{There is no doubt that the rhetoric of sovereignty has been employed to hide atrocities and abuse of human rights.}<\/p>\n
Here in Kenya, it has been one of the key points in efforts to deflate the intervention of the International Criminal Court after the 2007\/8 post-election violence, even though the Kenyan state did nothing to investigate and bring to book the perpetrators or undertake any meaningful national healing process.<\/p>\n
Most treaties and other instruments of international law recognise the sovereignty of nation-states.<\/p>\n
In a way, the proclamation of state sovereignty is the foundation of international law.<\/p>\n
However, the tension between morally guided international law principles and realist\/statist oriented notions of sovereignty persist.<\/p>\n
And it is within this tension that the ongoing crisis in Burundi is now pitched.<\/p>\n
As expected, Mr Pierre Nkurunziza has signalled that any deployment of African Union (AU) peacekeepers will go against the sovereignty of his country and amount to interference.<\/p>\n
He has threatened to fight the AU force if it is deployed.<\/p>\n
It is possible of course that Mr Nkurunziza craves an external \u201cenemy\u201d to help galvanise the Burundi population, hence the current rhetoric.<\/p>\n
This is happening at a time when an insurgency against his regime seems to be taking shape and even as killings, especially of young men, blamed on the regime, continue in key Bujumbura suburbs.<\/p>\n
The AU is now faced with the daunting task of deploying peacekeeping troops in a country where the regime has already declared such personnel an invading force.
\n{{
\nLITMUS TEST}}<\/p>\n
How the AU deals with this will determine the future of the vaunted but largely untested mantra of \u201cAfrican solutions to African problems\u201d.<\/p>\n
The dilemma the AU faces is underscored by attempts made last week by Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to reassure the \u201cborn again\u201d Nkurunziza that the AU mission was only aimed at bringing peace to Burundi and not to pursue any \u201cother agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n
The legitimacy of the intervention is anchored in the Constitutive Act, which mandates the AU to intervene in situations such as Burundi\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The power to intervene in the \u201cinternal\u201d affairs of states was indeed a key departure from the former OAU.<\/p>\n
The historic mission of the OAU was decolonisation and safeguarding of African states against aggression within that context.<\/p>\n
Both the Constitutive Act and the Peace and Security Protocol of the AU provide for such intervention.<\/p>\n
Article Four of the Constitutive Act asserts the right of member states to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
These provisions are also borrowed by the Peace and Security Protocol.
\n{{
\nMANDATORY SUCCESS}}<\/p>\n
This should be read together with the provisions of the Non-Aggression and Common Defence Pact of 2005, which commits states to \u201cprohibit and prevent genocide, other forms of mass murder, as well as crimes against humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Peace and Security Council has made various decisions regarding situations of conflict.<\/p>\n
The lessons it has learnt from Darfur, Somalia, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ivory Coast will be important in resolving the current dilemma.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, failing in Burundi is not an option for the AU. <\/p>\n
Source:Daily Nation:[African Union cannot afford to fail in Burundi->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/oped\/Opinion\/African-Union-cannot-afford-to-fail-in-Burundi\/-\/440808\/3017260\/-\/rfrmkd\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{There is no doubt that the rhetoric of sovereignty has been employed to hide atrocities and abuse of human rights.} Here in Kenya, it has been one of the key points in efforts to deflate the intervention of the International Criminal Court after the 2007\/8 post-election violence, even though the Kenyan state did nothing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071212,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/gif","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22230.gif","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22230"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22230"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}