Burundi’s 43rd Political Party Registered

originally published in the Daily Nation

A controversial political party founded by a former BBC journalist has finally been registered in Burundi.

The Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (formerly the Movement for Security and Democracy) becomes Burundi’s 43rd registered party.

It’s founder, Mr Alexi Sinduhije, was released from jail last March.

The party was forced to change its name for registration due to provisions in Burundi’s legal code banning ethnic or military connotations in political organisations.

MSD and Mr Sinduhije have been bitter critics of the government and President Pierre Nkurunziza.

Desired changes

Mr Sinduhije operates the Public African Radio, an independent station, highly critical of the government. The station has become one of Burundi’s most popular.

Mr Sinduhije said that he decided to form a political party in late 2006, after realising that journalism was not bringing the desired changes in Burundi.

Since then, he and his colleagues have been thrown in jail, threatened, and some killed.

Last November, Mr Sinduhije was arrested on charges of insulting the president and spent months in jail until a controversial overturn last March.

Since then, the judges who freed him have received death threats, while others involved in the case have been kidnapped.

Mr Sinduhije has been accused repeatedly of trying to destabilise Burundi, a country that put an end to a 16-year old civil war last April.

One the new party’s chief youth recruiters was arrested in April on charges of plotting to kill President Nkurunziza. He says he spent a month in prison being tortured.

“They told me a Tutsi would never again run this country.”

He is our voice

Mr Sinduhije has recruited hundreds of former combatants from the recently-demobilised National Liberation Forces, Burundi’s last rebel group, that finally agreed to a peace deal this year. The recruits are mostly Hutus.

Says Mr Jean-Claude, a recent recruit, of Mr Sinduhije: “He is our voice, he speaks for our generation.”

Mr Sinduhije, a Tutsi, says he is fed up with ethnicity-based politics and corruption.

His main charge is that successive Burundian governments have badly mistreated and played the people against each other, while stealing their money.

“Leaders don’t respect their people,” Mr Sinduhije says. “They treat them as if they are worth nothing.”

So far, Mr Sinduhije has found a growing base of supporters, both from among the Bujumbura elite and foreigners doing business in the country.

MSD recruiters are stationed in all provinces.