Title	Burundi: No respite without justice
Publisher	Amnesty International
Publication Date	17 August 1999
Country	Burundi
Topics	Armed groups / Militias / Paramilitary forces / Resistance movements | Child soldiers | Extrajudicial executions | Impunity | Independence of judiciary | Military courts | Right to justice | Security forces
Citation / Document Symbol	AFR 16/012/1999
Cite as	Amnesty International, Burundi: No respite without justice, 17 August 1999, AFR 16/012/1999, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9ed0.html [accessed 28 May 2023]
Comments	This report covers the human rights situation in Burundi between November 1998 and March 1999. During this period, hundreds of unarmed civilians have been killed in the provinces of Rural Bujumbura and Makamba, in Burundi. Scores more are reported to have been killed in Bururi province. The minimum number of unarmed civilians killed during these months is 600. It may in reality be much higher. Both armed opposition groups and members of the government armed forces have been responsible for these killings. Since November 1998, there has been intense activity by armed opposition groups in Burundi, particularly in the province of Rural Bujumbura, attributed mainly to the Forces nationales pour la libération (FNL), National Liberation Forces, and the southern provinces of Makamba and Bururi, attributed mainly to the Forces pour la défense de la démocratie (FDD), the Forces for the Defence of Democracy. Attacks on military posts, as well as ambushes and some attacks on camps for the displaced have continued on a frequent basis during the first part of 1999. Armed opposition groups have also attacked eastern provinces such as Rutana and Ruyigi, previously untouched by conflict for the last two years. Reprisals by the armed forces have often been brutal and indiscriminate and have resulted in hundreds of extrajudicial executions, mainly of members of the Hutu ethnic group. Only in a few cases has the government acknowledged publicly that human rights violations may have occurred, and in even fewer cases have the perpetrators been arrested. The authorities have minimized hundreds of human rights violations with arguments such as that it is a time of war and therefore some killings of unarmed civilians are regrettable but inevitable, or that the killings Amnesty International is concerned about have taken place in areas which have been cleared of civilians, and therefore any civilian in an evacuated area is necessarily linked to the armed opposition. According to the government, such killings do not, therefore, as a rule, merit investigation or constitute human rights violations. Occasionally, investigations have been initiated, but rarely concluded. Although the Military Public Prosecutor's Office is specifically tasked with this function, few of the above killings attributed to the armed forces of Burundi have been the subject of criminal investigations. Other investigations by human rights groups, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and an inter-ministerial Commission of Inquiry have been hindered and blocked by members of the armed forces. The findings of investigations by human rights groups and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have largely not been acted on. There have been cases where witnesses who have been courageous enough to testify to violations by the armed forces have 'disappeared' or been extrajudicially executed by the armed forces to prevent further incriminating testimony. Amnesty International is concerned about the ability of military courts to ensure that the perpetrators of grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law are brought to justice in accordance with international standards for fair trial. These concerns refer firstly to the nature of military jurisdictions, which are inherently limited in their ability to impart independent and impartial justice and additionally to the very specific limitations of the Burundian military justice system; limitations which have, in some instances led to flawed trials, and in others, have enabled offenders to escape responsibility for their actions. The lack of judicial training and inadequate resources mean that legal proceedings before military jurisdictions often fall short of internationally recognized standards for fair trial. These proceedings equally fail to meet the procedural standards set out in Burundian law. This report looks at the response of the Government of Burundi and armed opposition groups to some of these recent abuses and makes a number of suggestions on how the abuses may be addressed and further abuses prevented. It is the product of an Amnesty International research visit to Burundi in February 1999, and of the ongoing work of the organization on Burundi. It does not reflect all of Amnesty International's concerns, nor is it an exhaustive picture of the extrajudicial executions, deliberate and arbitrary killings and other abuses which have taken place in Burundi between November 1998 and March 1999. The goal of this report is to draw attention to the need to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious crimes committed in the context of armed conflict, and to highlight recent abuses in this context. The responsibility to ensure that such crimes are prosecuted and punished is unconditional and imperative; abuses by armed opposition groups do not absolve the Government of Burundi of this responsibility.
Disclaimer	This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.