”I have never experienced such a catastrophic economic situation”. In his sixties, our interlocutor has “everything lived in Burundi, the assassinations at the top of the state, the wars, the changes of regime, the economic crises but the current situation is unprecedented. There is palpable tension at all levels of society and the economic crisis is getting worse day by day.”
“It’s going to be crazy”
In Burundi, a country where silence, more than anywhere else, is golden, tongues are loosened. Not publicly, the government and its militias keep up the pressure. But, sheltered from indiscreet ears, our interlocutors hammer home their certainty; “It’s going to be crazy” ; and their questions; “Or ? When ? How ? Who ?”. No one dares to give a definitive answer, but several refer to the message of the Head of State, General Évariste Ndayishimiye, alias Neva, to his close collaborators to evoke “the end of a period”. A little over a month ago, on the occasion of an ordinary congress of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD, the President of the Republic invited State officials to return to public coffers, the money they stole”. Three accounts have been opened at the Bank of the Republic of Burundi (BRB, the national bank) for the “return of stolen money”. The success is not really there.
Burundi: 24 people charged for “homosexual practices”
“Business is slowing down. Everyone avoids taking out their money. Suddenly, the cash starts to run out, the prices fly away, the exchange rate too”, explains a resident of Bujumbura. At the official rate, one euro is worth 2,200 Burundian francs. On the black market, the European currency reached 4,100 francs on March 14. “And it keeps on rising and inevitably, as almost everything is imported, even basic goods like beans and corn, everything costs more.” Officially, the annual inflation rate is 26%. “But that number means nothing. The pockets of Burundians know that it is much more”.
The “large denominations, (the 10,000 franc notes, Editor’s note) are almost impossible to find. The high dignitaries of the regime, the generals, all those who have had the opportunity to make money, hoard, most often in local currency as it is difficult to have dollars or euros. So they really end up with mountains of tickets.” In this context, the President of the Republic has repeatedly mentioned the possibility of changing currency for “drown thieves in their banknote pool”, according to the expression of one of his close collaborators. “These are words. He can’t do it. Firstly because it has a cost, it would be necessary to print all these new banknotes and, secondly, because he would alienate the entire Burundian elite and all his relatives, he might not survive it”, continues another inhabitant of Bujumbura who likes to recall that the regime in power comes from the guerrillas. “Violence is a reality of this power. there is nothing muffled”. “The state coffers are empty, explains another interlocutor, there is nothing left in the Republic’s gold reserves. Everything has been sold”.
Burundi: five human rights defenders arrested
Moral recovery and the hunt for homosexuals
In this climate of complete crisis, the presidency decided to play the card of moral recovery. After calling on the thieves to return the money to the state coffers, President Neva decided to institute, from March 7, a compulsory daily prayer from “7.30 a.m. to 8 a.m.” for the members of its services, the collaborators of the vice-presidency and of the Prime Minister. The press release insists: “you are all invited to participate in it to start each working day with the presence of God”.
But this “moral recovery as a cache-misery” is also accompanied by much more terrible measures, in particular for homosexuals targeted by the President of the Republic during the “National prayer breakfast” on March 1st.
DRC: Burundian troops from the regional force have arrived in Goma
The family of “Georges”*, a Burundian exile who found refuge several years ago in Belgium following suffering violence from the militia close to the government, was thus taken to task in the wake of this speech. On March 4, three days following the presidential message, Georges’ mother was visited by militiamen who interrogated her, while threatening to throw her in prison. The interrogation focused on his son, accused of being homosexual. “The next day, these men came back but the lady had taken refuge with a neighbour”, explains a relative. On Monday March 6, two of Georges’ sisters were imprisoned, beaten and interrogated. In question the alleged activism of Georges in Belgium. The two women were released in the evening once morest payment of a ransom (2,000 euros). But the ordeal was not over, two days later, these two women were once more imprisoned and their stay behind bars lasted several days, the time the family organizes to find the 5,000 euros for the second ransom.
”This hunt for homosexuals allows some to make money while pushing those who are stigmatized by power towards the path of exile”, explains a Burundian. The Belgian and European consular authorities have been informed of this situation.
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