Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United States and the European Union (EU) to pressure the authorities in Burundi to take concrete steps to improve human rights record in the country.
The rights organisation made the call against the backdrop of the EU’s decision to resume direct financial assistance to the government of Burundi after it imposed sanctions in 2015.
The EU said the Burundian government had made progress with respect to human rights, good governance and the rule of law and hence the decision to lift the sanctions.
In 2021, the United States also removed sanctions placed on Burundi since 2015, crediting elections, a fall in violence, and reforms by President Evariste Ndayishimiye.
HRW however said that for the last year and a half, authorities in the country have continued to intimidate and silence their critics by detaining and torturing activists.
‘According to local human rights organisations, hundreds of people have been killed since Ndayishimiye took office, some by Burundian security forces or members of the ruling party’s notorious youth league, and some by unknown assailants’, HRW African Director, Mausi Segun, said.
‘Human Rights Watch, where I work, has received credible reports of scores of killings and gathered hours of bloodcurdling testimony from survivors of torture and loved ones of those who have been killed or disappeared.
‘Ndayishimiye did release some human rights advocates and journalists from jail and lift some restrictions on the media and civil society, but his government continues to use repressive tactics against its opponents.
‘Tony Germain Nkina, a lawyer and former human rights defender, was convicted on baseless charges of collaborating with rebels that were confirmed on appeal in September 2021. The government has also used arrest warrants, convictions in absentia, and life sentences against human rights defenders in exile to silence the country’s once-thriving human rights movement.’
The United Nations (UN) Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, in its 2021 report to the UN Human Rights Council, concluded that no structural reform has been undertaken to durably improve the human rights and rule of law situation in the country.
Also, Freedom House rated Burundi as ‘not free’ in its 2021 Freedom in the World, an annual study of political rights and civil liberties worldwide, with the East African country earning 14 points out of a possible 100.
Source: HRW
Photo source: United Nations Watch
