CLEMENT NKURUNZIZA: "LETTER TO MY CHILDREN CONCERNING MY ARBITRARY DENTENTION"
Clément Nkurunziza
Detained in Ngozi Prison.
Letter to my Children concerning my arbitrary detention.
May 30, 2020
Dear Alain-Tresor Nkurunziza, Christ- Devot Nkurunziza,
Kay - Laura Nkurunziza.
My dear children,
Through this letter, receive my warm greetings from the bottom of my heart. I would like to share with you the reasons I am in prison. I owe you some explanation, you are worth it. You deserve better than the sorrow you are in. The way you are worried about my situation is similar to the manner I keep thinking about your concerns in exile. You and I, we are all victims.
However, regardless of this injustice absorbing our lives and your future, note that my aim is not to sow in you any grain of evil and vengeance. My purpose is to inform you about what you are victim of, urging you to never leave any loophole for revenge. Every bad deed pays off. God will avenge us. I also urge you to never worry about your tomorrow for by God's help you shall overcome all issues that come your way. You only need to keep focused.
I had hesitated and refrained from writing this letter for one major reason:
you were not yet mature enough. I have realized that now you can understand properly every single detail of this struggle. So, I have no reason to conceal what you might hear from others, probably in a twisted form. You deserve original truth from the real and original source.
My dear children, before I go ahead, one piece of advice for you. Never consider negatively any person because he doesn't belong to your race, your ethnic group, your gender, your religion, and your region. I exhort you to judge everybody in accordance with their values. Kindness, generosity, compassion. Those are the values which should characterize you.
Your major question might be : "Why is our Dad detained? Did he commit any crime? What crime is he detained for? When did this happen? Is his case being dealt with equity, fairness, and impartiality?" In the following lines, I invite you to read carefully and you will surely find answers to your questions.
Since I was in junior high school until my time at the University, I was always honored by students who elected me at the position of their leader. Though always happy for being elevated at such a prestigious position within schools and campuses, I was also worried about my exposure to jealousy and hatred. Some evil people have even attempted to assassinate me but I was steadily upheld by the Almighty in heaven, until this day. .
I was not that much idle before bigot and hateful people whose constant plans were to threaten and attack me, to terrorize and dehumanize me.
The survival skills I had adopted were to make peace with all my haters and adversaries. I owe my success to the Almighty for His strength, comfort and protection. I am very grateful. By God's help, all this did not make me shrink a lot. I fell in the enemies' snares, my dreams were turned off since the day I spoke out for fair and equitable justice for all Burundians in June 2013. Had I procrastinated my idea to criticize the government of Burundi in June 2013, I am sure I would not be struggling like this today. But, we all know that people should better die as heroes than as betrayers. Therefore I don't blame myself. I assume that standing for peace and justice for all is not a crime. I have brought my stone aiming to build a peaceful society for all without exception. Did I fail my mission? I don't think so. Those who were targeted by my critics will one day be in my shoes. They march with a thorn in their boot, history should teach them a lesson.
The article written and published in June 2013 (where I criticized the policy of injustice implemented by the National Commission for Lands and other Assets, CNTB) has awakened the cndd/fdd-led government. Instead of trying to address the real issue, they jumped on me, assaulting me with incendiary false accusations. In the wake of the article, I received plenty of anonymous and threatening phone calls, together with some unusual and unexpected visits to my dwelling house in India. Many false and inflammatory accusations were also spread on extremist hutu-led websites (AGNEWS and Nyabusorongo).
My dear children, numerous facts put together made me aware that I was really not safe in India. I had already seen with my own eyes dead bodies of foreigners killed by unidentified people. I knew that murderers were tracking me. I therefore decided to travel to the United States of America with the plan to return to India once advised to. After almost two months in the United States, I have enquired for some tips concerning whether or not I could be safe in Burundi. The tip I got warned me that either Burundi or India were not safe for me. The tip was sufficient in itself because it was from a sure source. This made me fear more than before. I therefore decided to seek asylum in the United States of America, dropping then my Phd project. In obedience to american Immigration Policy, I was given a social security number, an american identity, a driver's licence and a work authorization. I have thereafter worked for two private companies prior to joining a government job (Texas Department of Criminal Justice TDCJ).
