Because Jean-Marie, in his position as lead negotiator for
Barundi, as Head of Land Planning and Development, Ministry of Water, Environment and Land Planning, forcefully defended Barundi's upstream water interests along the Nile in international courts, ceded by his country to Colonial powers to benefit Egypt at Barundi's expense, because Jean-Marie persuaded Barundi's President to sign an agreement which allowed Barundi full rights of access to the Nile, including for the purposes of irrigation and hydroelectric power, and because Jean-Marie pointed out the logical flaws in the argument that Al-Shabab, at the service of Mubarik, posed a realistic military threat to Barundi, Jean-Marie was made an assassination target by foes within his country who had been corrupted by Egyptian agents.
Jean-Marie left his wife and ten children behind in Barundi, becoming a political refuge, escaped certain death, and eventually found his way to my parent's home in Arlington, after the expiration of his 2014-2015 Humphrey Fellowship. Today, Jean-Marie is seeking urgent funding for the introduction to Barundi of kenaf, which is in Jean-Marie's estimation as an agricultural scientist, the ideal cash crop for Barundi, based on Kenaf's of it's unique properties:
- 6' taproot, which enables it to thrive with minimal rainfall.
- Can be harvested 3 times per year.
- Used in bioreactors to generate electricity
- Used as an insulation product in automobiles
- Inexpensive and easy to grow
Below is Jean-Marie's statement, which I have taken the liberty of posting on my blog, as I am sure Jean-Marie would not object:
Statement of Jean-Marie Bukuru
(May 20, 2015)
I am Jean-Marie Bukuru from Burundi. Because of the
current political crisis in Burundi, where I am considered an opponent of the
current President Pierre Nkurunziza, I am seeking assistance to relocate myself
and my family out of Burundi, until the democratic political process is
restored.
My background is in Agricultural Engineering. I have
worked as an official of the Burundian government with various international
development institutions including The World Bank, the European Union and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved with poverty reduction, human
rights, water supply, water productivity, food security, rural infrastructure
development, wetlands management and climate change adaptation projects.
Today I am in the US as a Fulbright scholar and
Hubert Humphrey Fellow, having recently graduated from a one-year professional
development program at Cornell University in Agricultural Economic and Rural
Development.
Officially my Hubert Humphrey Fellowship will be
completed on June 12, 2015 after I finish my professional affiliation at the
Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) and Equity Expansion
International (EEI). I am supposed to return to Burundi to implement the professional
and leadership skills I have learned in the US.
Unfortunately, there is now a political crisis in
Burundi caused by the current president who wants to run for a third term, in
violation of the constitution and Arusha peace accord. He has been the
President of Burundi for the past ten years in two consecutive, five-year terms
from 2005 to 2015.
During his second term, President Nkurunziza has
acquired a widespread reputation for nepotism and corruption, assassination of innocent
people, suppression of free speech and the private media, and establishment of
an authoritarian regime. By seeking to
change the constitution in order to run for a third term, he has provoked
protests by opposition parties and other civil organizations. Using police
acting under his militia name “Imbonerakure,”
the President has recently jailed more than 500 and killed more than 20
peaceful protestors. He has rejected advice not to run for the third term from the
US Government, European Union and African Organization Union.
As a founder of Burundi Sustainable Development,
Agenda 21 (a Burundi non-profit organization opposing all human rights
violations, corruption, lack of leadership and bad governance), I fear for my
life if I go back now to Burundi, because I am considered part of the opposition
to the current President.
I have been a political target since 2011, when I
fled Burundi and became a refugee for 2 years in Sweden. At that time I was a
Technical Advisor and Committee Member in charge of the Nile River Initiative
Program for Burundi. I was responsible for negotiating a new Cooperative Framework
Agreement (CFA) on the Nile River. The purpose of the new CFA was to create a
program which authorizes all countries sharing the Nile River to develop rational
use water programs for the benefit of all member countries including Burundi, Egypt,
Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC).
On May 14, 2010 Egypt and Sudan (“downstream”
countries) refused to sign the new agreement, and tried to influence other
“upstream” countries like Burundi and DRC by bribing officials of those
countries not to sign the agreement. The result of this would have been to deny
the right of upstream countries to develop their own irrigation and
hydroelectric systems connected to the Nile River.
In January 2011, I convinced the protocol chief of
the current President of Burundi who persuaded the President to join other
countries in signing the CFA. Because I didn’t support the high-level Burundian
officials who had been bribed by members of the Egyptian government (under
former President Mubarek), these corrupt Burundian officials accused me of
acting against the institution of the Burundian Presidency. One colonel named
Leonard Ngendakumana, a former Director of Burundi’s Intelligence Agency, threatened
me with imprisonment. I decided to seek asylum in August 2011 and lived in
Sweden for two years.
In January 2013, I decided to go back home because
the current President invited all Burundian refugees to return home, following
his promise to the international community that he would establish peace and
human rights, and that no returning refugee would be mistreated. But when I
arrived in Burundi, the Minister of Water, Environment, Land Management and
Urban Affairs refused to let me return to an appropriate professional position,
even though I had brought home new skills in urban and land use and environmental
planning.
I was sent by the Government to work in the countryside
near the Tanzanian border. I was given an office without a chair, desk,
computer or telephone, to make it clear to me that I would not have essential
resources to perform my responsibilities, and that I should quit my work. Instead,
I decided to create the “Burundi Sustainable Development, Agenda 21,” a national
association dealing with human rights protection, fighting corruption,
evaluating projects and programs affecting the Burundi community, training
people in leadership and good governance, empowering thinking for change, and promoting
broad-based ownership opportunities among people who want to be the pioneers of
market-based economic democracy in Burundi.
Our Association, which operates with an
all-volunteer staff, received its authorization signed by the Ministry of
Interior Affairs on June 14, 2013. This was at the same time I was applying to
the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program for 2014-2015. I was selected among 176 qualified candidates
out of 3,500 applicants from all over the world who applied to this competitive
program.
Today I am a Fulbright scholar and Hubert H.
Humphrey fellow in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development. I am seeking
help so that I can provide leadership and exercise my professional skills
within my country and other countries in Africa. Additionally, I need to be
able to support myself and my family outside of Burundi, until I can return to
my country to implement the knowledge and skills I have gained in the US from Cornell
University and other institutions of learning.
Jean-Marie Bukuru, CESJ Research Fellow
Center
for Economic and Social Justice
4318
North 31st Street, Arlington Virginia 22207
Tel:
540-449-9067
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