Burundi: The human rights situation remains worrying; believes the UN commission of inquiry on Burundi
On March 11, 2021, the committee presented its annual report on the human rights situation in Burundi. There has been no improvement in a year, and especially since the rule of Evariste Ndayishimiye. The commission did not report anything new; we have regularly described, in our editions, the various violations of human rights in Burundi. The commission only confirms what we have regularly written. With the rise to power of Evariste Ndayishimiye, instead of improving, the situation worsened. Because these are not the only declarations of intention of the president which improve the situation; says Doudou Diène. “The first symbolic and one-off gestures have indeed taken place, but these, like President Ndayishimiye’s declarations of intent, will not be enough to permanently improve the situation,” said Doudou Diène, the President of the Commission. UN investigators expect these announcements to be followed by concrete actions that resolutely advance the human rights situation.
It is hard to believe that Evarsiste Ndayishimiye’s announcements will be followed by concrete action; so the Burundians are already used to this kind of lies, contradictions in his words and facts which shame the Burundian Nation. From the earliest days of his rule, while they were on a prayer crusade in Ngozi, he ordered all state officials to prepare for the exercise of declaring their assets before taking office as it is foreseen by the constitution of 2018 that the cnddfdd made vote itself, but, the rest is known to all. The president was quick to make a 180% turnaround by declaring that someone’s property is a secret that cannot be disclosed to the public. Ridicule does not kill. How could President Ndayishimiye once again dare to speak in public about the fight against corruption and economic malfeasance when he and his team violated the mother law that guides these principles? What is certain is that the team around him, who obviously has more strength, is made up of great corrupters who have stored up a lot of wealth whose provenance they cannot even justify. This is why the fight against this scourge is impossible in Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye’s words will always remain ineffective. Very banal example: How is it possible that in a group of 101 women arrested by the police in a shed in Buterere, on December 14, 2020, when they were about to be sold in Arab countries, about twenty between them find themselves in a group of 130 Burundians who were embarked towards these Arab countries just 4 days later, on December 18, 2020? This simply means that those who do this human trafficking are stronger than the police. Judge for yourself and dominate who they might be.
President Ndayishimiye dares to declare that it is forbidden to shed blood of humans created by God, that those who do so draw curses when in Burundi, not a single day goes by without picking up a corpse in a river, in a bush or on the path. And these people are more than 90% killed by people under his responsibility (the SNR, its imbonerakure, certain members of the defence and security corps and members of the FDRL interahamwe integrated within these corps). The Doudou Diène report only confirms our observations: “Every week, lifeless bodies continue to be found in public spaces and are hastily buried by the administrative authorities. The scale of this lasting phenomenon and the large number of such “blood crimes” in the country remain worrying. The government must recognize the seriousness of the situation and remedy it ”, lamented the UN investigator, noting that ” in this policy of repression, agents of the National Intelligence Service (SNR), sometimes supported by Imbonerakure, have been identified as the main perpetrators ”. For example, the League Iteka report for 2020 gives a toll of 454 people killed, including 202 bodies found; 52 missing; 89 women and girls raped; 124 tortured and 1181 people arbitrarily imprisoned.
Today, it’s no wonder that mass graves can be found in people’s enclosures where people are buried. The information that is circulating the world today via social networks is that of a man named Mitima Joseph from the Bwiza2 sub-hill, Ruhehe hill, Kigina area of Bugabira commune in Kirundo province, who killed people and buried them in his plot in a mass grave. This is a clear sign of the impunity that reigns in the country. Like the imbonerakure, members of the intelligence service and even some members of the police can kill whoever they want and bury them anywhere they want or throw the corpse anywhere with total impunity, the people will know that killing someone is just a simple matter; especially that you are a member of the party in power, the cnddfdd. And it will never end, as long as the system that taught and practiced it remains in power. Although this system has trained and armed imbonerakure battalions that are deployed across the country, it is more likely to destroy itself from within itself because whoever is used to shedding blood does not hesitate not sometimes to pour that of his own.
URN HITAMWONEZA once again calls on all Burundians to stand up as one man to stop all strategies to effectively combat this bloody system. He is killing Tutsis and political opponents today, tomorrow he will attack his members; it will only take a little misunderstanding to get into it. The fight is therefore for all of us, men and women and children, of all tendencies and origins, concerned about a country of justice, peace and development for all.