Bw. Mohamed Rukara

BUJUMBURA - The official tasked with overseeing the way Burundi's state institutions are run, Mohamed Rukara, has received death threats because of his attempts to fight graft, his spokesman told state media Thursday.
"Corrupt people, criminals have made intimidating statements" against the mediator who has spoken of "people determined to kill him," the spokesman Jerome Ndiho said, refusing to elaborate on who had made the threats.
However, sources told AFP that Rukara had a row with a top security services official who made the threats.
Rukara, who was appointed in November 2010 and who is one of the top officials in the ruling party, met with Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza Thursday over the threats, the presidency said.
The role of the ombudsman is to mediate between individuals and state institutions and to oversee the management -- including finances -- of those institutions.
Ndiho said Rukara would not allow himself to be blackmailed and that he would continue to "defend human rights and fight corruption.
Rukara also said that in the event of his death an autopsy should be done on the body.
In 2009 a prominent anti-corruption activist, Ernest Manirumva, was murdered at his home in what had the hallmarks of a targeted political killing.
On Wednesday Stephane De Loeker, the head of the European Union delegation in Bujumbura, said the EU would continue aid to Burundi but warned that corruption has taken hold in the central African country.
In 2011 Burundi was ranked among the ten most corrupt countries worldwide by the watchdog Transparency International in spite of the "zero tolerance" policy proclaimed by Nkurunziza