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STORY: GENEVA / BURUNDI HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 02:30
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 JANUARY 2015 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“The attacks on three military camps on the 11 December and the large-scale human rights violations that occurred in their immediate aftermath appear to have triggered new and extremely disturbing patterns of violations”.
4. Med shot, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“We’ve also received numerous allegations that during the initial search operations on 11 and 12 December in 5 neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, police and army forces arrested considerable numbers of young men, many of whom were later tortured, killed or taken to unknown destinations. Members of the Imbonerakure militia reportedly took part in these operations”.
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR):
“According to information gathered from inhabitants of various neighbourhoods, some of the victims of human rights violations during the search operations that followed the 11 December events were targeted because they were Tutsis. The suggestion that an ethnic dimension is now starting to emerge, is reinforced by one of the sexually abused women who said that her abuser told her she was paying the price for being a Tutsi. Another witness claimed that Tutsis were systematically killed, while Hutus were spared. And, in the Muramvya neighbourhood of Bujumbura, according to several different witnesses, the decision to arrest people was also reportedly largely made on an ethnic basis, with most of the Hutus being released”.
8. Med shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Scott Campbell, OHCHR Chief of the Central and West Africa:
“We have identified at least 9 alleged sights where there are mass graves, there may be more. It has been extremely difficult to determine how many people may be in these mass graves, how many people were killed in the aftermath during the events of the 11-12 and in the aftermaths due to difficulties in accessing certain neighbourhoods”.
10. Med shot, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Scott Campbell, OHCHR Chief of the Central and West Africa Section:
“Since the beginning of the crisis, we have actually documented more than 3,000 cases of arrests, many of them has been released. But an unknown number of these people had been disappeared. Whether it is in the hundreds, I leave that to speculation. But what is very clear, are the cases that we have confirmed of people killed during the month of December alone which is 130. I suspect the real number is much higher than that. The number of disappeared as well”.
12. Close up, journalist
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned today (15 Jan) about deeply worrying new trends emerging in Burundi, including cases of sexual violence by security forces and a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture cases.
OHCHR also called for an urgent investigation into the events that took place on 11-12 December, including the reported existence of at least nine mass graves.
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the OHCHR told reporters today in Geneva that “the attacks on three military camps on the 11 December and the large-scale human rights violations that occurred in their immediate aftermath appear to have triggered new and extremely disturbing patterns of violations”.
New cases of sexual violence have continued to emerge since mid-December. Rupert Colville added that “we have also received numerous allegations that during the initial search operations on 11 and 12 December in 5 neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, police and army forces arrested considerable numbers of young men, many of whom were later tortured, killed or taken to unknown destinations. Members of the Imbonerakure militia reportedly took part in these operations”.
One of the main concerns is what appears to be ethnic-based trends to attack. Cases of sexually and gender based violence were allegedly founded on the fact that the victims were Tutsis.
OHCHR’s spokesperson said that “according to information gathered from inhabitants of various neighbourhoods, some of the victims of human rights violations during the search operations that followed the 11 December events were targeted because they were Tutsis. The suggestion that an ethnic dimension is now starting to emerge, is reinforced by one of the sexually abused women who said that her abuser told her she was paying the price for being a Tutsi. Another witness claimed that Tutsis were systematically killed, while Hutus were spared. And, in the Muramvya neighbourhood of Bujumbura, according to several different witnesses, the decision to arrest people was also reportedly largely made on an ethnic basis, with most of the Hutus being released”.
Witnesses had reported the existence of mass graves in Bujumbura and its surroundings – including one in a military camp –containing more than 100 bodies in total.
Scott Campbell, OHCHR Chief of the Central and West Africa informed that “we have identified at least 9 alleged sights where there are mass graves, there may be more. It has been extremely difficult to determine how many people may be in these mass graves, how many people were killed in the aftermath during the events of the 11-12 and in the aftermaths due to difficulties in accessing certain neighbourhoods”.
He added that “since the beginning of the crisis, we have actually documented more than 3,000 cases of arrests, many of them has been released. But an unknown number of these people had been disappeared. Whether it is in the hundreds, I leave that to speculation. But what is very clear, are the cases that we have confirmed of people killed during the month of December alone which is 130. I suspect the real number is much higher than that. The number of disappeared as well”.
According to OHCHR, the reported increasing use of torture and ill-treatment was also of serious concern. The number of torture cases almost tripled in the space of a month, 29 cases of torture and 42 cases of ill-treatment were documented in December 2015.
The current rampant impunity for all the human rights violations being committed by security forces and the Imbonerakure, “despite ample evidence that they are responsible is”, so OHCHR, “an indication that a complete breakdown in law and order is just around the corner”.
