The Supreme Court has sentenced El Hajji Hussein Radjabu to 13 years of imprisonment. The same court has sentenced five other people involved in the case to 13 years of imprisonment. Only two people including Jean Marie Bigirimana and Baudouin Libakale also known as Ndindi were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. These people were convicted of attempts to the State Security after Hussein Radjabu met former CNDD-FDD combatants with the intention of creating a rebel group. The Supreme Court delivered this verdict on April 3rd after a long period of deliberation.

There were protests today as the government was trying to demobilise more than 900 troops. Candidates to the demobilisation gathered this morning on the football pitch of Muha camp located in Bujumbura. Only about 200 volunteers to the demobilisation accepted to go to the demobilisation centre of Gitega. Others refused to go there on the ground that this demobilisation is spangled with irregularities. 18 officers and 169 sub-officers are part of this first group of candidates to the demobilisation composed of 916 troops.

Bujumbura hosts a regional workshop on gender mainstreaming as part of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. Today, the First Vice-President of the Republic, Dr Yves Sahinguvu, opened this three-day workshop. Delegates from 11 countries attend this workshop on the implementation of projects of the Great Lakes Pact on security, peace and development. The participating countries include Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Zambia, Centrafrica, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Angola. According to Burundi’s minister in charge of Gender Equality, Mrs Rose Nduwayo, the choice of Burundi to host this workshop ‚constitutes an incentive for Burundian people in search of stability.‚

Things might have gone from bad to worse for the ruling party. The East African Community may have rejected those elected to represent Burundi in the Community’s Parliament. According to some sources, Burundi’s candidates were rejected because of irregularities surrounding their election. This report has not been confirmed as the ministry in charge of regional integration denies that Burundi’s representatives were rejected.

Prices of imported commodities have risen sharply following the devaluation of the Burundi’s currency. The prices of almost all the imported products including households’ appliances have grown by 15 percent. While the world was facing the threat caused by the weakness of the dollar in comparison to the Euro, the Burundian currency continued to lose its value. Currently, a dollar is sold at circa 1,200 francs on the black market where foreign exchange bureaux have mushroomed uncontrollably. The dollar was sold at 1,108 francs in July 2007, and 1,167 in January 2008. This rise of prices is a blow to Burundians whose purchasing power has enormously diminished following the last civil war that lasted a decade as well as the mismanagement of the country’s assets. Despite the increase of the civil servants’ salaries by 34 percent which went into effect in January 2008 after too much wrangling, its effect on the ground remains unnoticeable. Since the announcement of this increase of the civil servants’ salaries in May 2007, prices of all commodities incessantly rose partly through increased taxes to increase revenues to cover the salary increase.

FNL dissidents looted three homes in the Mitakataka sector of Bubanza commune during the night of March 19. According to the victims, the FNL dissidents robbed them of 125,000 francs. Despite the intervention of security forces, the FNL dissidents succeeded in returning back to the waiting area of Randa although both sides traded gunfire. The inhabitants of Mitakataka recognised one of the attackers. The movements of FNL dissidents remain out of control despite the presence of the African Union peacekeepers in charge of security of the waiting sites of Randa and Buramata where more than 2,000 combatants are stationed.

Ms Alice Ndayisaba is now able to get medical treatment abroad. The Post Bank and the University of Burundi have settled the issue that opposed them with regard to the transfer of the students’ contributions to her account. Today, the Post Bank transferred circa 13 million francs to her account. This sum is not however sufficient to pay the costs of her medical treatment as the rate of exchange for the dollar has risen. A local association, Fondation la Faveur, has resolved to bridge the gap in paying the remaining sum in a bid to allow this student to get medical treatment in India.

The stalemate in the national assembly persists despite the election of Hon Irene Inankuyo as the First Vice President of this institution. The plenary session that was due to take place today in order to validate the week’s agenda lacked the required quorum. The new leadership of the national assembly has planned the registration of members of the parliament to different commissions. These permanent attributions would have taken place at the beginning of the February session. But the blockage that prevails in this institution has thwarted its activities.

The Post of Burundi and the chancellor of the University of Burundi, Mr Gaston Hakiza, have failed to agree over modality for the disbursement of the students’ assistance to Alice Ndayisaba. The wrangle continues while the life of the student continues to embitter following a development of an infection although her family, the local Catholic Church and students have collected enough funds to change the course of her life.

The Batwa community is opposed to the appointment of the nine people to represent the Burundi in the legislative body of the East African Federation. The Association of Batwa of Burundi, UNIPROBA, says that the parliament discriminated against them in its recent appointment of nine persons to the posts of representatives of Burundi in the parliament of the East African Federation.

