Burundi : it is normal that Burundian soldiers are killed in the DRC (President Neva)

President Neva announced Friday that “the M23 is waging psychological warfare” and affirmed that it is normal for soldiers of the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) to be killed in the DRC “because they signed for that”. He asked civilians “to avoid meddling in the affairs of security forces for fear of ending up with a country without defenders.”

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

The men that the M23 movement showed to the press saying they are captured Burundian soldiers are Red Tabara rebels who joined the M23, the Burundian president said.

These terrorist movements play on psychological warfare to demoralize Burundian people and the Burundian army, announced Friday President Neva who does not deny that certain soldiers refused to go and fight the M23.

“As you know, the DRC is destabilized by several armed groups, we took the decision as the EAC community to go and help them. But this does not exclude bilateral relations. There are mutual defense agreements. “If you don’t help your neighbor put out the fire when his house is burning, tomorrow if it’s your turn, he won’t come to help you. If Burundi is going to help the DRC, it is defending itself because a good war, you wage it before leading it. War is a game of death. If you deny that, you are no longer a soldier. A soldier must put in his mind that he must die for his nation. That’s very normal. You have to sacrifice yourself[….]. We, the military, signed up for that, the opposite amounts to sinning against its ethics”, he said.

And he continued in a very severe tone accusing the journalist who had asked him the question and other civilians who are interested in the question of Burundian soldiers who are dying in North Kivu of “wanting to destabilize and disorient security forces” : “Burundi is helping to fight and eradicate terrorism, we are in Somalia, in the Central African Republic….why don’t you ask questions about that?”

Red Tabara incorporated into the M23?

“In the M23, there are fighters from Red-Tabara, we have seen it. Do you know all Burundians who are not from your province? If they say that they are Burundians it is normal to believe it because they are not whites. This is psychological warfare because they flaunt them and say : see, we captured them, they are defeated. These terrorist movements must say it, do it. If you believe, you can even go crazy”, he added.

The army has its own regulations, there is a soldier that you send for example to keep guard but prefers to go drink beer, he must be punished because the army has regulations. If you are on a mission, the unruly are brought back to order… Whether in Congo, Central African Republic or Somalia, everywhere they are punished… Burundians like rumors, let the security forces keep their secret professional, if civilians get involved, tomorrow we will no longer have people to secure and protect our country. Don’t get involved in this anymore, he concluded.

For several months, there have been reports of Burundian soldiers killed in North Kivu in eastern Congo while fighting the M23, in company with the Congolese army and local militias maintained by the Congolese authorities.

Several Burundian activists and opponents denounced “useless sacrifices in a war that is not ours”.