Burundi addresses 'open conflict' with Rwanda
Publish date: 10 December 2018
Issue Number: 803
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: A Matter of Justice
‘There is almost no country in Africa where it is not essential to know to which tribe, or which subgroup of which tribe, the President belongs. From this single piece of information you can trace the lines of patronage and allegiance that define the state.’ – Author Christopher Hitchins
For the record, notes Legalbrief, President Pierre Nkurunziza’s father was a Catholic Hutu connected to the royal family while his mother was a Protestant Tutsi and qualified nurse. In a region where ethnic tensions between these two groups have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, the world is watching closely as Burundi inches closer to what many expect to be an election bloodbath in 2020. The government last week ordered the UN Human Rights Council to shut its office in the country within two months. This came just days after Bujumbura issued an international arrest warrant for former President Pierre Buyoya. Foreign Ministry and UN sources have reportedly told AFP that the government has sent a verbal note to resident UN coordinator Garry Conille to transmit the message to the rights council's High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet in Geneva. ‘All international staff must be immediately redeployed and the office has two months to pack up and close its doors,’ a Foreign Ministry source said. He added that the government ‘is growing more radical and defiant towards the international community’. A report on the EWN site notes that Burundi has been locked in a crisis since Nkurunziza in April 2015 announced he would seek a controversial third term in office, sparking civil unrest that has left 1 200 dead. In October 2016, Burundi suspended co-operation with the UN's human rights office over its ‘complicity’ in a report accusing it of systematic abuses and warning of a risk of genocide. And Burundi became the first nation to leave the International Criminal Court after it launched a probe into the alleged atrocities in the country.
Nkurunziza this weekend called for a special regional summit on what he describes as an ‘open conflict’ with neighbouring Rwanda which has had its own share of Hutsi/Tutsi tensions. In a letter leaked on social networks and confirmed by AFP from sources within the presidency, Nkurunziza accused Rwanda of being the origin of the Burundi’s political instability. A report on the Africa News site notes that the letter dated 4 December was addressed to Ugandan President and mediator in the Burundian crisis, Yoweri Museveni. Nkurunziza maintained that Rwanda recruited and supported Burundian refugees who then tried to destabilise Burundi.
Buyoya last week dismissed as politically motivated an arrest warrant issued against him for his alleged participation in the assassination of his country's first democratically elected leader. This after the Attorney-General issued 17 international arrest warrants for Buyoya and former senior military and civilian officials suspected of involvement in the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye in 1993. Buyoya, a highly respected diplomat and representative of AU, is on the top of the list of those accused of planning Ndadaye's killing. A report on the News24 site notes that Ndadaye’s death sparked a civil war between the East African nation's two dominant ethnic groups in which an estimated 300 000 people died. ‘Everything they are saying is political manipulation,’ Buyoya said.
In a further worrying development, Burundi's security services are allegedly running secret torture and detention sites to silence dissent. A video posted on social media showed a red liquid pouring from a drain outside a home in Bujumbura's Kinindo region. The BBC spoke to a man who lived in the building before it was allegedly turned into a torture chamber. The man, identified only as Pierre, claimed to have been held hostage there. ‘If they were not satisfied with your answer, they would torture you. You would hand them your hands and they would beat you with electric cables, also they would cane you … while kneeling,’ he said, adding that some prisoners were beheaded. The BBC put these claims to Burundian authorities but received no response. The New Zealand Herald reports that at least 21 alleged torture facilities have been identified by former prisoners and security agents across the country. All have been reported to UN.
