Jean Bigirimana has gone missing since the past three months
On 12 August, three professional associations of Burundian Media have written a letter to President Pierre Nkurunziza to ask him to free the journalist Jean Bigirimana working for Iwacu newspaper abducted since 12 July by the state services as several sources stated.
They appeal to Burundi president to urge the security minister, the Chief of the national intelligence service and the leader of the youth affiliated to the ruling party ‘ Imbonerakure’ to do whatever it takes for the truth about the disappearance of the journalist Jean Bigirimana to be brought out into the open.
In the same line, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Nkurunziza to make any effort to locate the journalist Jean Bigirimana who has gone missing since the past three weeks.
According to RSF, many witnesses reported that both the Iwacu Press Group journalist and Info Grands Lacs site correspondent was seen for the last time in Muramvya in the hands of national intelligence agents. RSF would like to know the truth about whether or not Jean is still alive and calls for the opening of formal investigations to determine his whereabouts.
“It is scandalous that three weeks after his abduction, we still do not know where this reporter is! We plead president Nkurunziza to simply exercise his role as a chief executive so that we know exactly the situation about Jean Bigirimana .”
The associations are the Union of Burundian Journalists (UBJ), Burundian Association of Broadcasters ( ABR) and Observatory of Burundian Press (OPB).
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