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GENEVA / BURUNDI HRC
STORY: GENEVA / BURUNDI HRC
TRT: 2:33
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/FRENCH/NATS
DATELINE: 17 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA SWITZERLAND - FILE
FILE – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
17 DECEMBER 2015, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, pan left to right, Human Rights Council room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, UN Human Rights Commissioner: ”The time for piecemeal responses and fiddling around the edges is over. The situation in Burundi demands a robust, decisive response from the international community. I called last month on the Security Council to consider all possible steps to stop the ongoing violence and prevent a regional conflict, including travel bans and asset freezes. Today those calls are more relevant than ever.”
4. Med shot, podium
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein, UN Human Rights Commissioner:
“I regret that the authorities have yet to carry out effective investigations concerning the vast majority of cases of serious violations and abuses of human rights, such as reports of extra-judicial killings, including with ethnic undertones. Impunity currently enjoyed by perpetrators of human rights violations as well as by members of unidentified armed groups is contributing to individuals increasingly taking the law into their own, violent hands.”
6. Med shot, Burundi delegation
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Keith Harper, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council:
“The United States is deeply alarmed by the spiralling violence in Burundi, perpetrated or directed by government and non-government actors alike. President Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term in office has led to humanitarian, economic and security crisis which in turn has resulted in more than 200 000 Burundians fleeing for neighbouring countries. The United States strongly believes that the international community must use all the tools available to push for an immediate end of the cycle of violence perpetrated by both, the security forces and elements of the armed opposition.”
8. Wide shot, Human Rights Council with delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Elisa Nkerabirori, Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender of Burundi:
"The convening of this session is based on the words of some representatives of western countries in order to prevent large-scale massacres, or even a genocide to happen in the near future in Burundi.”
10. Wide shot, delegations in Human Rights Council
11. Med shot, podium
12. Med shot, Presidency of HRC
13. Med shot, zoom out, Burundi delegation
14. Wide shot, tilt down, ceiling to wider room
The UN Human Rights Commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said that Burundi is at a bursting point, on the very cusp of a civil war.
During a special session of the Human Rights Council on Burundi today (17 Dec) in Geneva, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein stressed, “The time for piecemeal responses and fiddling around the edges is over. The situation in Burundi demands a robust, decisive response from the international community. I called last month on the Security Council to consider all possible steps to stop the ongoing violence and prevent a regional conflict, including travel bans and asset freezes. Today those calls are more relevant than ever.”
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), at least 400 people have been killed since 26 April. Of these, up to 68 may have been extra-judicially executed in November. At least 3,496 people have been arrested in relation to the political crisis. Human rights defenders and independent journalists have fled the country and gone into hiding.
Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said that ”I regret that the authorities have yet to carry out effective investigations concerning the vast majority of cases of serious violations and abuses of human rights, such as reports of extra-judicial killings, including with ethnic undertones. Impunity currently enjoyed by perpetrators of human rights violations as well as by members of unidentified armed groups is contributing to individuals increasingly taking the law into their own, violent hands.”
Burundi descended into bloodshed in April when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention to run for a controversial third term, which he went on to win in July.
The United States presented a draft resolution to the Human Rights Council to prevent the deterioration of the human rights situation in Burundi.
Keith Harper, US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council said today during the Special Session, “The United States is deeply alarmed by the spiralling violence in Burundi, perpetrated or directed by government and non-government actors alike. President Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third term in office has led to humanitarian, economic and security crisis which in turn has resulted in more than 200,000 Burundians fleeing for neighbouring countries. The United States strongly believes that the international community must use all the tools available to push for an immediate end of the cycle of violence perpetrated by both, the security forces and elements of the armed opposition.”
Elisa Nkerabirori, the representative from the Ministry of Human Rights, Social Affairs and Gender in Burundi denounced the statements of some foreign personalities who she said deliberately disguise the reality of the situation in Bujumbura in order to support the radical opposition.
She said, “The convening of this session is based on the words of some representatives of western countries in order to prevent large-scale massacres, or even a genocide, to happen in the near future in Burundi."
Adama Dieng, the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, warned that both the government and the opposition were manipulating ethnic tensions in Burundi, pitting the Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority against each other.
A civil war in Burundi between 1993 and 2005 cost over 300,000 lives and displaced more than one million people.
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