Editor,

RE: "Burundi: The protest that never was” (The New Times, July 26).

The assassination of an innocent lady to win international sympathy and justify your blame-games is amateurish and, to say the least, crude, on the part of the Government of Burundi and its officials.

Burundi is back in the dark days that defined African politics where leaders like Uganda’s Milton Obote and Idi Amin, Rwanda’s Juvenal Habyarimana and Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko played politics of eliminating those who dared to challenge them instead of dealing with challenges that the dissenters present.

This kind of politics is taking Burundi to the "grave”.

Burundi leaders are playing cat-and-mouse games. Opposition leaders who at first place seemed to disassociate with the trend of murdering innocent people now have joined Nkurunziza in his move to bloodbath whoever thinks differently from them because of power.

Their only card that they think could place them at a scorecard is to turn the crisis into ideology — the reason why they are blaming Rwanda and those refugees that this country gave shelter, but not refugees in Tanzania.Only two ways shall salvage Burundians from their murders regime:

One, Burundians must stand up for their rights. International community will never do that for them.

Secondly, Burundi army must act like what Egypt’s military did — by remaining neutral and impartial — to save Burundi from sinking.

Yulian