Bujumbura -Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday urged Burundi’s government and its opponents to put aside sectarian and political differences after weeks of violent protests and days of clashes with rebels in the North.
Burundi’s political crisis, the worst since a civil war ended in 2005, was triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to stand for a third term in an election scheduled for July 21.
Museveni, who was appointed by East African nations as a mediator to end the crisis, said called on Burundians to embrace peace and build the nation.
“I urge the people of Burundi to forget their past sectarian political differences and build their country on unity,’’ he said in Bujumbura.
Museveni, who chaired the opening session of talks in Bujumbura between the government, the ruling and opposition parties, civil society, religious leaders and others, gave few indications of the topics for discussion in his opening public remarks.
Meanwhile, Amizero Y’abarundi, a senior official in the opposition coalition, said that Museveni should demand that Nkurunziza stick to a two-term limit set out in the Arusha peace accords that ended the civil war and to create a fair environment for a vote.
Some analysts have questioned Museveni’s authority as a mediator.
They accused him that as president he had overseen the scrapping of term limits and Ugandan opposition politicians are often detained.
The oppositions accused him again of planning to run in Uganda’s 2016 presidential race.
Mr Chris McKeon, an analyst said that Museveni’s own disregard for such limits makes him utterly unsuitable for appointment as a mediator.
African efforts to cool the Burundi crisis have stumbled, in spite of calls by the African Union and regional east African states for dialogue.
In Rwanda, Burundi’s neighbour, parliament voted this week to support changing the constitution to allow President Paul Kagame to extend his rule beyond two terms. (Reuters/NAN)