Cries to end mass killings in Burundi
Two women who experienced brutality in Africa spoke passionately about the oppression facing Burundi's citizens. Flora Terah, a human rights activist living in Canada, said she was savagely attacked and her son was killed for seeking a seat on Kenya's parliament. "I so much resonate with the people of Burundi," Terah said.
A career U.S. diplomat and other speakers said Saturday that atrocities happening in one east-central African nation should cause Lehigh Valley residents to rise up and demand justice.
“Democracy is growing,” Bruce Knotts said to about 100 people during a Rally for Peace in Burundi at the Holiday Inn in center city Allentown. “Burundi is out of step with the progress that is going on in Africa.”
The Amnesty International chapter at Cedar Crest College organized and hosted the event, which drew students and professors, local Amnesty International representatives and Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, and included a musical performance. Later Saturday, the group gathered on Hamilton Street for a candlelight vigil and march.
Knotts, who worked for the State Department for more than 20 years before retiring from the Foreign Service in 2007, said hundreds have been killed in a crisis triggered when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek a third term last year, despite objections that doing so violated the country’s constitution.
He said without more light being shed on the situation, Burundians will experience more atrocities.
“Here in Allentown, if you have a dark neighborhood and no light, bad things happen in the dark,” Knotts said. “The more light we can shine, the harder it is going to be for the killing to continue.”
According to The New York Times, more than 400 people have been killed and about 240,000 have fled the country. Many of the refugees fled to Tanzania, where a cholera epidemic sickened about 3,000 Burundians,
Two women who experienced brutality in Africa spoke passionately about the oppression facing Burundi’s citizens.
Flora Terah, a human rights activist living in Canada, said she was savagely attacked and her son was killed. Her crime: She was a woman seeking a seat on Kenya’s parliament.
“I so much resonate with the people of Burundi,” Terah said.
The European Union voted Monday to suspend millions of dollars in aid to Burundi, Terah said, arguing the action will lead to more suffering for the people.
“We need to start action right now in Allentown,” Terah said, her voice booming in the banquet room. “Our voices can be heard. Let us not leave Burundi alone. The death of one woman’s child is one too many.”
Millicent Otieno, executive director of Local Capacities for Peace International, has worked in Burundi since 2003, last visiting the nation in May. She said outsiders blame the country’s politics, warring native tribes, even the level of poverty, for the carnage.
“We’re not here to blame, but we’re here to stand firm and call it what it is,” she said. “This killing must stop.”
If Burundi falls, Terah said, neighboring nations will, too. Knotts agreed.
“It will have a domino effect,” he said. “The entire region is fragile.”
During the event, people saw a video, which included voices of Burundi natives living in the Lehigh Valley who experienced oppression. Their faces did not appear and their names were not shown for fear of reprisal, said Nickson Ogutu, a Cedar Crest senior who is president of the college’s Amnesty International chapter.
“If we don’t do something, we might lose a generation of Burundian people,” Ogutu said. “Let’s save them, because nobody is talking about them.”
Source: mcall.com
~Wakenya Canada