Ever since, burundian secret services have hired a group of ultra extremist hutus living in Canada (led by a certain Frédéric Nzeyimana) to share the on-websites false accusations with the US Immigration Services, specifically with the Asylum Office (AO) and the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE). To make their goal achieved, they did seek Amy Belcher's backup. It is said that this woman/lawyer is one of the legal defenders of some suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide against tutsis.
The accusations have later been used by the U.S government prosecutor in Immigration Court. Fortunately, this accusation brought in court by the US government prosecutor has been judged not reliable and therefore could not be used as a persecutor bar in my asylum case. My asylum case denial was founded on some other reasons such as but not limited to inconsistencies about times I worked for the government of Burundi, the time I felt my fear of persecution, the lack of supportive affidavits from my Mom and my minor children. My scholarship granted by the government that I was trying to flee has played the key role in the loss of my asylum case. All these facts brought the judge to conclude that my fear of persecution once denied asylum and returned to Burundi was only a fiction. I was told that I have strong ties with Burundi's government. So, my fear was not credible, the judge concluded.
I can regret that the same judge did not consider country conditions as reported by the US State Department. Numerous highest dignitaries of the regime had fled the country since the time Pierre Nkurunziza expressed his plan to bid the third "illegal" mandate.
This is the real context under which I have been removed from the United States of America. Other stories are mere speculations to justify this calvary. My criminal history had been checked and found clean.
Upon my arrival to Burundi on March 22, 2018, I was immediately arrested without warrant in the face of two ICE agents who had escorted me from Texas, and one American working for BujumburaUS embassy. Was then my fear of persecution not justified? Unbelievable! Since the day of killings in June 1995 until the day of my arrival at Bujumbura on March 22, 2018 ( 23 years) there was no arrest warrant against me. Most awkwardly and awfully against the law, the warrant came up on April 5, 2018 after two weeks struggling in SNR (secret services) jail.
During my two weeks held in jail, they were obviously fabricating false testimonies helping them to build the case. Under such circumstances, on the day of official arrest (April 5, 2018) the prosecutor accused me that back in June 1995 I had actively participated in killings at the University of Burundi. He asserted that at that time, as the President of students' community, I had ordered other tutsi students to kill some hutu students.
I have explained with evidence that two months earlier, I had been replaced by a certain HABARUGIRA Gaspard and some other members of his committee. My committee and I had left in the very beginning of April 1995. During the time of my mandate, no bloodshed within any campus regardless of the permanent tense climate. Along withUniversity authorities, we had adopted some security measures.The disaster occurred while I was no longer students' leader. For whatever has happened, people to be investigated should be the security forces then assigned on campus, the authorities, and the then students' leaders who had reported the tense climate reigning within Mutanga Campus in the wake of an attack that had happened at Lycée du Saint-Esprit the same day. Two youth gangs had met in an armed confrontation while in a party (kermes). Alain Nyamitwe (recently Minister of Foreigner Affairs and Cooperation) was one of the suspects. He was immediately arrested and put in jail. He was one of GEDEBU leaders, opposed to " Sans Echec" gang. GEDEBU represented hutu urban youth with its support from the then ruling party FRODEBU which fathered the current Cndd-Fdd, whereas Sans Echec was made of some young tutsis born and raised in the city of Bujumbura. I could not belong to any group of them. I was neither hutu, nor I was an urban young boy. I was born and raised in countryside.
My dear children, after plotters of this incendiary accusation have seen that they had fabricated unhelpful proof of evidence (my being students' leader), they have ordered the prosecutor to come up with another senseless, inappropriate, and inaccurate accusation. He shifted from participating in killings to conceiving killings during the time of my mandate as students' leader. For recall, killings occurred more than two months after I had finished my tenure. So, I had no role to play. I couldn't monitor, counsel, and alert. I had done all this during my mandate, and it had worked.
I cannot comprehend why as a simple student (convalescent anyway) I should be held responsible and locked up for a crime perpetrated by others. In this case, I am only a scapegoat where only bigotry, hatred, and political propaganda prevail . They hate me because of my opinions published in June 2013, they also hate me because of my commitment and determination to speak out whenever there is breach of Law and human rights. And I am not alone. You all know how many citizens have died. You also know how many have escaped and fled to other countries since 2015 especially. In my 2013 article, I had somehow predicted such a situation. People did not believe me, perhaps.
