REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BUJUMBURA -- Special envoys of the East African Community (EAC) Wednesday invited Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza to attend an EAC heads of state emergency summit on Burundi due on May 13 in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania.
"We came here (to Burundi) to invite him (President Pierre Nkurunziza) and convince him to attend an emergency summit on Burundi that will be held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on May 13, and he agreed," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told reporters after meeting Nkurunziza on Wednesday afternoon.
The envoys are ministers in charge of foreign affairs in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
Membe indicated that the Ugandan minister in charge of foreign affairs could not come to Burundi as he had been assigned other duties.
According to Membe, the special envoys' visit is a fact-finding mission aimed to gather "as much factual information as possible" for a good preparation of the emergency summit on Burundi.
"Now that the constitutional court has issued a ruling, we came to get a reassurance that violence is no longer tolerated, and to seek assurance that elections will be free, peaceful and fair," Membe said.
He indicated that Nkurunziza has been trying to reassure them in their meeting, adding that they look forward to the summit where EAC heads of state will look at ways of repatriating at least 20,000 asylum seekers and ways of reducing violence and ways of creating confidence among people.
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said that the envoys are also expected to meet leaders of political parties in Burundi.
Several neighborhoods in the east African country's capital Bujumbura have been rocked, since April 26, by protests against Nkurunziza's third term.
At least 13 persons were killed amid protests convened by the opposition and the civil society, according to Chairman of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees Rights in Burundi (APRODH) Pierre Claver Mbonimpa.
Nkurunziza was, on April 25, elected by his party, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), in an extraordinary congress, to represent the party in the upcoming presidential election.
Earlier, the opposition and the civil society had called for mass protests if the country's ruling party nominates Nkurunziza to run a third term, which, they say, would be a violation of the country's constitution and the 2000 Arusha Agreement on Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi.
The constitution and the Arusha Agreement stipulate that a president of Burundi cannot serve the country for more than two terms.
On Tuesday, however, the Burundian constitutional court endorsed the candidacy of Nkurunziza to the upcoming presidential election.
Nkurunziza was elected by parliament in 2005 and directly re- elected by citizens in 2010.
Burundi is this year to hold general elections between May 26 and August 24, with the presidential election to be held on June 26.
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