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Burundi Students Enter U.S. Embassy as Political Tensions Escalate Burundi Students Enter U.S. Embassy as Political Tensions Escalate
(about 1 hour later)
BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Dozens of Burundi students who had bivouacked outside the walled United States Embassy scrambled into the compound Thursday after the police sought to break up their encampment, escalating the political tensions that have roiled the central African country for months. BUJUMBURA, Burundi — Scores of students crawled under the gates and scaled the walls protecting the United States Embassy complex here on Thursday in a desperate escape from the local police who had moved in to clear their street encampment and clamp down on any antigovernment protests.
News photographs from the scene taken by Agence France-Presse showed the students, who were seeking protection, scooting under the gates of the embassy grounds and clambering over the walls. Efforts to reach embassy staff members were not immediately successful. The police removed the students’ belongings from the encampment area. With United States Marines watching from the rooftop of an embassy building, the Burundi police had little choice but to stand by as about 200 students made it safely to the embassy parking lot, which is regarded as diplomatically protected property beyond the reach of the local authorities.
Roughly 200 students had been camped outside the embassy, part of the resistance in Burundi to plans by President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a third term despite constitutional limits. His plans, first announced in April, touched off protests, a failed coup attempt, nearly 70 deaths and hundreds of injuries. More than 100,000 people have fled to neighboring countries. As night fell, there were conflicting accounts about how many students were still on the embassy property, their precise whereabouts within the complex, and whether they would be given protection. A State Department spokesman in Washington said that about 100 students who had remained left the parking lot peacefully.
On Wednesday, one of Mr. Nkurunziza’s vice presidents, Gervais Rufykiri, left Burundi, the third high-profile government figure to vacate since the president first announced his plans for extending his term. On the street outside the embassy at least some of the students said they had been ordered to leave after being told there was not enough space to accommodate so many people.
“I will go back if the situation improves,” Mr. Rufyikiri, who claimed that he was seeking medical treatment when he left Burundi, told the television channel France 24 on Wednesday. Those who left the embassy grounds wandered in the street with only the clothes they were wearing since the police had seized all their goods from the encampment, including most of their documents.
Mr. Rufyikiri, a member of the governing National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy, had opposed the president’s re-election. The drama playing out at the embassy further escalated an already-tense situation in this impoverished central African nation that is still trying to recover from decades of civil war and ethnic violence.
Ever since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention in April to run for a third term despite constitutional term limits, this country has been rocked by protests, hundreds of people have been arrested, thousands have fled the country and scores have been killed.
A coup attempt failed and the government has forcefully clamped down on all dissent.
One hotbed for opposition was the college campus in the capital, and it was ordered shut down in late April.
For weeks, roughly 500 students have been bivouacked outside the American Embassy, hoping that the proximity to the protected complex would offer some protection.
But on Wednesday, according to one of the student leaders, the police declared at 7 a.m. that they had 24 hours to disperse or else they would be made to move by force.
About 200 students decided to defy the ultimatum.
“I would rather die here in front of the United States Embassy than die on my campus,” one student said.
After the deadline passed on Thursday, dozens of police officers descended on the encampment.
Things quickly turned chaotic, with some students crawling under a gap in the fence in front of the embassy and others clambering over the walls.
The Burundi government and the police could not immediately be reached for comment. But an account of the confrontation on state radio confirmed that police officers had been sent to enforce the ultimatum.
“When the police invaded the premises where those students were accommodated, students ran away and took refuge in the office of the American Embassy,” the account said. “The police took luggage and effects of those students.”
Rodney D. Ford, spokesman for the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department, said in an email that when the police arrived, “the students dispersed from the site in an orderly manner and some entered the Embassy’s visitor parking lot.”
One hundred “peacefully remain in the visitor parking lot of the U.S. Embassy, which is outside of the walls of the Embassy.” Mr. Ford added, “None of the students are in the Embassy compound; the students are located in a parking lot outside the Embassy compound.”
A few hours later, Mr. Ford wrote in an update that “the students have peacefully departed from the Embassy’s visitor parking lot.”
There was more violence across the capital city on Thursday as well, with at least one grenade attack on a local shop. In recent days, four people have been killed and 30 wounded in a wave of grenade attacks, according to the police.
One attack struck a bar in Ngozi, the hometown Mr. Nkurunziza. Eleven police officers were reported wounded in simultaneous grenade attacks in Bujumbura.
“It is clear that all these grenade attacks are related to each other, this is a terror campaign organized by opponents of the president,” Agence France-Presse quoted a senior police officer as saying.
Mr. Nkurunziza’s government was also dealt a political blow when his vice president, Gervais Rufyikiri, who left last week for what he described as medical treatment in Belgium, decided not to return and to vacate his office. He was the third high-profile government figure to step down since the president first announced his plans for extending his term.
“I will go back if the situation improves,” Mr. Rufyikiri told the television channel France 24 on Wednesday.
Mr. Rufyikiri, a member of the governing party, was among those who had opposed the president’s re-election.
Legislative elections are scheduled for Monday, and presidential elections are set for July 15.Legislative elections are scheduled for Monday, and presidential elections are set for July 15.