Letting Burundi get away with murder
GLOBAL Spotlight
AFOUNDING principle of the AU – no more impunity for serious human rights violations – is not being upheld. Sadly, African states have ensured there will be no accountability for human rights abuses in Burundi.
Ten of the 12 on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted for a resolution last week that, in effect, would ensure serious human rights abuses in Burundi would never be prosecuted – and South Africa was among the supporters.
The resolution, drafted by the Africa group, was in response to a report of a commission of inquiry mandated by the council to investigate serious human rights abuses perpetrated in Burundi over the past two years. The damning report was released 12 days ago.
The commission was set up in September last year to investigate human rights abuses in Burundi since April 2015 and determine whether they constituted crimes against humanity. It was tasked with identifying alleged perpetrators, recommending how to hold them accountable and engaging Burundian authorities on how to improve the human rights situation.
The report found serious human rights violations had been perpetrated mostly by organs of the state – specifically, high-level officials in the intelligence service who report directly to the president, the Burundi national police force, the military and the Imbonerakure – the youth wing of the ruling party CNDD-FDD.
The report concluded that given the gravity, nature and scale of the acts and direct involvement of state bodies, the violations would probably constitute crimes against humanity.
The report further found that the climate of widespread impunity was being sustained by hate speech uttered by Burundian government representatives, ruling party members and its youth league.
The report made it clear the justice system lacked independence and so there would be impunity for the crimes as the state was neither Ouguergouz, a former judge from Algeria who served as the vicepresident of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights from 2006 to last year, reported on the extensive extrajudicial killings and torture, rape, forced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions.
In response, the Africa group at the UNHRC drafted a resolution asking the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send three experts to work with the government to pursue the perpetrators of the “deplorable crimes”.
But that proposal is a non-starter when the perpetrators are high-level members of the government and its security sector. It is tantamount to asking the perpetrators to investigate and prosecute themselves.
Why would the government work with three new experts when it would not work with the commission? There is also no assurance the team will be independent.
The resolution drafted by the Africa group stipulates that the information collected must be submitted to Burundian judicial authorities. In essence, any documented evidence of gross human rights violations collected by the team would need to be given to the organ of state that has protected the perpetrators of the crimes.
It is no wonder the EU spoke out against the text, saying: “It in no way reflects the scale or severity of the situation.”
On Friday the UNHRC voted to extend the mandate of the commission for another year to further investigate the abuses. South Africa voted against extending the commission’s mandate, as did some other African countries.
One wonders how the Burundian government can be expected to hold its leadership and officials to account for crimes against humanity when their instructions come from the top down.
It is also telling that there has been a move to shut the commission’s work, almost in an effort to hide the truth.