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DE RUEHJB #0574 2281456
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P 161456Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUJUMBURA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0489
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C O N F I D E N T I A L BUJUMBURA 000574 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2017/08/16 
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL BY
SUBJECT: BURUNDI PRESIDENT BEING ADVISED BY HIGH-LEVEL 
MILITARY QUARTET 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Patricia Moller for reasons 1.4b and d. 
 
¶1.  (C)  Members of Burundi's political and civil society are 
consistently suggesting that President Pierre Nkurunziza is 
being manipulated by a small group of advisors who are 
strongly connected to the military wing of Nkurunziza's 
ruling CNDD-FDD party.  Embassy officers have been told by 
well-connected contacts that this group includes Evariste 
Ndayishimiye, the Minister of the Interior; Adolphe 
Nshimirimana, the head of Burundi's National Intelligence 
Services (SNR); Godefroid Niyombare, the Deputy Army Chief of 
Staff; and Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, the Director General of 
the National Police.  The current political malaise which 
threatens Burundi's economic and social stability, and is 
said by political observers to be exacerbated by Nkurunziza's 
complacency, is partially blamed on the 'bad' advice being 
imposed upon the Burundi leader by these men.  Neither the 
motive for their counsel nor Nkurunziza's reasons for 
allegiance to this group are known at this time. 
 
¶2.  (C)  Brigadier General Ndayishimiye joined the CNDD-FDD 
rebel movement in 1995.  He has held many influential 
positions within the CNDD-FDD movement as the leader of the 
CNDD-FDD commission that negotiated the cease-fire and 
power-sharing agreement in 2006, and lead the CNDD-FDD 
delegation to the Joint Cease-fire Commission.  Ndayishimiye 
was appointed Minister of the Interior on March 17, 2006 
after previously holding the position of Procurement and 
Logistics Officer at the headquarters of the Burundian 
Defense Force. 
 
¶3.  (C)  Nshimirimana went into the bush as a rebel after the 
1993 assassination of former President Ndadaye.  Between 1995 
and 2001 Nshimirimana served as the chief of staff of the FDD 
rebels.  He emerged from the bush in 2003 and was appointed 
Deputy Army Chief of Staff with the rank of Brigadier 
General.  Nshimirimana was named to lead the SNR on August 
29, 2005. 
 
¶4.  (C)  Major General Niyombare was appointed the Deputy 
Army Chief of Staff on September 1, 2005. 
 
¶5.  (C)  Bunyoni was a member of the FDD rebels and was 
appointed Director of Military Soil and Infrastructure in 
April 2005.  He was appointed to his present position as the 
head of the national police in January 2006.  He holds the 
rank of Brigadier General. 
MOLLER