May, 02 2012, 09:15am EDT
Burundi: Escalation of Political Violence in 2011
Act Swiftly to End Impunity, Prevent Further Killings
Bujumbura
Scores of people have been killed in political attacks in Burundi since the end of 2010, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The killings, some by state agents and members of the ruling party, others by armed opposition groups, reflect widespread impunity, the inability of the state to protect its citizens, and an ineffective judiciary.
The 81-page report, "'You Will Not Have Peace While You Are Living': The Escalation of Political Violence in Burundi," documents political killings stemming from the 2010 elections in Burundi. These killings, which peaked toward the middle of 2011, often took the form of tit-for-tat attacks by members of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie, CNDD-FDD) and the opposition National Liberation Forces (Forces nationales de liberation, FNL). In the vast majority of cases, justice has been denied to families of the victims.
The report also documents the Burundian government's attempts to restrict independent media and civil society's efforts to denounce the violence.
"The ruling party had a chance to foster a new beginning for Burundi following the 2010 elections," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead we have seen the systematic targeting of former rebel combatants and members of the political opposition. Many of those who refused to succumb to pressure to join the CNDD-FDD have paid with their lives."
Human Rights Watch called on both the government and opposition groups to denounce killings by their members and supporters and take measures to prevent further violence. Human Rights Watch urged the government to address a pattern of killings and death threats against members or former members of opposition groups by members of the security forces, the intelligence services, and the CNDD-FDD's youth group known as the imbonerakure.
The report is based on extensive research in Burundi from early 2011 to early 2012 and numerous interviews with victims, relatives of victims, and witnesses. It provides a detailed account of the most deadly attack during this period in the town of Gatumba, where at least 37 people were killed in a bar in September 2011.
The report also highlights numerous cases in which individuals were threatened, forced into hiding, and murdered as a result of their perceived political leanings. For example, Audace Vianney Habonarugira, a demobilized FNL combatant, was killed in July 2011. Days before he was killed he gave Human Rights Watch a step-by-step description of how he was being hunted across the country by police, military, and intelligence agents.
Members of the ruling party have also been victims of targeted killings. Pascal Ngendakumana and Albert Ntiranyibagira, two low-ranking CNDD-FDD officials, were killed in a bar in April 2011 by people believed to be FNL members. A young girl who happened to be with them was also killed.
Throughout early 2011 the government attempted to minimize the scale of the killings, claiming that most were the work of common criminals and that Burundi was at peace. But a sharp increase in violence beginning in July, followed by the September attack at Gatumba, made it impossible to maintain this line.
However, instead of making rigorous investigations and the prosecution of suspects a high priority, the government allowed the majority of those who carried out political killings to remain at large, even when witnesses identified some of the alleged attackers.
In one of the few cases in which suspects were brought to trial - the Gatumba attack - the proceedings were deeply flawed. Several defendants said in court that they had been tortured, but the judges did not appear to take this into account and did not order investigations into the torture allegations. In addition, the judges refused to call people requested by the defense to testify, including several senior police and intelligence agents who, according to the defendants, were involved in events leading up to the attack. The flaws in the proceedings led the lawyers for the 21 defendants to walk out of the courtroom. The trial was concluded in just a few days.
The report of a commission of inquiry set up by the government to investigate the Gatumba attack, completed in October, has not been made public.
"Even in a rare case in which people were prosecuted, serious irregularities undermined the fairness and credibility of the trial," Bekele said. "This leaves people feeling that justice has not been done."
The absence of thorough investigations and prosecutions has eroded public confidence in the judicial system and caused disillusionment among survivors of the violence and victims' families, Human Rights Watch said. A survivor of the Gatumba attack told Human Rights Watch: "They [the authorities] often say there will be investigations, then nothing happens. We're used to this." This public lack of confidence in the police and judicial system risks hindering future investigations, as witnesses do not feel that the information they provide will be acted upon.
The government has harassed and intimidated journalists and civil society activists, accusing them of siding with the opposition when they reported on incidents of killings. Bob Rugurika, chief editor of a leading independent radio station African Public Radio (Radio Publique Africaine, RPA), was summoned to the public prosecutor's office eight times between July and November 2011 to answer questions about RPA's programs. The authorities accused him of disseminating information that "incites ethnic hatred" and "incites the population to civil disobedience." He was not formally charged.
Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa, president of the human rights organization APRODH, was criticized by senior government officials for publicly speaking about rumors of a government plan to eliminate opposition members. In a letter in February, the interior minister accused him of undertaking "a quasi-campaign of disinformation, demonization and inciting the population to distrust the authorities" and threatened sanctions against his organization.
"The media and civil society in Burundi have the right to operate freely and to report on incidents of violence," Bekele said. "At times, the government has seemed more focused on harassing journalists and human rights activists who denounced this violence than on addressing the violence itself and ensuring the people responsible are brought to justice."
Human Rights Watch noted an improvement in the security situation in Burundi in 2012 and a decrease in the number of political killings.
"This is an opportunity for the government of Burundi to address the fundamental problems that led to the spiraling violence in 2011 and take effective action to prevent further killings," Bekele said.
Human Rights Watch is one of the world's leading independent organizations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights. By focusing international attention where human rights are violated, we give voice to the oppressed and hold oppressors accountable for their crimes. Our rigorous, objective investigations and strategic, targeted advocacy build intense pressure for action and raise the cost of human rights abuse. For 30 years, Human Rights Watch has worked tenaciously to lay the legal and moral groundwork for deep-rooted change and has fought to bring greater justice and security to people around the world.
LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and BrasÃlia's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular