Burundi not off the hook
Hague court authorises probe into crimes against humanity in country
BURUNDI’S withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not help it to escape justice. The ICC judges announced on Thursday they had allowed their prosecutor to open serious investigations into allegations of crimes against humanity committed in Burundi since 2015.
Despite the withdrawal from the ICC from October 27, the government must co-operate with the ICC in more investigations and arrest those found implicated in alleged crimes, said the court’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensunda.
Officials of the government, army, police, intelligence and the youth wing of the ruling party are accused of involvement in assassinations, enforced disappearances, rape and other ill-treatment of opposition members. The ICC said, however, that it did not have enough proof that opposition or armed groups might have also committed crimes against humanity.
The Burundi government said it would not co-operate with the ICC as it was no longer an ICC member. Justice Minister Aimée Laurentine Kanyana said: “Burundi is no longer a signatory of the Rome Statute, so it has no obligation to co-operate with the ICC.”
The presidency responded through Willy Nyamitwe, the Burundi government spokesperson, who said the decision to open a probe was “backdated” and accused the ICC judges of being corrupt.
Burundi was the first country to exit the ICC, having joined in December 2004. It claimed the ICC did not treat Africans like the rest of the world, accusing it of favouring the West.
However, opposition leaders and the civil society in exile said the ICC would provide justice to the victims.
“Justice will be given to the victims,” said Aimé Magera, the National Liberation Forces party spokesperson. “Even those killed before the 2015 crisis need justice.”
Burundi officials were accused of opposition harassment. Victims witnessed that, in some jails, women were raped by guards and the youth of the ruling party known as Imbonerakure.
“We were forced also to rape women, we were jailed together in police jails. If one refused to rape his jail mate, then he was shot by the police and the Imbonerakure who were guarding the jail,” one of the witnesses told the UN inquiry team.
Hundreds of people disappeared, among them reporters and some of the ruling party militias who were killed to erase traces of the committed crimes. Rights groups said about 1 200 had been killed, 800 disappeared, and 10 000 had been arrested and detained.