Prosecutor calls for debate on ‘political prisoners’

State Prosecutor Gerard Ngendabanka has suggested a national debate on the issue of ‘political prisoners’ in the wake of peace facilitator Nelson Mandela’s call on 14 June for such prisoners to be released in the name of peace. He said many Burundians believed there were political prisoners among the prison population of some 10,000, but did not dare say so aloud, the independent Hirondelle news agency reported on Tuesday. In an interview with Hirondelle, Ngendabanka said those prisoners people talked about as political could be divided into several categories: 1. a relatively small number of mainly ethnic Tutsis, accused and convicted of killing Ndadaye, a Hutu; 2. a large number people, mainly Hutu supporters of Ndadaye’s FRODEBU party, accused - and many convicted - of having massacred Tutsis after the late president’s death; 3. people accused of supporting the rebellion that followed President Pierre Buyoya’s 1996 coup - mostly members of the CNDD, PALIPEHUTU and FROLINA Hutu groups; 4. Tutsis accused of planning a rebellion against the Buyoya regime (mostly members of the hardline Tutsi PARENA party); and, 5. another group of pro-PARENA Tutsis accused of attempts on Buyoya’s life “These are the people whom the mediator [Mandela] and a big section of public opinion here, especially their respective political parties, consider as political prisoners, but the government says they are common law prisoners” Hirondelle quoted Ngendabanka as saying. He also said there was a problem in Burundi of prisoners being held a long time without charge, and of others accused unjustly or subjected to arbitrary arrest, and the authorities were trying to address these issues. “I think there are people who could be amnestied. Anyone who has committed a crime can be pardoned. But, of course, that must take place within the context of the law, and there must be a political agreement between the parties involved in the conflict,” he added.