publications

V. The Official Response to Reports of Human Rights Violations

On receiving reports of illegal detentions and beatings at Kaniga, a number of local officials stepped in to try and restore due process and put an end to abuses. These interventions reduced the scale of the violations, but did not stop police abuses completely. A judicial police officer working in Rutegama contacted the Muramvya authorities about the abuses. On October 16, eight days into the arrests, a Muramvya deputy prosecutor and the Muramvya commissioner of the judicial police accompanied that officer to Kaniga to investigate his complaints. They found more than a dozen detainees, many bearing scars from torture.69The deputy prosecutor informed the GMIR police officers that Kaniga was an illegal detention site and that torture was prohibited. He insisted that they free the detainees, but the police refused, saying he would have to speak with Commander Uwamahoro, who was not present.70 

The same day, Provincial Internal Security Police Commissioner Viateur Muco arrived independently at the Kaniga health center, after GMIR officers had told him that a woman was detained there (they were apparently concerned that a woman was detained with men). Commissioner Muco transferred the woman and two other detainees to jails in Muramvya town and freed one detainee. However, for reasons that remain unclear, the commissioner left others in the illegal detention center.71 A victim told a Human Rights Watch that Muco was well aware of the presence of others.72  Another victim said that when detainees were transferred or freed on October 16, the GMIR officer taking notes during interrogations, whom victims assumed to be a judicial police officer, told him he should stay because his file was not yet finished.73

Two days later, on October 18, the governor of Muramvya and another deputy prosecutor attempted to visit the center, but were refused access by Commander Uwamahoro.74On October 19, the Muramvya Prosecutor arrived at the health center with the provincial judicial police commissioner. By this time, all remaining detainees had been freed apart from the several who had been transferred to Muramvya.75

One detainee said that upon his release he was threatened by Commander Uwamahoro, “If you talk about what happened, you will be abducted.”76 Despite receiving a similar injunction, another victim contacted APRODH after his release, spurring investigations by APRODH, BINUB and Human Rights Watch, beginning the following week.77 Detentions reduced in number but did not entirely end at this time. For example, the judicial police officer who spoke up against torture cited above was held overnight at Kaniga on October 25.

Following the intervention of human rights organizations and BINUB human rights officers, who contacted the police spokesperson and other police authorities in late October to protest the abuses, Burundian police officials recalled the GMIR unit under Commander Uwamahoro to Bujumbura in early November and re-posted it to several city neighborhoods.78 According to residents, a new GMIR unit sent to Rutegama in November continued the practice of illegal nighttime searches. Its officers are reported to have illegally detained at least one person in the health center rather than transferring him to the judicial police.79 Additionally, local security police chief Nestor Niyokuri, who was also implicated in human rights violations, remained on duty in Rutegama until February 2008.80 According to one victim, the police chief threatened her after the initial abuse and arrested another person who had spoken with human rights organizations.81

Beyond the immediate interventions to halt abuses by the GMIR unit based at Kaniga in October 2007, the police and judicial authorities have been slow to address human rights violations, with the result that as of this writing not a single officer involved in these events has been disciplined or brought to justice. Indeed, Commander Uwamahoro has been promoted from head of a single GMIR unit to commander of the 3rd GMIR group.82

Three victims filed complaints with the Muramvya prosecutor’s office in late October, but the prosecutor initially took no steps toward interviewing witnesses or calling in suspects for questioning. He told a Human Rights Watch researcher that he had not received one of the complaints filed, although a BINUB human rights observer later found this complaint on his desk.83Two of the victims who initially filed complaints were among those who had visible scars, but the prosecutor never ordered medical examinations of their healed wounds.84

Other victims initially expressed reluctance to press charges, fearing retaliation. In late November, however, a number of them agreed to provide testimony as part of a collective complaint of 13 victims submitted by Avocats Sans Frontières, an international nongovernmental organization, to the Muramvya prosecutor on November 30, 2007. In mid-December the Muramvya prosecutor finally issued summonses for GMIR Commander Uwamahoro, GMIR Brigadier Apollinaire Sindihokubwayo, and Rutegama security police chief Nestor Niyokuri. The three were interrogated by magistrates in Muramvya on December 20. All three denied that prolonged detention and beatings had occurred at Kaniga. However, a deputy prosecutor told the Human Rights Watch researcher that charges against them would be brought before the Muramvya courts.85

