Sporadic violence has gripped the central African nation since April 2015 when incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term, prompting protests and leading to often deadly clashes with police.
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According to the council, the latest sanctions “consist of a travel ban and asset freeze against four persons whose activities were deemed to be undermining democracy or obstructing the search for a political solution to the crisis in Burundi”.
The UN human rights office has verified 564 cases of executions between April 26, 2015 and August 30, 2016, the report said, stressing that this was “clearly a conservative estimate”.
GENEVA, Sept 20 (Reuters) – U.N. investigators looking into the alleged torture and murder of government opponents in Burundi have drawn up a list of suspects who should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, they said on Tuesday.
UNIIB said a former senior army officer told investigators of the existence of lists of people to be eliminated.
The government has sent the United Nations rights commissioner a 40-page rebuttal, he added.
“@UNHumanRights did not respect the usual rules by releasing the report without the response of @BurundiGov”, he added. Some of the people who said they had been tortured reported being held in secret jails including at the homes of the president and a government minister. It details 17 different forms of torture and ill-treatment reported to the independent United Nations investigators, including the attachment of weights to victims’ testicles, the crushing of fingers and toes with pliers, progressive burning with a blow torch, and being forced to sit in acid or on broken glass or nails.
Many women fleeing the country were subjected to sexual violence by the members of the youth wing of the ruling party, Imbonerakure, border guards and unidentified men, the report said.
“Any semblance of opposition to the Government is dealt with ruthlessly and seemingly without fear of accountability”, the report states, noting that “the accountability mechanisms are exceedingly weak and impunity is endemic”.
The suggested robust actions include immediate establishment of an worldwide Commission of Inquiry, involvement of other independent global judicial processes, and reconsideration of Burundi’s membership to the UN Human Rights Council.
“Given the country’s history, the danger of the crime of genocide also looms large”, the report warned.
A UN Independent investigation on Burundi (UNIIB) has unearthed several cases of human rights violations in the country.
And they asked the UN General Assembly to consider whether Burundi could remain a Human Rights Council member – marking a first in the council’s decade-long history.
Expressing their “alarm about the potential threat to peace and security in the Great Lakes region”, the independent experts called on “the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, to discharge effectively its mandate to ensure peace and security, and to protect… the civilian population from threat of physical violence, under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter”.
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Chapter 7 can be enforced militarily.
