Amnesty International Report 2017/18

108

Amnesty International Report 2017/18

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

Reports of torture and other ill-treatment by, 

among others, the SNR, police and the army, 

of detainees suspected of opposing the 

government continued. Torture methods 

included beating men with cables, iron 

reinforcing bars (rebar) and batons, as well 

as hanging heavy weights from genitals. 

Imbonerakure members were frequently 

accused of beating detainees during arrest.

Impunity for such violations continued. 

Burundi had not yet established a National 

Preventive Mechanism against torture as set 

out in the Optional Protocol to the UN 

Convention against Torture.

SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

The Commission of Inquiry interviewed 49 

survivors of sexual violence that took place 

between 2015 and 2017. Most of the cases 

involved rape of women and girls by police, 

often while arresting a male family member. 

The Commission also documented sexual 

violence against men in detention. It 

concluded that sexual violence appeared to 

be used as a way to assert dominance over 

people linked to opposition parties or 

movements.

ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS

Arbitrary arrests and detentions continued, 

including during police searches in the so-

called opposition neighbourhoods of 

Bujumbura. People were often arrested 

without warrants and only later informed of 

the accusations against them. Police and 

Imbonerakure sometimes used excessive 

force during arrests and attempted arrests. 

Former detainees said that they or their 

family had to pay vast sums of money to 

members of the SNR, police or Imbonerakure 

in exchange for their release.

FREEDOMS OF EXPRESSION AND 

ASSEMBLY

Restrictions on freedom of expression and 

peaceful assembly continued at all levels. 

University students in Bujumbura went on 

strike in March to protest against a new 

student loan and grant system; several of 

them were arrested and six student leaders 

were charged with rebellion.

On 4 April, Joseph Nsabiyabandi, editor-in-

chief of Radio Isanganiro, was summoned for 

questioning by the SNR, and accused of 

collaborating with two radio stations set up by 

Burundian journalists in exile.

On 9 June, the Mayor of Bujumbura refused 

to allow Amizero y’Abarundi, the 

parliamentary opposition coalition, composed 

of representatives from the National 

Liberation Forces and Union for National 

Progress, to hold a press conference on the 

grounds that the coalition did not have “legal 

personality”.

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

In January, the Bujumbura Court of Appeal 

overturned a decision by the Bar 

Association’s president not to disbar four 

lawyers following a request to do so by a 

prosecutor in 2016. Three of the lawyers 

were, therefore, disbarred while another was 

suspended for one year. The prosecutor had 

called for them to be struck off after they 

contributed to a report to the UN Committee 

against Torture.

Germain Rukuki was arrested on 13 July; 

he was president of the community 

organization Njabutsa Tujane, an employee of 

the Burundian Catholic Lawyers Association 

and a former member of ACAT-Burundi 

(Action by Christians for the Abolition of 

Torture, ACAT). The SNR held and 

interrogated him without a lawyer present, 

before transferring him to prison in Ngozi city 

on 26 July. On 1 August, he was charged 

with “undermining state security” and 

“rebellion”, for collaborating with ACAT-

Burundi, which was banned in October 

2016. The Public Prosecutor presented as 

evidence against him an email exchange 

from a period when ACAT-Burundi was legally 

registered in Burundi. Germain Rukuki was 

denied bail and remained in detention at the 

end of the year.

Nestor Nibitanga, former member of the 

deregistered Association for the Protection of 

Human Rights and Detained Persons 

(APRODH), was arrested in Gitega on 21 

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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

109

November. He was charged with 

undermining state security and rebellion. 

This appeared to be in retaliation for his 

human rights activities. Following a hearing 

on 28 December, the Mukaza court in 

session at Rumonge decided to keep Nestor 

Nibitanga in provisional detention. He 

remained in detention at the Murembwe 

central prison in Rumonge at the end of the 

year.

REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS

People trying to flee the country reported 

abuses including rape, killings, beatings and 

extortion by members of the Imbonerakure. 

Many tried to leave by informal routes, as 

they did not have official travel documents; 

they were afraid of being accused of joining 

the rebellion, being refused permission to 

leave or being arrested at the border for 

trying to leave.

The number of Burundian refugees in 

relation to the current crisis reached over 

418,000 in September but fell to 391,111 by 

the end of 2017. Most of them were hosted 

by Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic 

of the Congo (see Democratic Republic of the 

Congo entry) and Uganda. In an operation 

led by the Tanzanian government and 

supported by UNHCR, the UN refugee 

agency, organized returns began in 

September with 8,836 refugees assisted to 

return to Burundi by 20 November. Many 

refugees cited harsh conditions in their 

countries of asylum as their main reason for 

return. In August, the World Food 

Programme warned that without urgent 

funding from donors, insufficient food rations 

to refugees in Tanzania would be further 

reduced. The UNHCR-led Burundi Regional 

Refugee Response received only 20% of the 

funding required for 2017.

In January, Tanzania stopped automatically 

recognizing Burundian asylum-seekers as 

refugees. Uganda followed suit in June. On 

20 July 2017, President Nkurunziza visited 

Tanzania in an attempt to convince 

Burundian refugees that it was safe to return.

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE

The International Organization for Migration 

said that 187,626 people were internally 

displaced as of November; 19% were 

displaced in 2017. Two thirds of the total 

were displaced by natural disasters and one 

third as a result of the socio-political 

situation.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY

Couples cohabiting without being married 

risked prosecution under a 2016 law which 

banned “free unions” or cohabitation and 

carried a prison sentence of one to three 

months, and a fine of up to 200,000 francs 

(USD114). In May, following President 

Nkurunziza’s call for a nationwide 

“moralization” campaign, the Interior ministry 

spokesperson gave cohabiting couples until 

31 December to “regularize” their situation.

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL 

RIGHTS

In October, the Minister of Justice presented 

proposed amendments to the Penal Code 

which were unanimously adopted by the 

National Assembly and the Senate. The 

amendments would criminalize begging and 

“vagrancy”. Able-bodied people found guilty 

of begging would face a prison sentence of 

between two weeks and two months, and/or a 

fine of up to 10,000 francs (USD6). The 

same sentence was proposed for “vagrancy”.

Burundian refugees living outside the 

country claimed that increased local taxation 

was affecting their livelihoods. The extent to 

which fees were formally imposed or were 

simply acts of extortion was not always clear 

especially where they were collected by 

members of the Imbonerakure.

INTERNATIONAL SCRUTINY

On 4 September, the Commission of Inquiry 

report concluded that there were reasonable 

grounds to believe that crimes against 

humanity had been committed since April 

2015. On 28 September, the UN Human 

Rights Council adopted a resolution 

mandating a team of three experts “to collect 

and preserve information […] in cooperation 

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