SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON BURUNDI CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE TO END SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE
Press Release
HR/4299
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON BURUNDI CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE TO END SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE
19960718 GENEVA, 18 July (UN Information Service) -- The Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burundi has called on the international community to exert the greatest possible pressure on belligerents there to put an end to spiralling violence.Returning from his third mission to Burundi (1 to 17 July), Paolo Sergio Pinheiro (Brazil) appealed for support of recent initiatives by former President of the United Republic of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, as well as for the process put in motion at this month's Arusha Summit, and backed by the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Yaoundé. Should the Burundi authorities refuse to respect the commitments undertaken at Arusha, the international community should consider applying sanctions against burundi, he said.
"The victims in Burundi are counted today in the hundreds and in the thousands", Mr. Pinheiro said. "The army is losing control of the activities of its soldiers on the ground and is fighting rebels or armed groups, whose repeated attacks in most of the country are causing heavy casualties. Civilians -- particularly women, children and the elderly -- are the victims of an endless cycle of attacks and reprisals from armed groups and members of the armed forces.
The international community could no longer tolerate the catastrophic evolution of the situation in Burundi, the Special Rapporteur stated. That situation was marked by targeted assassinations, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, pillage, banditry and the destruction of private property. Such factors as the general insecurity into which the country was sinking, the general climate of fear, and the impunity that poisoned human relations and paralysed the Government, kept in place those who had an interest in perpetuating chaos, to the detriment of democracy and a return to the rule of law.
The Special Rapporteur's visit to Burundi followed the adoption by the Commission on Human Rights of resolution 1996/1. By its terms, the main United Nations human rights body renewed his mandate for one year and asked him to report to the upcoming session of the General Assembly in November, as well as to the fifty-third session of the Commission in 1997. During his mission, the Special Rapporteur met with political, judicial and military
authorities, as well as religious figures, the heads of accredited diplomatic missions, representatives of the United Nations system and of international non-governmental organizations, and groups representing Burundian civil society. He also went to Gitega and Ngozi to meet with the local civil, military and judicial authorities, as well as with representatives of the OAU's observer mission. In Bujumbura, he visited the Kinama district and two camps of displaced Hutus in the Kamenge zone.
Special Rapporteur's Conclusions
At the end of his visit, the Special Rapporteur concludes that the waywardness of the country is becoming more pronounced, bringing with it the risk that the situation could degenerate at any moment. That, in turn, could provoke an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the Great Lakes region. There has been an increase in the rate of attacks by armed groups of rebels throughout the country against military positions, accompanied by a multiplication of counterattacks from the army that leave many civilian victims.
According to information gathered by the Special Rapporteur, the rebels seem to be better organized during their attacks, and some reportedly use more sophisticated matériel. However, the most commonly used weapons were often handcrafted and rudimentary. These inflicted conventional projectiles. The military, on the other hand, targeted by the armed groups, seems unable to master the chain of command throughout the country. Soldiers often took initiatives outside any hierarchical framework.
In Bujumbura, the Tutsi militias have become more aggressive, demonstrating in the streets or conducting self-defence exercises that occasionally degenerated into intimidation of passersby, Mr. Pinheiro says. A number of Hutus, driven from their homes in Bujumbura, are said to have joined the rebellion in the provinces. In the countryside, the hills are often devastated by displaced Tutsis who joined the military in order to pillage neighbouring Hutu communities. Massacres and killings most often occurred in the absence of witnesses, he states. As a result of growing insecurity and specific threats, a number of non-governmental organizations have left the country or reduced their activities. Certain United Nations agencies have been forced to cut down on their programmes. In fact, information on the humanitarian consequences of the conflict in Burundi do not cover more than 20 per cent of the national territory, vast expanses of which are now out of the reach of any system of international monitoring.
The heinous murder of those delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross on 4 June in Mugina, Citiboke province, and the lack of an in- depth independent investigation to find the killers, has only accentuated the deterioration of the conditions humanitarian assistance organizations work in,
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the Special Rapporteur states. This flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949 and of its Additional Protocols of 1977 -- on the protection owed to assistance groups, which has been ratified by Burundi -- raised the greatest concern regarding the ability of the authorities to honour the commitments it has undertaken.
For several months now, a number of intellectuals, political cadres, provincial authorities and Hutu merchants have been systematically targeted for assassination, either in Bujumbura or in certain provincial capitals, Mr. Pinheiro states. To date, no in-depth investigation has been able to expose those responsible, who are often well-known by their local communities. The Special Rapporteur also recalls losses suffered by the Tutsi community, in particular by those in the military and their families, as a result of attacks by armed groups.
Despite the reopening of three criminal courts in Bujumbura, Gitega and Ngozi, the Burundi judicial system is beset by institutional and material difficulties, the Special Rapporteur states. He learned with profound consternation that from the 150 cases tried during the first two sessions of the criminal courts in March and June last, 89 death sentences were decreed, along with 36 condemnations to life imprisonment. The accused had no legal assistance, nor any understanding of the charges against them. The precariousness of the investigations and the trials led to the conclusion that justice, as practised in Burundi, was summary and hasty. They highlighted the reign of impunity which left no prospect of reparation for victims.
The Special Rapporteur urgently appeals to the international community to take a very firm stand regarding Burundi and those who engaged in armed struggle, and to enjoin them to put an immediate end to the violence and killings. The recent initiatives by President Nyerere, as well as the process put in motion at the Arusha Summit, must be supported by the international community. Should the Burundi authorities refuse to respect the commitments undertaken there, the international community must not shrink from its responsibilities. It should then consider applying sanctions against Burundi. It could also envisage collective sanctions, aimed at reducing international assistance or suspending certain United Nations programmes.
The Special Rapporteur pays homage to the courageous work carried out on behalf of the victims of the conflict in Burundi by the agencies of the United Nations and other international organizations. He wholeheartedly supports the actions of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Burundi, particularly those within the framework of the observation mission he established there last April. The Special Rapporteur considers that the work of the first human rights observers has already had a very positive impact, and hopes their number can be increased to enable their deployment in the provinces, where security conditions made that possible.
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