Burundi’s main Tutsi political parties have presented an alternative Constitution for the Central African nation, saying their basic law is more balanced than the text passed by Parliament last week.
”The proposal adopted by Parliament was drawn up by Hutu parties and does not address the concerns of the Tutsi community,” said Jean-Baptiste Manwangari, head of the biggest Tutsi party, the Union for National Progress (Uprona), late on Monday, when 10 parties from the Tutsi minority presented their draft Constitution to the press.
”Our draft Constitution calls for Hutus and Tutsis to alternate every five years as head of state,” he said.
A total of 189 out of the 271 lawmakers who make up both houses of Parliament unanimously adopted the draft Constitution at an extraordinary session of Congress on Friday.
The draft Constitution incorporates articles that were proposed in a power-sharing accord signed in Pretoria at the beginning of last month by most of Burundi’s politicians, with the exception of 10 Tutsi parties.
Eighty-two parliamentarians boycotted the session, heeding a call from hardline Tutsi parties, including Uprona, which had rejected last month’s power-sharing accord, saying it made too many concessions to the Hutus.
The accord was also rejected by a Hutu extremist movement that remains active.
The Constitution passed by Parliament proposes that the head of state be elected by direct universal suffrage, except for the president, who will take office on November 1 — the day after the end of a three-year transition in Burundi — and who will be elected by Parliament.
It also provides for a new government and National Assembly, both to be 60% Hutu and 40% Tutsi, while the Senate will be equally divided between the two ethnic communities.
Uprona chief Manwangari called the draft passed by Parliament ”the project of a group that wants to install a dictatorship based on numbers”.
”We have therefore presented our project so that dialogue can begin between their project and ours.”
Tutsis make up just 14% of Burundi’s population, against 85% for the Hutu ethnic group. But despite their minority status, Tutsis have held sway over political life and the military in Burundi since independence in 1962.
In October 1993, Burundi’s first Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye, was assassinated in a failed coup bid led by Tutsi army officers.
His death sparked a civil war that has simmered to this day, claiming about 300 000 lives.
In a bid to end the conflict once and for all, Burundi has tried to establish a system of ”ethnic balance” under which Tutsis and Hutus equitably share power.
Under a peace pact signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2000, an interim government was set up, led for the first 18 months by a Tutsi president and the second by a Hutu.
President Domitien Ndayizeye this week signed a decree calling for a referendum to be held on the draft constitution on October 20. The new law is due to take effect on November 1. — Sapa-AFP