Amnesty fears for 12-year-old in prison

Amnesty International (AI) has said it fears that a child inmate at the Mpimba Central Prison will be ill-treated, primarily by other prisoners. AI on Monday described the detention of Alexandre Nzeyimana, who is being held without charge, as a violation of Burundi law, which stipulates that no child under 13 years of age may be detained. However, many children under that age are detained, particularly by the gendarmerie and police. Nzeyimana had been arrested in April 2002 near his home in Gatora sector, Bubanza Province, on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a member of a government militia, the Gardiens de la paix, which he denied, AI said. He was transferred to Mpimba prison, some 40 km from his home, on 26 August. Since then, AI said, the Association burundaise pour la défense des droits des prisonniers (ABDP - the Burundian Association for the Defence of Prisoners' Rights) has raised concerns about his age, "reportedly given as 20 in his case file", Amnesty said. "Independent human rights activists, including ABDP representatives who have seen him, strongly dispute this. Like many other children in Burundi, Alexandre Nzeyimana has found it impossible to prove his age," Amnesty said. Burundi, it added, had 4,600 detainees awaiting trial out of a prison population of over 8,000, and that it could take "several years" before a case was heard. AI said child detainees it had interviewed previously in Burundi had spoken of sexual abuse by co-detainees. Although in Mpimba juveniles slept in a separate wing at night, they were with adult inmates during the day and were "vulnerable to abuse". "Many child detainees who are isolated from their families face malnutrition, as all detainees depend on food from their families to supplement the meagre prison diet," it added. Burundi is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.