Sanctions mooted for Burundi atrocities
BUJUMBURA: More than 10 international and local NGOs have urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to impose targeted sanctions against officials responsible for gross human rights violations committed in Burundi.
They include Human Rights Watch, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and Atrocities Watch – Africa.
In a letter to the UNSC on Wednesday, they said “some intelligence, army and police agents helped by Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the presidential party, have been killing, torturing and beating innocent people including those fleeing to the neighbouring countries, with impunity”.
Without giving the names of the authors of the crimes, the organisations pointed out that some of the persons from the targeted categories “had up to now kept committing the gross human rights violations”.
The proposed sanctions could include “a ban on travel and the freezing of assets”. They believed this could prevent worse from happening in Burundi.
The deep concern expressed by those organisations is also shared by Adam Dieng, the UN secretary-general’s special adviser for the prevention of genocide.
Whereas some experts believe the inter-Burundian conflict is of low intensity, Dieng, in a letter to the Security Council, warned against “the risks of massive violence if nothing is done”.
“Prospects for peace and security have declined since November 2015,” he pointed out, adding that he was “deeply concerned by the fact that the peace talks to address the crisis were at a standstill”.
He urged the Security Council to take action.
But the letter seems to have appalled Burundian officials who say: “Burundi has gained peace and stability.”
Willy Nyamitwe, the senior adviser to the president in charge of media and communication, said: “Adam Dieng visited Burundi in April 2014 and found no risk of genocide. The new move is politically motivated.”
The Burundian ambassador to the UN Albert Shingiro also qualified what was going on as “disproportionate and diplomatic harassment for regime change in Burundi”.
Last week, several thousands protesters reputed to be close to the ruling party demonstrated in Bujumbura against the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, accusing him of “trying to set up a transitional government”.
Guterres had expressed his deep concern about the Burundian president’s moves to change the constitution in order to run for a fourth term. He, like his special adviser for the prevention of genocide, had also said this “could risk intensifying the crisis”.
The east African nation is one of the poorest in the world.