"Old wine in new bottles remains old"

Burundi, human rights, Current Affairs, Politics, Africa

The Nation (Nairobi) - "Complex Burundi a Tall Order for Annan"

The current arrangement bans Mr Buyoya and Mr Ndayizeye from seeking the presidency. That's not enough. Nazi trials in Nuremberg and similar ones in Tokyo at the end of World War II weeded out some dangerous characters in Germany and Japan. Those countries aren't they way they are solely because of that. They aren't hurting either.

There's nothing to stop rotten apples from Burundi's past from sneaking into the new arrangement. There's nothing to stop them from entrenching themselves in it or even wrecking it. These are extreme scenarios, but possible. Some very shrewd characters live in Burundi.

The United Nations turned a deaf year to pleas for an international judicial commission of inquiry before elections. It's unfortunate. At least such an inquiry would have identified political undesirables. Hopefully, they would have been prevented from infiltrating the new system.

After all, old wine in new bottles remains old - if poisonous, still so.

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