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Burundi: Recent Documents
Burundi: Recent Documents
Date Distributed (ymd): 970119
Document reposted by APIC
U.S. COMMITTEE FOR REFUGEES - PRESS RELEASE
January 15, 1997
For further information contact Jeff Drumtra, Africa Policy
Analyst, at the U.S. Committee for Refugees, 1717
Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 701, Washington, DC 20036; Tel:
(202) 347-3507; Fax: (202) 347-3418; E-mail:
[email protected].
TANZANIA'S EXPULSION OF BURUNDIAN REFUGEES SHOULD
CEASE;
EXECUTIONS PROVE BURUNDI REMAINS EXTREMELY
DANGEROUS
The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) calls on the government
of Tanzania to cease immediately its expulsion of Burundian
refugees.
Authorities in Tanzania forcibly expelled some 126 Burundians
on January 10-11, resulting in the execution of at least 122
of the expellees immediately upon their arrival in Burundi,
according to an investigation by the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). Authorities in Burundi have acknowledged
that the Burundian army committed the killings, although
their version of the exact events differs from other reports.
USCR warns that Tanzanian officials are committing a grievous
wrong if they continue to expel Burundians or in any way
pressure Burundian refugees to repatriate to their war-torn
country.
More than 300,000 Burundian refugees reside in Tanzania,
including an estimated 100,000 persons who have fled to
Tanzanian refugee camps in the past six months. An average
of several hundred Burundians continue to enter Tanzania each
day in search of safety. They are fleeing Burundis
intensified civil war, ethnic cleansing, wholesale massacres
of civilians both by government soldiers and rebels, and a
coup that ousted Burundis democratically elected government
last July. Estimates suggest that 15,000 to 30,000 persons
were killed in Burundi during 1996. The death toll continues
at a rate of several hundred per week in early 1997.
The decision by Tanzanian officials to expel 126 Burundians
last week because of their alleged criminal behavior in
Tanzania was unconscionable. Tanzanian authorities who
suspect particular refugees of criminal activity should
detain them and bring them to justice in Tanzanian courts.
There is cause for concern that additional expulsions from
Tanzania may occur, with similarly fatal results in Burundi
for the returnees. State radio in Tanzania reportedly urged
Burundian refugees to return home by stating in recent days
that the situation in Burundi is not as threatening as
reported by certain quarters.
On the contrary, Burundi remains one of the most dangerous
countries on earth. Violence has spread to formerly quiet
areas in recent months. Recently returned refugees and other
displaced persons who have dared to return to their homes are
regularly massacred. Tanzanian authorities tactic of
downplaying the dangers in Burundi does a grave disservice to
terrified Burundians who have fled to Tanzania for
protection, and who rely on authorities for accurate
information about conditions for repatriation to their
homeland.
Much of the international community chose to withhold
criticism last month when the Tanzanian government expelled
hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees. The international
community regarded many Rwandan refugees in Tanzania as
virtual prisoners in their own camps who needed protection
from their own extremist leaders. Rwandan refugees were
denied accurate information about conditions in Rwanda
conducive to repatriation and were generally able to
repatriate in relative safety if they were innocent of
serious crimes inside Rwanda. Unlike Burundis rulers,
Rwandan authorities have not engaged in systematic massacres,
and Rwandan government policy has attempted to facilitate
repatriation and reintegration.
The situation in Burundi is markedly different, and the
conditions for repatriation there are abysmal.
USCR condemns the killing of returnees in Burundi and urges
Tanzania to abide by its legal and moral responsibility to
provide life-saving asylum to Burundian refugees.
BURUNDI-ECONOMY
Massacres Weaken Bid to Have Sanctions Lifted
by Moyiga Nduru
[This article reposted with permission. IPS Africa coverage
is regularly available in the conference africa.news on the
APC networks,and by subscription from PeaceNet World News
(for information, send a message to [email protected]).
For information about cross-posting, send a message to
[email protected]. For more
information about access to
and reproduction of IPS Africa coverage, contact Peter da
Costa in Harare ([email protected]).]
NAIROBI, Jan 15, 1997 (IPS) - Burundi's government is again
urging its neighbours to lift economic sanctions aimed at
forcing de facto president Pierre Buyoya to step down, but
its arguments weigh little against continued massacres by
its army.
The latest mass killing, admitted by the Burundi military,
occurred on Friday, just four days before Defence Minister
Firmin Sinzoyiheba met Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in
Kampala to enlist his support for an end to the sanctions.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
which has condemned the massacre, 122 Hutu refugees who had
just returned to Burundi from Rwanda were killed in the
incident. UNHCR said soldiers opened fire on the refugees
when a woman lobbed a grenade at them, although it did not
explode.
