Burundi: Human rights violations persist in Burundi and yet some countries are about to prelaunch cooperation.
It’s strange, but it is true. Some former bilateral and multilateral partners of Burundi have already launched their cooperation; others are in the process of finalizing the modalities of its resumption after 5 or 4 years of suspension. At the head is France which could not even hide its attachment to the cnddfdd regime and which did not hesitate to dissociate itself from the other countries of the European Union and which has resumed its cooperation in secret with Burundi since the 30th. October 2018; it was Laurent Delahouse, then French Ambassador to Burundi, who revealed it to the public on July 12, 2019 during his speech in a ceremony on the occasion of the French National Day. 50 million dollars had been granted to Burundi as direct aid supposedly to strengthen the education sector. It was also said that France was going to support Burundi in the military field. All this in contradiction with the decisions of the European Union taken under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement. It was in March 2016 that the EU formally suspended direct aid to the late Pierre Nkurunziza’s regime in response to the multiple human rights violations that followed his illegal and illegitimate third term. The EU also decided on 25 October 2018 to renew its sanctions against the regime of Pierre Nkurunziza.
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, which published its fourth report on September 23, 2020 in Geneva, clearly states that the level of human rights violations has not decreased and that the democratic space remains very limited, impunity persists. According to the report, “some people subject to international sanctions for their alleged responsibility for human rights violations in 2015 were instead appointed to senior positions in the Ndayishimiye administration”. And it is normal that the violence, instead of decreasing in intensity, has rather increased. Investigations made by various associations in charge of human rights in Burundi speak of 164 people already killed since the inauguration of Evariste Ndayishimiye on June 18, 2020. Several corpses were found beheaded; women were first raped before beheading them. A new phenomenon observed during the mandate of President Neva who never ceases to sing that peace and security reign throughout the territory of Burundi.
It is perhaps this tantalizing speech that is misleading certain countries and international organizations which have already initiated discussions with this military clique with a view to re-launching their cooperation.
Apart from France, which has been committed for a long time, the European Union, which itself has imposed sanctions on this regime, is beginning to make approaches in the direction of their suspensions. This is evidenced by the audience of Claude Boshu, EU representative in Burundi, with General Prime Minister Allain Guillaume Bunyoni on September 10, 2020. They spoke about suspension of sanctions and resumption of development projects.
However, the report of the UN commission of inquiry on Burundi which was presented on September 23, 2020 shows very clearly that there has been a change of president, but that nothing has changed in terms of violations of human rights.
After presenting this report, the representative of the European Union to the United Nations did not hide his concern at the persistence of human rights violations in Burundi and asked the Gitega’s regime to release political prisoners, representatives of human rights associations, journalists; to dissolve the imbonerakure militia and to prelaunch the political dialogue between the government and the opposition.
Even the representatives of France (a permanent member of the UN Security Council) expressed their concerns about human rights violations in Burundi and asked the power of Evariste Ndayishimiye to punish all the perpetrators of the various crimes and to put an end to these multiple violations of human rights
The question which remained in abeyance is the renewal of the mandate of this commission so that it continues its investigations in Burundi. All human rights organizations have expressed their wish to grant the commission another year of work to continue to closely monitor the state of human rights in Burundi.
A bitter observation: countries which all day long advocate human rights in the world and which note that the commission of inquiry is perfectly right in everything it presents in its report, but which continue to support a regime that kills, tortures, imprisons and forces its citizens into exile. Some analysts say that countries are doing it for purely political interests (they continue to help such regimes despite these blatant human rights violations)
URN HITAMWONEZA notes with regret that some powers are in the process of shifting their contributions to destabilization of the Great Lakes region by the famous resumption of cooperation with Burundi. It is these political interests that specialists speak of. We would like to remind the UN Security Council that the support given today to Burundi will contribute to committing another genocide against the Tutsis, not only in Burundi, but also in the Great Lakes sub-region. Burundi has become the meeting place for all the criminals who plan the genocide of the Tutsis in Burundi, Rwanda and eastern DR Congo. All the means to implement it are channelled to Burundi under the blessing of the military clique led by Evariste Ndayishimiye. The latest information says that even Rwandan Paul Rusesabagina who told the New York Times on September 15, 2020 that he left Dubai to go to Burundi at the invitation of a pastor (but who ended up in Kigali) should also meet President Evariste Ndayishimiye. What were they going to talk about? Case to be continued.
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