Burundi: the world must step in
What future for a divided country on the brink of genocide?
AS BURUNDIAN President Pierre Nkurunziza uses the rhetoric of defending the Hutu majority as being persecuted by oppressive Tutsis, the seeds of genocide are being planted. As bodies are dumped in the streets and violence reigns, what will it take for the international community to intervene in Burundi, asks the Inter national Federation for Human Rights.
In October 2016, the Burundian authorities took the extreme step of suspending co-operation with the UN and withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
At the same time, the government systematically repressed its population and committed crimes of the most serious nature.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Burundian League of Human Rights (Iteka) gathered evidence for a crucial report drawn up over 24 months, using the findings of investigative missions and permanent monitoring.
A year and a half after the outbreak of a violent political crisis in Burundi, when large popular protests broke out against the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term, the report seeks to explain the political and human rights situation.
Is this a political or an ethnic conflict? What crimes are being committed? Who are the perpetrators? Is Burundi really on the brink of genocide? What does the future hold for this country, after emerging from a decade of civil war, in which 300 000 people were killed?
The crisis has been characterised by the bloody crackdown by authorities. In response to this state-sponsored violence, ar med rebel groups have conducted attacks and targeted killings, fuelling the cycle of violence.
The crackdown by the security services and the Imbonerakure – the youth wing of the ruling party, whose members act as its proxy – aims primarily to retain power by any means.
To date, the human toll is more than 1 000 dead, 8 000 detained on political grounds, 300 to 800 people missing, hundreds tortured, hundreds of women victims of sexual violence, and thousands subjected to arbitrary arrest. These abuses have already forced more than 310 000 people to flee the country.
Initially, the authorities targeted protesters and opponents of the ruling party, and then, progressively, those considered hostile to the established power: youth, political opponents, journalists, members of civil society, and ordinary citizens.
Police would fire into crowds, raid neighbourhoods and perform executions. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ latest figures, torture became systematic, mostly at the hands of the National Intelligence Service. Secret detention facilities multi- plied.
Bodies were abandoned in the streets. Many people went missing. Several mass graves have been identified in the capital, Bujumbura, and its surroundings. This repression triggered a reaction from human rights organisations, and so, starting in January, the regime changed its modus operandi, concealing bodies in cemeteries, and muzzling the press and NGOs.
Government repressive units have been largely purged of all those Tutsi and Hutu “who cannot see things through”, according to a well-placed Burundian informant.
The Imbonerakure – the ruling party’s youth wing, considered a militia by the UN – are meanwhile continuing to be trained, armed and mobilised throughout the country.
They arrest, torture, commit extrajudicial executions and disseminate the pro-Hutu ideology of the ruling party.
At the same time, armed groups of the opposition – the Republican Forces of Burundi and the Resistance for the Rule of Law or the Red Tabara – have responded to this state-sponsored violence with their own attacks and killings.
Calling into question the Arusha Accords – a set of five protocols signed in Arusha, Tanzania in 1993, by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front, under mediation, to end the threeyear Rwandan Civil War – to justify a third term, Nkurunziza uses the classic rhetoric of defending the Hutu majority as being persecuted and threatened by the risk of the return of an oppressive Tutsi military. Thus, the seeds of a genocidal logic have been planted.
Crimes against humanity are being committed in Burundi today, documented in the report, using the country’s history to justify systematic repression. Thus, the mass killings – labelled by some as the Hutu genocide – committed in 1972 justify preventive measures for protecting the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority.
Evidence in this report indicates the willingness of authorities to make Tutsi leaders responsible for contesting power, which is “legit- imate” since Hutus are the major ethnic group. This is expressed in the speeches of senior Burundian dignitaries who increasingly and brazenly denounce “Tutsis” as enemies of the regime. Such rhetoric is used by members of the defence and security forces, the SNR, the Imbonerakure and the ruling party, all of whom support Nkurunziza.
Many victims told the FIDH and Iteka they were arrested and/ or tortured after indicating they were Tutsi. The use of terms such as “cleaning out”, “crushing”or “exter minating” by government forces or their proxy indicate the explicit intent to destroy.
In October, in less than a week, the Burundian authorities took a series of dramatic actions demonstrating the radicalised nature of the regime: the denouncing of a damning UN report on human rights; declaring three UN experts and the AU personae non gratae; suspending co-operation with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; withdrawing from the ICC, and suspending five Burundian organisations defending human rights, including Iteka.
Any reaction of armed opposition groups or neighbouring countries – in particular, Rwanda – to ensure the protection of Burundians could signal mass murder, genocide or a new and deadly civil war.
This reaction from the Burundian authorities comes after more than a year of attempts by the AU, the UN and the international community to urge the government and the opposition to participate in political dialogue, which is now stalled. Mediators have been unable to soften the government’s position.
Despite this, positive measures have been adopted by the EU and countries such as the US, Belgium and France.
The AU sent a commission of inquiry to Burundi and made a list of sanctionable individuals, which has not been made public. It also sent just under 70 military and human rights observers, who cannot operate on the ground.
The situation seems to be blocked, while the country has but limited strategic interest for powerful countries, and there are currently a multitude of crises in Central Africa.
Nkurunziza is equally counting on the passivity of some African leaders who are reluctant to denounce authoritarianism in Burundi, since they employ similar tactics to retain power in their own countries. For many observers, only a blatantly visible catastrophe will lead the international community to intervene in Burundi, with the AU at the forefront.
Remember that the AU failed earlier this year to send in an African peacekeeping force comprising 5 000 soldiers, nor was the UN able to send in a police force of 228 men in July.
FIDH and Iteka, however, urge the AU, the UN, the EU and the international community to continue every attempt to send in a civilian protection force, to adopt sanctions against those responsible for serious human rights violations cited in the report, and to make every effort to resume political dialogue and find a peaceful solution.
FIDH is a federation of 178 human rights NGOs. Iteka is one of its associates. Since 1922, FIDH has fought for freedom, justice and democracy, and denounced human rights violations. Read the whole report into Burundi at www.fidh.org