Barrister Armel Niyongere, human rights activist “The file includes cases of sexual violence, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and assassinations”
On 19 June, A delegation of the collective of lawyers grouped into ‘Justice for Burundi’ defending victims of the Burundian crisis made of Alain Detheux, Armel Niyongere and Bernard Mainguin held meetings in the office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to assess the progress of the files. Barrister Alain Detheux, who was part of the delegation, says he is confident that the prosecutor would soon open investigations on Burundi.
“We are convinced that all the testimonies we have been able to gather demonstrates that there have been crimes against humanity in Burundi. We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be brought to justice,” said Detheux.
By the end of May 2017, the collective of lawyers have already sent nearly 800 cases of victims of crimes against humanity and other criminals committed in Burundi since 2015 to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. “The file includes cases of sexual violence, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and assassinations,” said Armel Niyongere.
On 15 May, the Commission of Inquiry on Human rights in Burundi said human right violations persist when it was presenting the second oral briefing to the UN Human Right Council. They said these violations include extrajudicial executions, acts of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary arrests and detention and enforced disappearances.
The Independent National Commission for Human Rights (CNIDH) has dismissed the report presented by the UN Inquiry Commission on the serious human rights violations in Burundi.
“The security situation has significantly improved despite cases of attack, murder, kidnapping and armed robberies that have been recorded over the last few months, especially in the west as well other parts of the country,” said Jean Baptiste Baribonekeza, the chairman of CNIDH. He said that the level and of human rights violations observed over the last two years are decreasing with a reduction of a quarter of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention as well as cases of torture.
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