Burundi: Ndayishimiye accuses the EU of being "accomplice" to the 2015 coup attempt
Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye on June 26, 2020 at Ingoma stadium in Gitega.
AFP Photos / Tchandrou Nitanga
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
During his first public press conference since his inauguration, General Évariste Ndayshimiye violently attacked the European Union and accused it of having participated in the attempted coup of 2015, while indicating want to renew the dialogue.
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For three hours, the Head of State of
Burundi
answered questions from journalists on all public and private media in the country.
It was his first public press conference
since his inauguration
, just over three months ago.
During this media meeting, General
Évariste Ndayshimiye's speech
on the European Union was one of the highlights.
Burundi is ready to reconnect with the European Union, but not under any conditions, explained Ndayishimiye, directly accusing the EU of having participated in the 2015 coup attempt against its predecessor.
"
Everything has an end
"
“
Our relations with the European Union deteriorated because we found that this organization was complicit in the 2015 coup attempt. Since they were unable to shoot us down by force, they said to themselves
: "Let us take sanctions against this government so that poverty will bring it down
"
, luckily God has watched over us
", he declared.
The European Union is Burundi's
biggest
donor to take
budgetary sanctions against Gitega
since 2016, at the height of the crisis due to serious human rights violations at the hands of the government.
After that, the Burundian president said he was open to reopening the dialogue.
“
Everything has an end.
This is why today, we have already announced to them
:
"
We did not drive you out, you left on your own. If you want to reconnect (
with us
), the door is open
", "he said. he explained to journalists before adding that "
the most important thing for us is that Burundi remains open to cooperation
".
“
If they want us to really cooperate, there is no problem because we have never said that we have taken sanctions against the European Union.
But brandishing such and such a resolution does not work, we must instead have a dialogue.
We know that the Cotonou Agreement has had its day, and that we are in the process of negotiating the rest, we are continuing our forward march,
”he concluded.
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