Police officials asked about the abuses by Human Rights Watch either denied they had taken place or sought to justify police misconduct and violations of procedure at Rutegama. One official explained, “People were slapped around a bit, but it was necessary to get information.”86 In another discussion, the same official responded to questions about torture by stating that the GMIR unit had confiscated eight Kalashnikovs, 14 grenades, and a pair of night vision goggles from the residents in and around Rutegama, as if to suggest the recovery of these firearms justified whatever methods might have been used.87 The head of GMIR insisted that no one had been held in an illegal detention site and that all persons arrested by the GMIR had been turned over immediately to the judicial police, while the Commissioner General of the security police said the GMIR had not conducted interrogations.88

In early November, authorities from both the Internal Security Police Commissariat and the Judicial Police Commissariat began internal investigations of the events at Kaniga, but they produced no public report. The commissioners of both police branches were replaced in December 2007 in a restructuring of the national police, and their replacements both told a Human Rights Watch researcher in February that they were unaware of the status of these investigations.89 The commissioner general of the Internal Security Police has the authority to suspend officers suspected of wrongdoing.90 But when a Human Rights Watch researcher asked the then commissioner general Gabriel Nizigama why this had not been done in spite of testimony provided by multiple victims, he said the evidence did not constitute sufficient grounds to take such steps against Uwamahoro, Sindihokubwayo and Niyokuri.91

Commissioner General Gabriel Nizigama did ask GMIR Commander Uwamahoro to submit a report to his superiors about the events that took place at Rutegama. According to David Nikiza, the commander of the three GMIR groups in Bujumbura, the report consisted only of a description of searches carried out and weapons confiscated, and did not include information on any arrests made or the treatment of persons held at the health center. 92

In at least two cases, authorities including the prosecutor and governor of Muramvya and Commander Uwamahoro attempted to facilitate “amiable resolutions” between victims and the police officers who beat them.93 While “amiable resolution” facilitated by local authorities is a common practice in Burundi, it is generally used to resolve conflicts between family members or neighbors. Mediation is not an acceptable alternative to accountability in the case of serious human rights violations.

In December 2007, the new director general of the National Police, appointed in November 2007 after the incidents discussed in this report, told a Human Rights Watch researcher that within the next few months he would begin collecting information on police abuse from citizens and local officials, including in Rutegama. He said that police officers responsible for abuses would be demoted or demobilized.94 A number of police officers were in fact demobilized for disciplinary reasons between November 2007 and March 2008, but none of the officers accused of abuses in Muramvya were among that number.95

Professionalism and Impunity

The abuses in Rutegama in October 2007 are indicative of a set of inter-linked problems that bedevil the Burundian police—problems of ill-discipline, lack of professionalism, and failures of accountability. Equipped with little training in policing but much experience of insurgency and counterinsurgency, many police officers do not enforce laws effectively, and some are themselves responsible for crimes and human rights abuses, which are rarely punished.

According to BINUB and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights in Burundi,  between January and October 2007 police officers committed at least 15 killings, 125 cases of assault, and six cases of rape.96  Avocats Sans Frontières has received 119 complaints of torture by police officers, committed mostly in prisons and jails, in the last two years.97 

There are good reasons for believing that these reported incidents are only a proportion of the abuses that have actually taken place. Many victims do not press charges against police or even report abuses to human rights organizations because they fear retaliation.98 Others believe that pressing charges will be futile. The sense of futility is reinforced by the failure of even members of the political elite to get the perpetrators of abuses against them brought to justice. Speaking of the widely-known case of former Vice-President Alphonse Kadege detained in 2006 (who has not managed to have the police officers who allegedly tortured him brought to account), one Burundian political analyst remarked, “If former Presidents and Vice-Presidents can’t get justice after being tortured, how can ordinary citizens?”99

