the people wanted and was using his power to get away with what he wanted. I hope that answered your question!
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