The forgotten killings in Burundi – One year after the escalation of violence (April 25)

One year after the outbreak of politically motivated violence in Burundi, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has drawn a sombre conclusion concerning the human rights situation in the East African country. The human rights organization called on the United Nations to initiate a comprehensive police mission to try and curb the ongoing violence. “Seven people got killed in political violence this week alone – and 700 people have lost their lives since April 2015. At least 4,300 people were imprisoned for political reasons, and hundreds of people have disappeared. Torture and intimidation are widespread,” said STP’s Africa expert, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Friday. The outbreak of violence occurred following a statement by President Pierre Nkurunziza on April 25, 2015, in which he announced plans to run for a third term as president – despite massive protests.

“The global public is hardly taking any notice of the killings in Burundi any more. It has become a normality that the people of Burundi have to fear being shot in cafés or on the streets if they dare to criticize the government – or that members of the security forces are assassinated by supporters of armed opposition groups,” said Delius. “The cycle of violence and impunity can only be broken by a stronger presence of international police and peacekeeping forces.” As the government of Burundi had categorically rejected the UN’s plans to send a peacekeeping force of 5,000 troops in January 2016, the African Union (AU) is now considering to deploy international police forces.

However, there are still different opinions about the extent of the proposed police mission. While the UN suggested to deploy up to 3,000 police officers, the Government of Burundi would so far only accept 20. “Given the atrocities, it would be a farce to deploy 20 international police officers. Also, this would most certainly not help to put an end to the violence,” warned Delius. “If the international community really wants to take responsibility and protect the civilian population from crimes against humanity, there must be at least 3,000 foreign police officers.”

The STP also criticized the international community’s previous attempts to contain the crisis. “There was no lack of early warnings about an escalation of violence – but China, Russia and some of the African States decided to block the Security Council. In the Burundi crisis, the AU failed to act accordingly once again, paralyzed by diverging interests of Burundi’s neighboring countries.”

Header Photo: © UN Photo/Martine Perret via Flickr