Forthcoming Human Rights report to reveal real Burundi situation, says Rights activist

Burundi Government expects nothing good from the forthcoming UN Human Rights Meeting, says Ambassador Willy Nyamitwe

“Different partners must understand that Burundi Government is lying about the security situation in the country”, says Anschaire Nikoyagize, one of the Burundi Human Rights Activists. He reacts to the declaration made by the Senior Advisor in charge of communication and information to President Pierre Nkurunziza. In the public conference held on 2 June, Willy Nyamitwe said Burundi expects nothing good from the forthcoming UN meeting on the Human Rights situation scheduled from 14 to 15 June in Geneva, Switzerland. “The Human Rights Council has lost what it had the most sacred i.e. objectivity and neutrality”, said Willy Nyamitwe.

The Senior Advisor to the Burundian President also says the oral report to be presented will include among other things, the allegations of rape and other crimes against the Imbonerakure- youths affiliated to the ruling party CNDD-FDD and security forces.

Mr. Nyamitwe also says the very report will not mention that Rwanda has recruited refugees and criminals who abducted and then killed innocent people and threw their bodies on the streets.

Anschaire Nikoyagize says with the presentation of the report as a link between the crime and the alleged perpetrator, the ICC office will be able to initiate investigations into the crimes committed and their perpetrators. “ The government has taken a strategy to deny all reports on Burundi to the point of denying one that has not yet been released”, he says.

On 2 June, the collective of lawyers grouped into “Justice for Burundi” reported that at the end of May 2017, 98 new warrants have been sent to the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court-ICC.

About 800 cases of warrants have been entrusted to the collective since Burundi has plunged into the current crisis in April 2015.