A soldier walks away from protesters as they clash with riot police against the decision made by Burundi's ruling party to allow President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third five-year term in office, in the capital Bujumbura, on Monday. — Reuters
BUJUMBURA — Police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters in Burundi's capital on Monday, the second day of demonstrations against the president's decision to run for a third term, a move critics say violates the constitution.
“The fight continues,” crowds chanted as about 200 people gathered in Bujumbura's Musaga district. Protesters massed in other parts of the city and tyres burned in the streets.
Activists said at least five people were killed on Sunday, a day after President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would run in the June 26 election, triggering unrest in the east African nation that emerged from an ethnically fueled civil war in 2005.
The police had no immediate comment on any casualties.
Activists say Nkurunziza broke the constitution and the Arusha peace agreement that ended the civil war, both documents which limit the president to two five-year terms.
Nkurunziza's supporters say his first term does not count as he was picked by lawmakers, not elected.
Tensions in Burundi have sent thousands of people fleeing across the border to Rwanda and created fresh turmoil in a region where other presidents, such as Joseph Kabila in Democratic Republic of Congo, are nearing presidential term limits.
Prominent activist Pierre Claver Mbonimpa said at least five people were killed in the capital on Sunday, three of them in protests and two more in an attack by the ruling party's Imbonerakure youth wing.
The ruling CNDD-FDD party has repeatedly denied charges its youth wing is armed and trying to cause violence. The head of police was expected to hold a news conference later in the day.
A Reuters witness said the army had been deployed on the streets and now outnumbered police. Activists, who also reported the army deployment, said this could help calm the situation because the army was widely seen as a more neutral force.
“The military are aware that we are going to hold protests, but have warned us that they should remain peaceful and that's all we are asking for,” activist Mbonimpa said by telephone.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to try and break up crowds in another location.
Diplomats and opponents say the police are seen as more aligned to the ruling party, a charge the party denies.
One army officer was seen stopping police firing tear gas, a Reuters witness said. “Don't use violence. If anything worse happens, you will be responsible for that,” the military officer was overheard telling a police officer.
African and Western nations had all pressed Nkurunziza not to run again. The US State Department said it was disappointed by the president's decision and said it would take “targeted measures” against anyone instigating or taking part in violence.
Bob Rugurika, another activist and director of private Burundi radio station RPA, said his station and two others had been stopped from broadcasting in the countryside, where much of Nkurunziza's popular support is based.
Rwandan officials said more than 20,000 people had now fled from Burundi to Rwanda, where more than 800,000 mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in a 1994 genocide.
Burundi's civil war pitted the army, then dominated by the ethnic Tutsi minority, against rebel groups mostly made up of majority Hutus, one of them led by Nkurunziza. The army now includes both ethnic groups. — Reuters
