A woman complains that she has been unfairly jailed by an administrative official who abused his power to solve family conflict in Gitaza zone of the southern province of Rumonge.
The woman after she was freed from the prison
Gitaza zone chief, Sébastien Sinzotuma, has arbitrarily imprisoned a woman in Gitaza police holding cell due to a conflict with her daughter-in-law who is the chief’s cousin. The family of the woman denounces the chief’s abuse of his authority to unfairly settle a disagreement in the family.
The 50-year-old mother of 8 said the zone chief sent two Imbonerakure (youth affiliated to the CNDD-FDD ruling party) to arrest her at her home in the hills of Nkuba in Muhuta commune of Rumonge southern province on the 28th November. “I recognized the two boys”, says the woman’s son. “They were Imbonerakure from Rutunga”, he adds.
An officer of the criminal investigation police in Gitaza speaking on condition of anonymity said the arrest and the imprisonment of the woman broke the law. “The police officials are not aware of how the woman was jailed”, he says.
He adds that there was no arrest warrant issued by the police and that no police officer was sent to arrest her. “That woman would not have been jailed. The law has been broken”, he says.
The zone chief himself sent her to the place considered to be the women’s jail. The woman said he asked a police officer to escort her and he refused saying he was not sure the zone chief had been granted the permission by any criminal investigation officer to jail her.
The woman was accused of not having taken care of her daughter-in-law who had given birth after an operation. The daughter-in-law refused to talk to media. Her mother-in-law said the daughter did not inform her about her health situation because they were not on good terms.
“I know I am not an angel, but I wouldn’t have refused to give her appropriate care if she had informed me of her situation”, says the woman. She adds that a medical doctor who treated the daughter did not describe the situation as threatening as her accusers did.
The so-called women detention cell is an extension-like cell that has only two walls thus exposing prisoners to the cold of the night and the sun. The woman said she spent there one day and one night before she was released by the officer of the criminal investigation police in Gitaza after hearing the opposing parties.
The zone chief justified the arrest saying “if someone is making troubles, there is a security committee that is mandated to arrest them”.
Asked to comment on the story, Pierre Nkurikiye, the spokesman of the Burundian police, said he was not aware of the matter. He, however, said any citizen can arrest anyone caught red-handed.
He added that in the case of the woman, it was likely that she was guilty of the failure to assist a person in danger, in which case the zone chief had full right to arrest her.
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