Amnesty decries harsh police cell conditions

Amnesty International (AI) has decried what it described as continuing illegal detentions by police of Burundians in the northwest of the county, some of whom have been in custody for as long as two years. In a report on Thursday, it said that at least six detainees - all men aged between 27 and 52 - were being held under "harsh and potentially life-threatening conditions" in police cells in Kirundo. "A combination of inadequate diet, unsanitary and unhealthy conditions of detention poses a serious threat to detainees' health, particularly over a long period of time," it said. Quoting a report from two Burundian rights groups whose officials visited the prisoners on 6 August, AI said the cells of the Public Security Police (Police de securite publique) in Kirundo were overcrowded, with about 20 men being held in one five-metre-by-four-metre cell, inadequately ventilated and providing neither latrine nor bedding. "The men must sleep on the floor," AI said. It reported that Burundi had a prison population of some 8,500, held in facilities built to accommodate a maximum of 3,600. Most of the prisons were overcrowded, lacked basic facilities such as health care, and provided only "grossly inadequate rations", thereby rendering the prisoners dependent on relatives to supplement their diet. However, the report noted, relatives sometimes found it very difficult to make regular visits due to the long distances to the detention sites, and lack of money and food. Under Burundian law, AI said, police could hold detainees for a maximum of two weeks, after which they must either be charged and transferred to a prison or remand centre, or released. "All the men [in Kirundo] are therefore held illegally," it said. AI named six of the Kirundo detainees as follows: Ntacorwashigaje, 52 ; Dieudonné Kwizera, 23; Tite Mitaga, 45; Emmanuel Nzohabonimana, 35; Mastajabu, 43; and Ndayizeye, 27.