Burundi: Regional summit should give priority to protection of human rights

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International

AI Index: AFR 16/011/2003
18 July 2003

Burundi: Regional summit should give priority to protection of human rights

Amnesty International is appealing to regional Heads of State or their
representatives meeting on 20 July 2003 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to
inject a renewed momentum to ending the armed conflict in Burundi and to
give protection of human rights priority on their agenda.

"The gap between paper agreements and the situation of Burundian civilians
in constant fear for their lives, property and security grows ever larger,"
said Amnesty International.

In a letter to the Heads of State and those facilitating negotiations,
aimed at preventing further mass human rights abuses, Amnesty International
is calling on the participants:

- to give due consideration to human rights abuses which are being
committed by all parties to the armed conflict and to measures which can be
undertaken in the immediate and longer term to ensure protection for human
rights;
- in relation to any discussion of peace-keeping forces or other possible
military intervention which may be considered during the summit, to
consider the situation in the wider Great Lakes region, particularly in the
Democratic Republic of Congo. Should any peace-keeping force lose or be
perceived to lose its impartiality or should a partisan military
intervention take place, the risk of the conflict escalating across borders
within the region as well as within Burundi itself is considerable. Such an
escalation would dramatically affect the human rights and humanitarian
situation within the region;
- to exclude from any peace-keeping operations forces with a known record
of human rights violations in their own countries or abroad;
- to support Amnesty International's call on the UN Security Council to
impose an arms embargo on all parties to the conflict;
- to intervene as a matter of urgency with the Government of Burundi to
prevent reprisals against the Hutu population in the wake of the recent
PALIEPHUTU-FNL (Rwasa) attack on Bujumbura;
- to call for the mandate of the African Union peace-keeping force to be
urgently amended to include specific reference to protection of the lives
and other fundamental rights of unarmed civilians, and for the force to be
given the resources to enable it to carry out these tasks effectively. The
current crisis demonstrates the urgency of this issue.

Amnesty International is appealing, again, to all parties to the conflict
to take immediate steps to prevent further human rights abuses, including
killings of unarmed civilians, torture including rape, hostage-taking, and
use of child soldiers, by their forces.

Background

The week-long attack on the Bujumbura, launched on 7 July 2003 by the Hutu
armed political group, PALIPEHUTU-FNL (Rwasa) is a dramatic illustration of
the escalating armed conflict within Burundi, in which human rights abuses
by all parties continue unabated, fuelling the conflict and hindering
attempts to attain its resolution.

While a resolution of the political crisis and armed conflict has
progressed on paper, in reality armed conflict has escalated substantially
since the signing of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Burundi
(Peace Agreement) in August 2000. The human rights and humanitarian crises
have deepened simultaneously. All parties to the conflict share
responsibility for this.

The chances of a successful resolution of the armed conflict and related
human rights crisis through implementation of the Peace Agreement were
undermined not least by the non-participation in negotiations of the two
main active armed political groups, the CNDD-FDD and PALIPEHUTU-FNL, the
reasons for which remain contested. This flaw has proved costly in terms of
human rights abuses and lives lost since then, in the context of on-going
armed conflict and political rivalry.

The eventual signing in December 2002 of a cease-fire agreement between the
Government of Burundi and the CNDD-FDD (Nkurunziza), albeit with
significant outstanding issues, represented an important step towards
potentially ending conflict between them, and thus potentially improving
the human rights situation dramatically. However, since then, the
initiative appears lost; both parties have violated the cease-fire
agreement repeatedly, and armed conflict and human rights abuses have
escalated.

Other armed political groups, including the CNDD (Nyangoma), CNDD-FDD
(Ndayikengurikye) and PALIPEHUTU-FNL (Mugabarabona), are either signatories
to the Peace Agreement and/or have since signed cease-fire agreements.
However the real status of their military leaders and the nature and size
of their forces is the subject of debate. These groups are actively
recruiting new combatants including from the Gardiens de la paix (an armed
but unpaid government militia responsible for unlawful killings and other
grave human rights violations) many of whom are former child soldiers.

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