My dear children, I am sure that my jailers know that I am innocent in this case. And their goal is not to find out the real criminals. Their objective is to blacken my name, to eliminate me, to make you suffer the lack of my support. In brief it is all about hatred and bigotry.
Hatred and bigotry grounded on ethnic origins is a stupid thing that can deceive unwise people. Since hutu-led parties began to control the political power, hutu and tutsi masses keep living under the threshold of development. Hutus are not exempt. They share the same struggle with their neighboring tutsis. Everybody should change the mindset for a better understanding. The enemy of hutus is not a tutsi and vice-versa.
Hutu populations are not spared when it comes to assassinate political opponents.
How many hutus have been assassinated by the hutu-led regime? How many hutus have fled the hutu-led regime since 2015, now struggling in refugees camps in Tanzania, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and somewhere else? How many hutus are assaulted by the militia Imbonerakure on a daily basis? How many hutus are in jails only for political reasons? But when it comes to deceive the opinion, the ruling party assumes to stand for hutu welfare.
My dear children, if something worse happens to me, remember that I am the victim of my opinions. I keep standing for justice and peace for everybody, regardless of their ethnic and regional origins. Anyway, it is due to such opinions that I have always been elected by students to lead them (high school and university). It is also due to my opinions I have never established any good friendship with any political regime. I hope you will keep the same values, no matter what I am undergoing. Every deed on this planet pays off. Be rewarded for good deeds, never for evil deeds. By doing so, you will be honoring my name wherever I will be. Never give up. May my struggle build your strong personality for ever. Be courageous. Be committed to positive values of humanity. Avoid bigotry and hatred wherever they come from. This will make you outstanding individuals that the whole humanity needs. Evil people are the enemies of humanity. I am sure you will not be part of them. Make me proud of you. It will be the best comfort from you.
In case I am no longer, approach the family for ample details. You all feel the same pain.
May God Almighty protect you. Wish you all a long and prosperous life.
With blessings and love.
Your Dad
Clement Nkurunziza.
Detained in Ngozi Prison.
Letter to my Children concerning my arbitrary detention.
May 30, 2020
Dear Alain-Tresor Nkurunziza, Christ- Devot Nkurunziza,
Kay - Laura Nkurunziza.
My dear children,
Through this letter, receive my warm greetings from the bottom of my heart. I would like to share with you the reasons I am in prison. I owe you some explanation, you are worth it. You deserve better than the sorrow you are in. The way you are worried about my situation is similar to the manner I keep thinking about your concerns in exile. You and I, we are all victims.
However, regardless of this injustice absorbing our lives and your future, note that my aim is not to sow in you any grain of evil and vengeance. My purpose is to inform you about what you are victim of, urging you to never leave any loophole for revenge. Every bad deed pays off. God will avenge us. I also urge you to never worry about your tomorrow for by God's help you shall overcome all issues that come your way. You only need to keep focused.
I had hesitated and refrained from writing this letter for one major reason:
you were not yet mature enough. I have realized that now you can understand properly every single detail of this struggle. So, I have no reason to conceal what you might hear from others, probably in a twisted form. You deserve original truth from the real and original source.
My dear children, before I go ahead, one piece of advice for you. Never consider negatively any person because he doesn't belong to your race, your ethnic group, your gender, your religion, and your region. I exhort you to judge everybody in accordance with their values. Kindness, generosity, compassion. Those are the values which should characterize you.
Your major question might be : "Why is our Dad detained? Did he commit any crime? What crime is he detained for? When did this happen? Is his case being dealt with equity, fairness, and impartiality?" In the following lines, I invite you to read carefully and you will surely find answers to your questions.
Since I was in junior high school until my time at the University, I was always honored by students who elected me at the position of their leader. Though always happy for being elevated at such a prestigious position within schools and campuses, I was also worried about my exposure to jealousy and hatred. Some evil people have even attempted to assassinate me but I was steadily upheld by the Almighty in heaven, until this day. .
I was not that much idle before bigot and hateful people whose constant plans were to threaten and attack me, to terrorize and dehumanize me.
