Author Archive
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Next up: Legslative Elections
A quick update before the legislative elections tomorrow. The main opposition leader, Agathon Rwasa, is still in hiding. Grenade attacks have generally decreased over the past week, but there has been a high level of concern about attacks from al-Shabab, who promised to make Burundi suffer for contributing troops to the peacekeeping force in Somalia [...]
No Comments » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Burundi Presidential Elections: Where’s the Dialogue?
On Tuesday I came back to the capital from having observed the elections in Gitega, the second biggest city in the center of the country. We're busy writing up a report on our observations, which I will share later, so for the moment I will withhold comments about whether irregularities were observed, but I have [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
Ntivyoroshe: It’s not easygoing here
So a lot of news here lately, starting over the weekend with 11 grenade attacks centered around various parts of the capital, and a few more in the past few days. In general, these had no single clearly discernible political or ethnic target, and for example, two recent attacks in Gihosha were committed in one [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Was there an election?
Since my last post, there's been a fair amount of news surrounding the communal elections. When the preliminary results were announced, a group of eight, and then 13 opposition political parties dismissed the election as a fraud, called for new elections, and for a new independent electoral commission. The basis of their complaint was a [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Burundian Elections Begin
I arrived in Burundi six days ago, just in time to be around for the communal or “district” elections which took place yesterday, the first in a series that will take place over the summer and into September. They were originally scheduled three days earlier, but delays in distributing the elector cards and problems [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
Winter Update – Good News
So as I trudge back and forth through the snow, it’s easy to feel a long way from the summery paradise of East Africa. But it hasn’t escaped my mind, by any means. I’m developing plans to return this summer to Burundi to continue to help out as I can with HROC projects and observe [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Goats for Peace
Just a quick note, since things here are a bit overwhelming as I try to fit in everything before I head back to the US to start an M.A. in Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute at Notre Dame this fall. I plan to be back here in Burundi next summer though, and I’ll keep [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
DRC: Uvira and Abeka
As I mentioned before, I spent most of last week on the other side of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), specifically in the city of Uvira, and then briefly in a small town about 25 km south of there called Abeka.
The province of South Kivu had a difficult time during [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Smile and Wave
This past week I traveled first up to central Burundi on Monday and Tuesday to work on the goat project, including to Ruyigi province in the northeast, which I have never been to before. Then for five days I traveled the other side of Lake Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in All Quiet on the Quaker Front by andrewdasein
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
One Year in Burundi
I’ve been upcountry – in central Burundi – for the last couple days meeting with three groups of 60 people who will be taking part in a goat project for a grant I wrote a while back. Like any good change of scenery, this has been a chance to reflect, in this case on the [...]
