Burundi rights violations continue

THE HUMAN rights situation in Burundi has not improved, according to an independent panel commissioned by the UN.

The investigators were appointed to probe reports of horrific abuse, including extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and sexual violence.

The testimonies of 470 people inside Burundi and in exile indicate that the alleged human rights abuses were continuing, said Fatsah Ouguergouz, the head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi.

“Since last June… we received no sign of a positive evolution of the situation, in particular, as far as the restriction to certain freedoms are concerned,” Ouguergouz said.

“On the contrary, we have received some testimonies showing that there’s a kind of tendency that… is persisting.”

He noted “there was no co-operation with the government” on these findings, and the commission had been barred from Burundi.

The nearly 500 interviews were conducted outside Burundi or through third parties with people in Burundi. The findings will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva in September.

The commission has been mandated to identify the alleged perpetrators of violations and abuses since April 2015, with a view to ensuring full accountability.

“The political and human rights crisis that gripped Burundi the previous year deepened in 2016 as government forces targeted perceived opponents with increased brutality,” said Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Security forces and intelligence services – often in collaboration with members of the ruling party’s youth league, known as Imbonerakure – have been accused of numerous killings, disappearances, abductions, torture, rape, and arbitrary arrests.

Armed opposition groups also carried out attacks and killed ruling party members.

The justice system was manipulated by ruling party and intelligence officials, and judicial procedures were routinely flouted, said HRW. Burundi government inquiries into allegations of serious human rights abuses had produced biased reports that exonerated the security forces.

More than 325 000 Burundians have fled the country since 2015.