Thousands of civilians have been killed in Burundi, some by
the Tutsi-led military and others by Hutu rebels bent on
overthrowing the Buyoya junta, which seized power on Jul. 25
last.
The latest killing did not prevent the government in
Bujumbura from dispatching Sinzoyiheba to Kampala where he
was reportedly told by Museveni that any decision to lift
the sanctions would have to be taken collectively by East
and Central Africa heads of state.
The Burundian defence minister was also scheduled to travel
to other regional capitals to lobby for the scrapping of the
sanctions, which he said were ''hurting'' Burundi.
East and Central African nations imposed an embargo on all
trade with and transport to Burundi on Jul. 31 last to force
the military junta to return the country to democratic rule.
The blockade has crippled Burundi's foreign trade,
especially coffee, which is its leading export, accounting
for 80 percent of the country's foreign earnings and about
40 percent of its gross domestic product before the ban.
Given the continuation of human rights violations in the
Central African nation and the fact that the Buyoya regime has
held on to power, neighbouring states are unlikely to lift the
ban, which the opposition wants them to maintain.
In Nairobi, Burundi's main armed opposition group, the Hutudominated
National Council for the Defence of Democracy
(CNDD), insists that the embargo should be tightened,
charging that some regional countries are violating it,
especially Rwanda.
In a letter last week to the Sanctions-Monitoring Committee
on Burundi -- set up by the leaders of Tanzania, Kenya,
Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Zaire and Cameroon -- the
CNDD said Rwanda had allowed goods into Burundi in violation
of the ban.
''On Friday, Jan. 3, twenty lorries with trailers
transporting all kind of unidentified goods, including caps
for beer bottles, entered Burundi at the official border
between Rwanda and Burundi,'' the CNDD said.
''They were chauffeured by soldiers of the Burundi regular
army and directed to the industrial estate in Bujumbura just
next to the building of a transit and transport company
called TRANSINTRA,'' the CNDD added in the document, signed
by Innocent Nimpagariste, its representative in Nairobi.
''When asked, the government of Rwanda said that it was the
work of uncontrolled smugglers. Yet the presence of soldiers
as drivers exclude every possibility of smuggling without
prior authorization of the Rwandese authorities,'' added
the letter, a copy of which was made available to IPS.
The CNDD charged that goods were also finding their way into
Burundi from other countries: cement from Zambia, beer from
Zaire as well as Rwanda, and perfumes, cooking oil and salt
from Kenya and Tanzania.
A Ugandan journalist writing in the Jan. 6-12 issue of 'The
East African' weekly here said he witnessed vehicles
transporting fuel to Burundi while on a visit to that
nation.
''Recently I saw a convoy of 10 fuel tankers, their number
plates obscured by mud, driving to Bujumbura, the Burundi
capital,'' he wrote. ''Five of the tankers, with trailers,
came from Rwanda and five from Tanzania. They converged at
Kayanza junction inside Burundi then proceeded in single
file to Bujumbura where residents said they entered the
city.''
In its letter to the Sanctions-Monitoring Committee, the
CNDD also charged that Burundi's authorities were seeking
the help of countries that have not joined the embargo.
It said a delegation of civil aviation officials travelled
at the beginning of January to Congo ''to negotiate with
Congolese authorities an agreement on an air-corridor
connecting (the port of) Pointe Noire and Bujumbura to be
operated by Air Burundi as a way of beating sanctions.
''The first plane has already landed in Pointe Noire and
will continue doing so on a regular basis if the agreement
is signed,'' the CNDD charged. ''Air Burundi will be
transporting tea and coffee from Burundi, while on the
return flight it will take arms and ammunitions to
Bujumbura.'' (END/IPS/MN/KB/96)
[c] 1997, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS). All
rights reserved.
Excepts from IRIN Emergency Updates on the
Great Lakes
UNITED NATIONS Department of Humanitarian Affairs, Integrated
Regional Information Network, Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2
622129 e-mail: [email protected]. The
material contained in
this communication may not necessarily reflect the views of
the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy,
archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and
disclaimer.
IRIN's daily updates cover the entire Great Lakes region.
