African leaders trying to push Burundi to take peacekeepers – AU diplomat African

Africa  States are trying to push Burundi President, Pierre Nkurunziza, to accept peacekeeping troops at a summit this week to prevent Burundi sliding back into ethnic conflict.

An unnamed senior African Union (AU) diplomat said on Wednesday in Addis Ababa that Nkurunziza was not expected to endorse the plan.

He, however, said AU would try to persuade him to change his mind.

The diplomat said sanctions could be considered if Nkurunziza did not accept.

The diplomat said if the AU sent in the force without Burundi’s consent it would have to invoke Article 4 of the AU charter.

He said the charter gave it the right to intervene in a member state “in respect of grave circumstances, namely; war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

AU announced a plan in December to send 5,000 peacekeepers to Burundi, where more than 400 people have been killed in worst violence since an ethnically charged civil war ended in 2005.

Burundi swiftly rejected the plan, with Nkurunziza saying any such force would be considered an “invasion”.

He said the AU initiative highlights growing international worries that allowing Burundi’s crisis to fester could start fighting again in a region where memories of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide are still raw.

“Burundi and Rwanda share the same ethnic mix of a majority Hutu population and a Tutsi minority.

Diplomats from the U.N. Security Council visited Burundi last week, with some members seeking to push the president to accept.

Samantha Powers, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said little was achieved in those talks and urged African nations to work “behind the scenes” to convince him.