Government lifts ban on Parena

The government on Wednesday lifted a six-month-old ban on the Parti pour le redressement national (Parena) led by a former state president, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza.

Home Affairs Minister Salvator Ntihabose announced this in the capital, Bujumbura, saying the party had not engaged in violent acts during the period of its ban. He said that as from now the party could conduct political activities country-wide, in conformity with the law, the Burundian human rights league, ITEKA, reported. It said the party had been banned from engaging in political activity after the government accused it of holding illegal meetings and of publishing unauthorised and inflammatory reports.

Bagaza, who was also held under house arrest by the administration of the then president, Pierre Buyoya, said at a news conference on Thursday that Parena would remain an unarmed political opposition. Bagaza was released from house arrest in April, having been detained in November 2002 for allegedly plotting to kill Buyoya and the Speaker of the National Assembly. He was never charged.

Under a power-sharing agreement between Hutus and Tutsi facilitated by South Africa, Buyoya ceded the presidency to Domiitien Ndayizeye, a Hutu, on 30 April. Commenting on this, Bagaza said he saw little difference between the two men. "I have been oppressed under their system. Buyoya was the president and Ndayizeye his deputy, and Ndayizeye kept the same people who were in the first cabinet," Bagaza said.