Dear Editor,

Reference is made to an article published in The New Times of November 20 titled, "Burundi says Belgium behind plot to overthrow president.”

Far be it for me to interject myself in such an interesting tirade from a government that seems to have decided that throwing around accusations like confetti at their bête noir of the day (sorry, rather of the hour), is the epitome of state management and diplomacy.

But I wonder: do they understand that such promiscuity of designating enemies of Burundi anyone who refuses to see things their way will eventually lead to a situation where they are all alone with their demons (to use a term Bible-thumpers like Pierre and Denise Nkurunziza will easily understand)?

Meantime, what sweet irony to see that even that indefatigable friend of theirs—and a notorious denier of the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi—Ntumba Luaba has already seen the writing on the wall and, like the proverbial rat, now wants to jump ship with his organisation to a safer haven in Lusaka?

If any two entities really deserved each other, it is in my view today’s ICGLR and the extremist rump of the CNDD-FDD.

The irreverent Oscar Wilde’s famous put-down of the episode in which his fellow renowned writer and rival, Charles Dickens, writes about the death of Little Nell in his serialised novel, The Old Curiosity Shop, immediately springs to mind: One must have a heart of stone to read the letter from the ICGLR’s Luaba and the acidic response in the communiqué from the Burundian foreign ministry without breaking into uncontrollable laughter!

Mwene Kalinda