The survival skills I had adopted were to make peace with all my haters and adversaries. I owe my success to the Almighty for His strength, comfort and protection. I am very grateful. By God's help, all this did not make me shrink a lot. I fell in the enemies' snares, my dreams were turned off since the day I spoke out for fair and equitable justice for all Burundians in June 2013. Had I procrastinated my idea to criticize the government of Burundi in June 2013, I am sure I would not be struggling like this today. But, we all know that people should better die as heroes than as betrayers. Therefore I don't blame myself. I assume that standing for peace and justice for all is not a crime. I have brought my stone aiming to build a peaceful society for all without exception. Did I fail my mission? I don't think so. Those who were targeted by my critics will one day be in my shoes. They march with a thorn in their boot, history should teach them a lesson.
The article written and published in June 2013 (where I criticized the policy of injustice implemented by the National Commission for Lands and other Assets, CNTB) has awakened the cndd/fdd-led government. Instead of trying to address the real issue, they jumped on me, assaulting me with incendiary false accusations. In the wake of the article, I received plenty of anonymous and threatening phone calls, together with some unusual and unexpected visits to my dwelling house in India. Many false and inflammatory accusations were also spread on extremist hutu-led websites (AGNEWS and Nyabusorongo).
My dear children, numerous facts put together made me aware that I was really not safe in India. I had already seen with my own eyes dead bodies of foreigners killed by unidentified people. I knew that murderers were tracking me. I therefore decided to travel to the United States of America with the plan to return to India once advised to. After almost two months in the United States, I have enquired for some tips concerning whether or not I could be safe in Burundi. The tip I got warned me that either Burundi or India were not safe for me. The tip was sufficient in itself because it was from a sure source. This made me fear more than before. I therefore decided to seek asylum in the United States of America, dropping then my Phd project. In obedience to american Immigration Policy, I was given a social security number, an american identity, a driver's licence and a work authorization. I have thereafter worked for two private companies prior to joining a government job (Texas Department of Criminal Justice TDCJ).
Ever since, burundian secret services have hired a group of ultra extremist hutus living in Canada (led by a certain Frédéric Nzeyimana) to share the on-websites false accusations with the US Immigration Services, specifically with the Asylum Office (AO) and the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE). To make their goal achieved, they did seek Amy Belcher's backup. It is said that this woman/lawyer is one of the legal defenders of some suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide against tutsis.
The accusations have later been used by the U.S government prosecutor in Immigration Court. Fortunately, this accusation brought in court by the US government prosecutor has been judged not reliable and therefore could not be used as a persecutor bar in my asylum case. My asylum case denial was founded on some other reasons such as but not limited to inconsistencies about times I worked for the government of Burundi, the time I felt my fear of persecution, the lack of supportive affidavits from my Mom and my minor children. My scholarship granted by the government that I was trying to flee has played the key role in the loss of my asylum case. All these facts brought the judge to conclude that my fear of persecution once denied asylum and returned to Burundi was only a fiction. I was told that I have strong ties with Burundi's government. So, my fear was not credible, the judge concluded.
I can regret that the same judge did not consider country conditions as reported by the US State Department. Numerous highest dignitaries of the regime had fled the country since the time Pierre Nkurunziza expressed his plan to bid the third "illegal" mandate.
This is the real context under which I have been removed from the United States of America. Other stories are mere speculations to justify this calvary. My criminal history had been checked and found clean.
Upon my arrival to Burundi on March 22, 2018, I was immediately arrested without warrant in the face of two ICE agents who had escorted me from Texas, and one American working for BujumburaUS embassy. Was then my fear of persecution not justified? Unbelievable! Since the day of killings in June 1995 until the day of my arrival at Bujumbura on March 22, 2018 ( 23 years) there was no arrest warrant against me. Most awkwardly and awfully against the law, the warrant came up on April 5, 2018 after two weeks struggling in SNR (secret services) jail.
During my two weeks held in jail, they were obviously fabricating false testimonies helping them to build the case. Under such circumstances, on the day of official arrest (April 5, 2018) the prosecutor accused me that back in June 1995 I had actively participated in killings at the University of Burundi. He asserted that at that time, as the President of students' community, I had ordered other tutsi students to kill some hutu students.