The inhabitants of Rangi have paralysed the activities in the commune and province of Ruyigi. All commercial and administrative activities ceased as the demonstrators have blocked the traffic. The demonstrators carried the body of a businessman of Rangi that armed robbers killed on Wednesday 5 March at night. Today, the demonstrators took the body of Léonidas Nzeyimana from the morgue of the hospital of Ruyigi. Instead of proceeding to the burial the relatives and the family of the deceased one went to expose the body in front of the office of the governor of Ruyigi. The demonstrators demanded the police to hand the presumed robbers to the inhabitants of Rangi for a people’s justice.

The First Vice-President of the Republic, Dr Yves Sahinguvu keeps on carrying out his campaign geared at strengthening the trio of administration, security forces and the population. Today, he held a meeting in the commune of Kibago in the southern province of Makamba that administration representatives from Bururi, Makamba and Rutana provinces attended in order to address security issues.

The leader of Charles Mukasi’s wing of Uprona, Sinarinzi Gabriel, has reiterated his demand for the set of the International Criminal Tribunal for Burundi. ‚The International Criminal Tribunal for Burundi remains the sole way the get out of the mess that the country is plunged into,“ said Gabriel Sinarinzi in a press conference that he held today to react to the letter that forty-six members of the parliament wrote to the UN Secretary-General last week.

Recently, sources from Frodebu stated that Claver Nahimana would replace Didace Kiganahe if CNDD-FDD accepted a bargain to remove Alice Nzomukunda from her post as the first vice-presidency of the national assembly. The chairman of the CNDD-FDD parliamentarian group, Hon Evariste Nsengiyumva, has approved Frodebu’s move to expel Didace Kiganahe from the second-vice presidency of the national assembly. Frodebu rejects these allegations, saying that Frodebu would not need the assistance of CNDD-FDD in order to dismiss Didace Kiganahe, just as the ruling party did not require any assistance from Frodebu to expel Alice Nzomukunda from CNDD-FDD during their recent party congress in Muyinga.

The National Council for Communication has approved the setup of the private radio station Rema FM. It will be the first local radio station to air a twenty-four hour English news programme. This radio station may help Louis Kamwenubusa to gain prominence once again. This seasoned journalist was the assistant to the director of Radio Publique Africaine. He had had troubles with Alexis Sinduhije, the former director of RPA, in the wake of the fabricated plot against prominent authorities. It was then that the ruling party sought to silence this radio station which had broadcast news showing that the plot was a fabrication of the ruling party. Louis Kamwenubusa was fired from RPA after he connived with Nyamitwe to destroy the leadership of this new station.

The main opposition party, Sahwanya Frodebu, calls on the head of state to intervene in order to end the crisis in the national assembly. Today, the leader of Frodebu, Hon Ngendakumana, held a press conference to give his party’s position on the stalemate in the National assembly. Hon Léonce Ngendakumana said that CNDD-FDD is the cause of the current stalemate. He said that the ruling party has always refused to rule in accordance with the constitution, adding that since CNDD-FDD came to power in 2005, it succeeded in setting up a constitutional cabinet on 28 November 2007 only after strong pressure from opposition parties, civil society, and the international community. Hon Léonce Ngendakumana says that CNND-FDD seeks to rule in the country just as they operated when they were an armed movement hiding in the bush.

The inhabitants of Gatumba fear that they might be targeted by FNL attacks after the National Defence Army killed fifteen FNL combatants in Gatumba on March 1. In connection with the killings in Gatumba, the spokesman for the National Defence Forces, Lt Col Adolphe Manirakiza, says fighting broke out whil FNL combatants were looting households. The spokesman for PALIPEHUTU-FNL, Pasteur Habimana, has rejected the allegations of the national defence forces. He says FNL did not provoke the National Defence Forces. Habimana also denied that was involved in the fighting that took place in Cibitoke on 1 March at 19pm. PALIPEHUTU-FNL has also reiterated that it will continue to take part in the peace process and see it through to the end.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has released five Burundians after about three months of imprisonment. These Burundians include two soldiers and three civilians who travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo in late November of 2007 on the invitation of a Congolese pastor. This pastor was later arrested on charges that he has collaborated with invaders from Burundi.

Yesterday fighting opposing members of the national security and defence forces against a group of armed persons claimed the life of one policeman in the village of Magara on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. A soldier of Burundi’s navy was seriously wounded in the fightings. Local sources say that the attackers were FNL combatants who intended to loot the village of Magara. Inhabitants of Magara demand the facilitation team to provide food to the FNL combatants since they now plunder the communes located in the south of Bujumbura province in order to acquire their provisions.

After the press conference of the ruling party, the Frodebu parliamentarian group has issued a statement to show its dissatisfaction. Hon Claver Nahimana who signed the statement says his group is dissatisfied with the words of the leader of the ruling party who said that security has improved since the accession of the CNDD-FDD to the power.