Burundi government severs ties with OHCHR

Higher government officials have attended last Saturday’s demonstrations

Burundi has just declared a suspension of any form of cooperation and collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights-OHCHR until further notice. The declaration cites the “untruthful and controversial” United Nations Independent Investigation Report on Burundi-UNIIB accusing the government of grave violations of human rights as the cause of the decision.

Meanwhile, the government has asked the representation of the OHCR in Burundi to designate a team to negotiate headquarters agreements that will determine the mandate of the latter, the duration of its activities and the number of its operational staff.

The press release further reiterated the ban of Christof Heyns, May Sahli Fadel and Pablo De Grief, authors of the damning UNIIB report for “gross breach and serious harm inflicted to the State and Burundian people”.

No sooner asked for than granted. The government has been quick to satisfy last Saturday’s demonstrators who called for the barring of the three UN experts in their chants and the closing of the OHCHR office in Burundi. The spokesman of the interior ministry, who participated in the demonstrations, had said that the government would “realize people’s aspirations”.

Demonstrators included mainly CNDD-FDD ruling party militants, their allies, some government officials, and other higher personalities in the institutions among others. They chanted slogans and carried banners with writings against the UNIIB report and the OHCHR, particularly: “OHCHR has to close its doors in Burundi”, one could read.

The decision of the UN experts ban and the severing of links with the OHCHR came just few days after Burundi government decided to withdraw from the ICC that it accused of having become “an instrument of pressure on poor African nations or a means of destabilising them”