Monday, August 31, 2015

How the West Lost Burundi

While Western powers were making threats, Russia and China were wooing the country's defiant government. And that should be a wake-up call for countries like the United States.
How the West Lost Burundi
BY CARA JONESORION DONOVAN-SMITH-AUGUST 28, 2015
Last Thursday morning, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza stepped in front of a house of newly elected members of parliament and was sworn in for a third consecutive term. In attendance were the ambassadors of Russia and China. Western diplomats had been informed just that morning that the inauguration, for which an official date had not been set, was to take place, and a few low-level officials managed to make it. Their higher-level counterparts would not have attended anyway.