Since the formation of the National Police, several hundred police officers have been dismissed or jailed after allegations of criminal activity, and one police officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of rape in Bubanza province in mid-2007.100But in cases of torture or ill-treatment of detainees, limited official response is more usual. Of six cases of murder and 52 of ill-treatment or torture recorded by the Burundian human rights organization Ligue Iteka between January and October 2007, only one murder and six torture cases led to charges being brought. The majority of these cases were dismissed, while others moved slowly through the judicial system. As of January 2008 not one of these cases had led to the conviction of police.101 Avocats Sans Frontières assisted victims in filing complaints against police officers in 59 of the 119 torture cases submitted to them from early 2006 to early 2008, but only two police officers had been convicted as of March 2008; one received a two-year prison sentence, while the other paid a fine.102

In at least three cases in the last year, popular frustration at police misconduct has spurred violence against police officers, including lynchings of those suspected of having committed crimes.103 A recent study of popular attitudes towards the police found that 14 percent of Burundians ranked the police as a “group at the origin of violence” in Burundi, following only “armed bandits” and the FNL as primary sources of violence.104

Human Rights Watch has made repeated requests to the police spokesperson and other police officials for a list of police officers arrested in 2007, the allegations against them, and the outcome of any investigations and prosecutions. It is indicative of serious weaknesses in capacity to enforce discipline and accountability that no police authority currently collects such information, and as of this writing the data had not been made available. In November 2007 the inspector general of the national police, responsible for monitoring police misconduct, said that a law has been proposed that would make the inspectorate, an agency of the Public Security Ministry, the central repository for all complaints against police officers and would authorize it to follow the progress of such complaints, but discussions of the bill and possible funding mechanisms are still at an early stage.105

Burundian human rights monitors note that there is a general culture of mutual protection among police, prosecutors and judges. In addition, former and current political loyalties may keep officers from accusing colleagues from movements with which they were formerly affiliated.106 According to Burundian human rights monitors, superior officers often respond to allegations of abuse by an officer by simply transferring the alleged perpetrator to another province.107 Given the absence of administrative files for many officers, repeated violations may go unnoticed, even if some disciplinary sanctions have been imposed.




69 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Muramvya deputy prosecutor, November 28, 2007 and March 22, 2008; Human Rights Watch/APRODH interview with judicial police officer, Rutegama, October 23, 2007.

70 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Muramvya deputy prosecutor, March 22, 2008.

71 Human Rights Watch interviews with victims, Bujumbura, November 1, 2007 and Muramvya, November 2, 2007, and GMIR police officer, Bujumbura, November 21, 2007.

72 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with victim, March 19, 2007.

73 Human Rights Watch interview with victim, Rutegama, November 2, 2007.

74 Human Rights Watch/APRODH interview with Muramvya deputy prosecutor, Muramvya, October 23, 2007.

75 Human Rights Watch/APRODH interview with Muramvya deputy prosecutor, Muramvya, October 23, 2007.

76 Human Rights Watch interview with victim, Bujumbura, November 1, 2007.

77 Human Rights Watch interview with victim, Rutegama, November 2, 2007; « Province Muramvya : la Police de Sécurité Intérieure sème l’insécurité dans les communes Rutegama et Kiganda. », APRODH news release, October 30, 2007, http://www.aprodh.org/article.php3?id_article=102 (accessed March 24, 2008).

78 Human Rights Watch interview with GMIR police officer, Bujumbura, December 3, 2007.

79 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with local authorities, Rutegama residents, and local human rights observer, November 16-18, 2007.

80 Human Rights Watch interview with new Commissioner General of the Interior Security Police Onesphore Mbazumutima, Bujumbura, March 17, 2008.

81 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with victim, December 3, 2007.

82 Human Rights Watch interview with new Commissioner General of the Interior Security Police Onesphore Mbazumutima, Bujumbura, March 17, 2008.

83 Human Rights Watch interview with BINUB official, Bujumbura, November 12, 2007.

84 Human Rights Watch interview with BINUB official, Bujumbura, January 28, 2008.

85 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Muramvya deputy prosecutor, December 7 and 20, 2007, and January 3, 2008.

86 Comment by police spokesperson Pierre Chanel Ntarabaganyi, Bujumbura, November 12, 2007.

87 Human Rights Watch interview with police spokesperson Pierre Chanel Ntarabaganyi, Bujumbura, November 16, 2007.

88 Human Rights Watch interviews with Commissioner General of the Internal Security Police Gabriel Nizigama, Bujumbura, November 19, 2007, and GMIR Commander David Nikiza, Bujumbura, November 23, 2007.