I have explained with evidence that two months earlier, I had been replaced by a certain HABARUGIRA Gaspard and some other members of his committee. My committee and I had left in the very beginning of April 1995. During the time of my mandate, no bloodshed within any campus regardless of the permanent tense climate. Along withUniversity authorities, we had adopted some security measures.The disaster occurred while I was no longer students' leader. For whatever has happened, people to be investigated should be the security forces then assigned on campus, the authorities, and the then students' leaders who had reported the tense climate reigning within Mutanga Campus in the wake of an attack that had happened at Lycée du Saint-Esprit the same day. Two youth gangs had met in an armed confrontation while in a party (kermes). Alain Nyamitwe (recently Minister of Foreigner Affairs and Cooperation) was one of the suspects. He was immediately arrested and put in jail. He was one of GEDEBU leaders, opposed to " Sans Echec" gang. GEDEBU represented hutu urban youth with its support from the then ruling party FRODEBU which fathered the current Cndd-Fdd, whereas Sans Echec was made of some young tutsis born and raised in the city of Bujumbura. I could not belong to any group of them. I was neither hutu, nor I was an urban young boy. I was born and raised in countryside.
My dear children, after plotters of this incendiary accusation have seen that they had fabricated unhelpful proof of evidence (my being students' leader), they have ordered the prosecutor to come up with another senseless, inappropriate, and inaccurate accusation. He shifted from participating in killings to conceiving killings during the time of my mandate as students' leader. For recall, killings occurred more than two months after I had finished my tenure. So, I had no role to play. I couldn't monitor, counsel, and alert. I had done all this during my mandate, and it had worked.
I cannot comprehend why as a simple student (convalescent anyway) I should be held responsible and locked up for a crime perpetrated by others. In this case, I am only a scapegoat where only bigotry, hatred, and political propaganda prevail . They hate me because of my opinions published in June 2013, they also hate me because of my commitment and determination to speak out whenever there is breach of Law and human rights. And I am not alone. You all know how many citizens have died. You also know how many have escaped and fled to other countries since 2015 especially. In my 2013 article, I had somehow predicted such a situation. People did not believe me, perhaps.
My dear children, I am sure that my jailers know that I am innocent in this case. And their goal is not to find out the real criminals. Their objective is to blacken my name, to eliminate me, to make you suffer the lack of my support. In brief it is all about hatred and bigotry.
Hatred and bigotry grounded on ethnic origins is a stupid thing that can deceive unwise people. Since hutu-led parties began to control the political power, hutu and tutsi masses keep living under the threshold of development. Hutus are not exempt. They share the same struggle with their neighboring tutsis. Everybody should change the mindset for a better understanding. The enemy of hutus is not a tutsi and vice-versa.
Hutu populations are not spared when it comes to assassinate political opponents.
How many hutus have been assassinated by the hutu-led regime? How many hutus have fled the hutu-led regime since 2015, now struggling in refugees camps in Tanzania, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and somewhere else? How many hutus are assaulted by the militia Imbonerakure on a daily basis? How many hutus are in jails only for political reasons? But when it comes to deceive the opinion, the ruling party assumes to stand for hutu welfare.
My dear children, if something worse happens to me, remember that I am the victim of my opinions. I keep standing for justice and peace for everybody, regardless of their ethnic and regional origins. Anyway, it is due to such opinions that I have always been elected by students to lead them (high school and university). It is also due to my opinions I have never established any good friendship with any political regime. I hope you will keep the same values, no matter what I am undergoing. Every deed on this planet pays off. Be rewarded for good deeds, never for evil deeds. By doing so, you will be honoring my name wherever I will be. Never give up. May my struggle build your strong personality for ever. Be courageous. Be committed to positive values of humanity. Avoid bigotry and hatred wherever they come from. This will make you outstanding individuals that the whole humanity needs. Evil people are the enemies of humanity. I am sure you will not be part of them. Make me proud of you. It will be the best comfort from you.
In case I am no longer, approach the family for ample details. You all feel the same pain.
May God Almighty protect you. Wish you all a long and prosperous life.
With blessings and love.
Your Dad
Clement Nkurunziza.