Amnesty calls for investigation into killings

The human rights watchdog, Amnesty International (AI), has called on the government of Burkina Faso to investigate allegations made by the Burkina Faso Human and Peoples' Rights Movement that security forces, in a crackdown against increasing insecurity, have committed extra-judicial killings.

AI said the government "should immediately investigate" the movement's claim that, in the past three months, 106 extrajudicial killings have taken place. According to AI, the bodies, which the government says are those of bandits, have been found throughout the country, including the capital, Ouagadougou. AI said the Burkinabe authorities should carry out an "exhaustive, impartial and independent" inquiry in order to determine those responsible and if excessive force was used against presumed criminals.

Burkina Faso's security minister, Djibril Bassole, acknowledged on Monday that security forces had killed scores of armed robbers in recent months during an anti-banditry campaign launched in 2001, but defended the forces by saying that they "have no option but to respond accordingly" in dealing with armed gangs.

The Burkinabe rights association revealed the situation last week. According to its secretary-general, Chrosogone Zougmore, in the same period, there had been 1,605 robberies in which 34 civilians were killed.