89 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with new Commissioner General of the Internal Security police Onesphone Mbazumitima and new Commissioner General of the Judicial Police Bernard Sekaganda, Bujumbura, February 18, 2008.

90 Human Rights Watch interviews with high-ranking police officials, Bujumbura, November 21, 2007 and February 18, 2008.

91 Human Rights Watch interview with Commissioner General of the Interior Security Police Gabriel Nizigama, December 4, 2007.

92 Human Rights Watch interview with GMIR Commander David Nikiza, Bujumbura, November 23, 2007.

93 Human Rights interviews with victims, October 29, 2007 (by telephone), and in Bujumbura, November 21, 2007.

94 Human Rights Watch interview with Director General of the National Police Fabien Ndayishimiye, Bujumbura, December 18, 2007.

95 Human Rights Watch interview with Assistant Director General of the National Police Gervais Ndirakobuca, Bujumbura, March 26, 2008.

96 BINUB/OHCHR, “Rapport sur la situation des droits de l’homme au Burundi ; Rapports Mensuels, January-October 2007”, unpublished documents. The October 2007 report is available at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2007.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/EGUA-79CST3-rapport_complet.pdf/$File/rapport_complet.pdf.

97 Avocats Sans Frontières, “Dossiers tortures en phase pré-juridictionelle” and “Dossiers torture phase juridictionelle”, unpublished documents transmitted to Human Rights Watch, March 25, 2008.

98 Human Rights Watch interviews with victims, Rutegama, November 2, 2007, representative of Action Chretien contre le Torture (ACAT), Bujumbura, November 16, 2007, and representative of APRODH, Bujumbura, November 20, 2007.

99 Human Rights Watch interview with Burundian analyst, Bujumbura, December 19, 2007. For the cases of former President Domitien Ndayizeye and former Vice-President Alphonse Kadege detained in 2006,  see Human Rights Watch, We flee when we see them: Abuses with impunity at the National Intelligence Service in Burundi, vol. 18, no. 9(A), October 2006, http://hrw.org/reports/2006/burundi1006/index.htm.

100 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with representative of APRODH, February 4, 2008.

101 Email communication from representative of Ligue Iteka to Human Rights Watch, November 23, 2007; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with representative of Ligue Iteka, December 19, 2007.

102 Avocats Sans Frontières, “Dossiers tortures en phase pré-juridictionelle” and “Dossiers torture phase juridictionelle”, unpublished documents transmitted to Human Rights Watch, March 25, 2008.

103 In one case in mid-2007, two police officers were released from prison in Bururi shortly after being charged with theft. Just after their release, they were again caught stealing by local residents, who proceeded to kill them. In another recent case, a police officer was lynched in Ngozi Province in November 2007 following his alleged participation in an armed robbery and murder. Human Rights Watch interviews with representative of APRODH, Bujumbura, December 18, 2007, and February 4, 2008; email communication from representative of BINUB to Human Rights Watch, November 28, 2007.

104 Centre d’Alerte et de Prévention des Conflits  (Bujumbura), “Etude sur la réforme du secteur de sécurité pour la protection de la population civile,” undated, p. 18.

105 Human Rights Watch interviews with Inspector General Pierre Claver Gahungu, Bujumbura, November 26, 2007 and March 11, 2008 (by telephone).

106 Human Rights Watch interview with Burundian analyst, Bujumbura, December 19, 2007. Such considerations appear to have played a part in delaying justice for soldiers and intelligence agents implicated in the killings of some 30 civilians in Muyinga province in 2006. See Human Rights Watch, We flee when we see them: Abuses with impunity at the National Intelligence Service in Burundi, vol. 18, no. 9(A), October 2006, http://hrw.org/reports/2006/burundi1006/index.htm; and “Burundi: Bring Muyinga massacre suspects to trial,” Human Rights Watch news release, September 27, 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/09/26/burund16957.htm.

107 Human Rights Watch interview with representative of APRODH, Bujumbura, November 20, 2007.