{"id":6316,"date":"2017-07-05T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/?p=6316"},"modified":"2017-07-05T16:02:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T16:02:10","slug":"fidh-attacks-dictatorship-and-repression-of-president-nkurunzizas-regime-in-a-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/fidh-attacks-dictatorship-and-repression-of-president-nkurunzizas-regime-in-a-report\/","title":{"rendered":"FIDH attacks \u201cdictatorship\u201d and \u201crepression\u201d of President Nkurunziza\u2019s regime in a report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Federation for Human Rights produced the report in collaboration with six Burundi human rights organisations that the government has banned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The

The Catholic Church that had been too critical of human rights violation in Burundi has recently said in a declaration of Bishops that the security situation has improved compared to how it was in 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

FIDH report claims President Pierre Nkurunziza and his Cndd-Fdd party\u2019s \u201cobsession to cling on to power at all cost\u201d has pushed the regime into violent \u201crepression\u201d and \u201cdictatorship\u201d against opponents over the last two years.<\/p>\n

The report entitled \u201cBurundi on the brink, looking back on two years of terror\u201d accuses Burundi government authorities of seriously violating human rights of political opponents, human rights defenders, journalists and current and former servicemen of Tutsi ethnic background.<\/p>\n

According to the report published, after winning a contested re-election in 2015, \u201cPresident Pierre Nkurunziza has launched a repression campaign against suspected opponents to his regime by deploying security agents loyal to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report claims the government has given a military training to some Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party, and used them to implement its authoritarian and repressive policy, terrorize civilians, keep them under close surveillance and spread the party\u2019s ideology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn two years, the youth militarization as well as their ideological radicalization and their importance in the regime\u2019s repressive apparatus has increased\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over the two years, political opponents have been hunted down, persecuted, assassinated or forced to disappear, says the report.<\/p>\n

The report also claims authorities have exploited the political crisis by turning it into an ethnic conflict. Therefore, the government dominated by Hutus accuses Tutsis of seeking to seize power and being responsible for the current crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cTutsis are constantly the favourite targets of the repression especially those in the Burundi National Defence Forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report also comes back on the government crackdown on independent media and human rights organisations.<\/p>\n

Report that incites ethnic division<\/strong><\/p>\n

Martin Nivyabandi, Minister of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender, says the FIDH report dramatizes what\u2019s really happening in Burundi. \u201cMoreover, the report contains claims that incite to ethnic division whereas part of promoting human rights is helping people come together and reconcile\u201d, says Nivyabandi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we consider bad things that occur, they happen to people from all political and ethnic backgrounds\u201d, says Nivyabandi.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in charge of human rights in Burundi, we don\u2019t see any ethnic group that is particularly endangered than others\u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n

Mr. Nivyabandi criticizes the report for failing to mention that the security situation has improved.
\n\u201cClaiming that the situation is getting worse whereas it is improving does not help in promoting human rights\u201d, says Nivyabandi. \u201cInstead, such reports make people live in worry without good reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that the report contradicts the recent report of the Catholic Church<\/a> saying security has improved.<\/p>\n

Willy Namitwe, Senior Advisor to President Nkurunziza, in charge of Media, Information and Communication, criticizes the report for its omission of major security incidents such as grenade attacks. He says some groups of the opposition have claimed responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere does the report covering two years mention grenade attacks\u201d, says Nyamitwe. \u201cCoup plotters claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the FIDH does not talk about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

He refers to an interview by one of the generals who took part in the coup attempt that claimed the responsibility for the attacks as part of their fight against president Nkurunziza.<\/p>\n

He also says the report ignores an attack in 2015 by rebels coming from Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Nyamitwe draws the attention to the fact that the report does not mention the word \u201cgenocide\u201d as many times as the 2016 report did. \u201cFIDH mentioned the word \u201cgenocide\u201d 72 times in November 2016, but in July [2017] mentions it only twice\u201d, says Nyamitwe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The International Federation for Human Rights produced the report in collaboration with six Burundi human rights organisations that the government has banned. FIDH report claims President Pierre Nkurunziza and his Cndd-Fdd party\u2019s \u201cobsession to cling on to power at all cost\u201d has pushed the regime into violent \u201crepression\u201d and \u201cdictatorship\u201d against opponents over the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13,670],"tags":[80,113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6319,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6316\/revisions\/6319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}