Below are excerpts on Burundi from recent updates. The full
text of the updates, as well a wide variety of other current
UN, NGO and press reports, can be found on the United Nations'
ReliefWeb site:
http://www.reliefweb.int
IRIN Emergency Update No.79 on the Great Lakes (Wednesday 15
January 1997)
# Church officials in Burundi claimed other massacres occurred
last month, in the northern province of Kayanza. Eyewitnesses
reportedly told the bishop of Ngozi that soldiers killed some
3,000 people in the Gatara, Rango and Butaganzwa areas between
December 2 and 30. However, military commander Cyrille
Ndayirukiye, quoted by AFP, dismissed the figure as
exaggerated although he admitted about 30 people had been
killed. Both rebel and military attacks were said to be on the
rise in northern Kayanza, and the increase in ethnic tension
was making it difficult for humanitarian organisations to
operate. News of the alleged massacre came through as the US
State Department condemned the killing of some 120 refugees
who were returned to Burundi from Tanzania on Friday. "This
massacre is only part of a pattern of violence in Burundi
which must cease," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns
said yesterday. He also called for all-party talks and a
ceasefire in Burundi.
Seventeen people were sentenced to death in Burundi last year
for offences linked to ethnic massacres which broke out after
the assassination of president Melchior Ndadaye in October
1993. The president of the appeal court, Domitille Barancira,
said the death sentences were confirmed out of 45 appeal cases
that had been heard so far. A total of 139 cases have been
appealed. Barancira told AFP that those tried had been accused
of murder, assassination, offences against state security,
membership of armed bands and armed robbery. She added that no
executions had been carried out since cases of cannibalism
were punished about 15 years ago.
Relief organisations report that large numbers of newly
displaced persons continue to arrive at the hospital in
Bubanza, northern Burundi, with 250 people registered on one
day alone. Many of them showed signs of acute malnutrition.
The new arrivals speak of continued instability in the hills
north of the town. A new centre is being built in the hospital
grounds to cope with the overwhelming requirements of
malnourished people.
# Burundi's Defence Minister Firmin Sinzoyiheba kicked off a
campaign to lift regional economic sanctions against his
country by holding talks with Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni, the Kenyan 'Daily Nation' reported today. He is
expected to meet other regional leaders in the next few weeks.
According to Museveni's press secretary, Sinzoyiheba explained
the detrimental effect of sanctions on the country but
Museveni insisted any decision to lift the embargo would be
have to be made collectively. Uganda stressed Burundi must
abide by the conditions set by regional leaders when sanctions
were imposed last year. These include a dialogue with Hutu
rebels. Rwandan Vice-President Paul Kagame, during a
visit to Cyangugu prefecture last week, said regional leaders
were looking into how the economic embargo against Burundi
could be lifted. He expressed hope that common ground would be
found. While in Cyangugu, he held talks with the director of
the Bugarama cement factory to discuss increasing production
for future export to neighbouring Zaire and Burundi, Rwandan
radio said.
Nairobi, 15 January 1997, 15:30 gmt [ENDS]
IRIN Emergency Update No.80 on the Great Lakes (Thursday 16
January 1997)
# The Burundi authorities have accused Hutu rebels of the
National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD) of
massacring 22 people in the volatile northwest Cibitoke
province. Defence Ministry spokesman, Col. Isaie Nibizi,
interviewed by Burundi radio, said rebels launched an attack
overnight Monday in Rugombo, killing 22 mostly women, children
and old people with machetes and knives. Four more people were
injured. Nibizi said the local governor and military officials
had visited the area and helped to bury the dead. Nibizi also
spoke about the incident in Muyinga province last week when
soldiers opened fire on Hutu returnees from Tanzania, killing
some 120. He said the returnees were from the rebel Palipehutu
party "which is why the soldiers did not make any mistakes and
why the incident took place". An investigation was underway,
he added. UN officials report that the provincial military
commander has been sacked and that human rights observers have
been denied access to Kobero where the killings occurred.
# Burundian President Pierre Buyoya on Tuesday met political
leaders, the first meeting of its kind since the unbanning of
political parties last September. Speaking on national radio,
Buyoya said the purpose of the meeting was to create a
framework for regular political meetings and to discuss the
forthcoming national debate. He described the national debate,
scheduled for later this month, as "a clean page intended to
bring Burundians closer together for discussions".
# Tanzanian police have launched a crackdown on Rwandan
refugees who tried to flee deeper into the country rather than
face repatriation. A total of 6,354 refugees who ventured into
forests in the Ngara region had been apprehended by Tuesday
and handed over to Rwandan officials at the Rusumo border
crossing. Ngara District Commissioner Evans Balama said the
crackdown would continue until all aliens had left Ngara. He
urged local residents to assist the police in flushing out the
refugees. Balama added that the operation had also resulted in
netting 8,441 Burundians who entered the country illegally.
They had been transferred to the Lukole refugee camp in Ngara
district. An exercise to transfer 60,000 Burundians from
Kitali camp to Lukole also began on Tuesday.
Nairobi, 16 January 1997, 14:30 gmt [ENDS]
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational
affiliate of the Washington Office on Africa. APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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