Burundi: The rights of Burundian refugees in Tanzania are constantly violated without the slightest response from the UN organization, UNHCR
Tanzania has long been home to Burundian refugee camps and they have never experienced serious problems than what they are experiencing today. Most of these refugees have fled the country following serious human rights violations following the third illegal and illegitimate mandate of the late President Nkurunziza. All those who have expressed the slightest intention to oppose it have been persecuted; those who were unable to flee were killed or imprisoned.
The Magufuli government has been complicit with the Burundian government, allowing imbonerakure to disrupt security in the camps, or agents of the national intelligence service operating in this region bordering Burundi.
The rights of refugees to move, to run small businesses, to cultivate, etc., have been denied by the Tanzanian police; pushing Burundians into total poverty, especially since even the food ration was not as regular as expected.
This treatment of refugees had only the objective of forcing them to return to the country so that the Gitega government would mislead the view that peace and security prevailed on the national territory as it continued to sing on the occasion. How regrettable that even the United Nations Security Council has just supported him in his lie by removing him from his political agenda with the justification that peace and security are guaranteed in Burundi. Perhaps this is why UNHCR, a UN refugee organization, is closing its eyes to such serious violations of the rights of Burundian refugees in Tanzanian camps; inhumane acts inflicted on them by the Magufuli government in complicity with the power in Gitega. UNHCR is unaware that voluntary return to its homeland is a fundamental right of refugees, but is helpless in the flagrant violation of this law.
Today, our sources of information confirm that Tanzania plans to close the two camps of Mutabila and Nyarugusu so that all Burundian refugees who have not yet returned to their country are concentrated in the Nduta camp alone. This operation to evacuate the Mutabila camp has already begun. The houses of those who decide to return in spite of themselves are directly destroyed so that no one else will occupy them.
On 9 December 2020, refugees in Nyarugusu saw a pickup truck belonging to a certain Rasi, very active in the acts of abuse of refugees, carrying two bodies of unidentified persons. Refugees interpret this sign as an act of intimidation to force them to return. They believe that these corpses are believed to be those of the refugees, abducted and then imprisoned in Makele prison that died as a result of the torture done by the Tanzanian police.
In the report of the coalition of refugee rights defenders, CBDH/VICAR, Léopold Sharangabo, vice-president of the coalition, states: “We counted between 170 and 200 refugees, victims of enforced disappearance in the camps of Nduta, Nyarugusu and Mtendeli in Tanzania. The Nduta camp alone has more than 120 missing persons. There, we are not talking about targeted assassinations and extrajudicial executions.” The intimidation of refugees to force them to return was a direct result of John Pompe Magufuli’s statement dated October 10, 2019, that “Burundian refugees should return home,” a Human Rights Watch report said.
Well-informed sources say that some refugees, accused of participating in anti-third-term protests, were abducted from the camps, tortured and then thrown into the Maragarazi River. Others were handed over to the Burundian government, which in turn killed or imprisoned them. The cases of Rwasa Saidi, cimpaye Felix and Ndayishimiye Vocatus who were found in Muramvya prison and Nkunzimana Anaclet, Ndayizeye Radjabu, Kazimana Emmanuel in Bubanza prison are more than eloquent. They were abducted on the night of 22-23 July 2020 at Camp Mutabila by Tanzanian police. This is in flagrant violation of the refugee protection conventions, including the Geneva Convention of 1951, says the collective of lawyers charged with defending the victims and their families. ”Tanzania is knowingly trampling on these conventions. Sooner or later, it will be brought before international courts such as the EAC Court of Justice, the African Court of Human and People’s Rights and even national courts in Tanzania, as stipulated in the treaties and conventions to which the country has subscribed, adds Master Gustave Niyonzima, vice-president of the collective CAVIB
URN HITAMWONEZA calls for people to leave the field of speeches and good intentions to take concrete actions. The violations of refugee rights in Tanzanian camps by the powers of Evariste Ndayishimiye and Magufuli, in collusion with UNHCR, deserve an international investigation to establish the responsibilities of each other so that all those responsible are tried and punished in line with the crimes committed. The failure of the UN organization, its incompetence or complicity in these crimes, means that it does not even think of looking for another host country for these refugees if Tanzania does not want them anymore. We are tempted to talk about the complicity with the power of Gitega because even his boss believes that peace and security prevail in Burundi at a time when people are regularly killed by the state services, in collaboration with the imbonerakure, the militia of the ruling cnddfdd. Here, we once again call on Burundians who care about the good future of our country and our children to do everything possible to stop this descent into the underworld of our nation without expecting anything from this famous international community.
WhatsApp contact: +31685638237
Email: [email protected] Twitter: URN HITAMWONEZA
YouTube: TUVAHE TUJAHE TV