![[Burundi] Ramadhan Karenga, CNDD-FDD spokesman.](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/20054263.jpg.webp?itok=kmiPMl9q "Ramadhan Karenga, spokesman of the Burundian government.")
The Burundian government is studying a report by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), detailing extrajudicial killings, and will respond to the claims in due course, government spokesman and Information Minister Ramadhan Karenga said on Thursday.
"The government will give its position later," he said on Thursday in the capital, Bujumbura.
He was reacting to the report released by HRW on Wednesday. It stated that over the past year, agents of Burundi's national intelligence services had been implicated in at least 38 extrajudicial executions and more than 200 arbitrary arrests, some involving torture.
"Burundi's constitution does not allow agents of the national intelligence services to kill anyone," Raphaël Gahungu, a lawyer, told IRIN on Wednesday.
However, he said that when Burundi passed a law in March establishing the Service National de Renseignement (SNR), out of the former Documentation Nationale, the new agency, reporting directly to the head of state, was given a lot of power as there is no independent watchdog for intelligence activities.
"Agents at the intelligence services are, since March, free to go anywhere, arrest anyone, as they only report to the head of state. Thus, they can even commit human-rights abuses," Gahungu said.
He said the agents could have committed the human-rights abuses because they have not been trained well enough. "The majority of them were integrated into the national police yet they had been participating in former rebel movements," he said.
Some senior police officers, however, had been trained at the National Police Institute in Bujumbura, he added.
In its report, HRW said the government had to bring to justice members of its national intelligence services responsible for serious rights abuses.
Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, the chairman of Burundi's human-rights watchdog, l’Association Burundaise pour la Protection des droits humains et des personnes détenues, said: "Several human-rights abuses, including killings and torture, [have been] committed by the agents of the national intelligence services."
Most of the recent cases of abuse, he said, were committed in the northern province of Muyinga, where secret-service agents allegedly killed 19 people in July.
"Some of them were stabbed to death and thrown in the River Ruvubu," he said.
The remains of the bodies are still floating in the river, he added. The people were accused of collaborating with the Forces nationales de libération (FNL) rebel group led by Agathon Rwasa. The group signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on 7 September.
A Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, created to implement the agreement, began work on 11 October in Bujumbura, without the FNL representatives, who want all political prisoners released before they join up.
In Muyinga Province, Mbonimpa said, 52 families had complained that at least one member of their families had gone missing. "Some of them were detained in the prison of Muyinga or in the custody of the intelligence service, and they are no longer there," he added.
"Since the new government took office, the intelligence services have been free to use any means necessary, including killing and torture, to reach its goals," Alison des Forges, HRW’s senior Africa adviser, said on Wednesday. "The government must address this pattern of continuing violations."
The HRW report said government authorities had ignored many incidents of torture and extrajudicial killings allegedly involving agents of the national secret services. However, it said, in two cases, two agents of the national intelligence services had been arrested and investigations were under way. One of the cases involved an agent who allegedly took part in the disappearance and presumed murder of 19 people in Muyinga province in July and August.
The second case involves a man affiliated with the secret services who allegedly killed four men held in state custody in the Bujumbura suburb of Kinama. No one has been prosecuted for these crimes.
Human-rights monitors from non-governmental organisations and the United Nations Operation in Burundi, known by its French acronym, ONUB, have rarely been permitted access to detainees held by the secret services.
Burundi is emerging from 13 years of civil war. The country held democratic elections in 2005, with the largest rebel group winning and assuming power under the leadership of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
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"The government will give its position later," he said on Thursday in the capital, Bujumbura.
He was reacting to the report released by HRW on Wednesday. It stated that over the past year, agents of Burundi's national intelligence services had been implicated in at least 38 extrajudicial executions and more than 200 arbitrary arrests, some involving torture.
"Burundi's constitution does not allow agents of the national intelligence services to kill anyone," Raphaël Gahungu, a lawyer, told IRIN on Wednesday.
However, he said that when Burundi passed a law in March establishing the Service National de Renseignement (SNR), out of the former Documentation Nationale, the new agency, reporting directly to the head of state, was given a lot of power as there is no independent watchdog for intelligence activities.
"Agents at the intelligence services are, since March, free to go anywhere, arrest anyone, as they only report to the head of state. Thus, they can even commit human-rights abuses," Gahungu said.
He said the agents could have committed the human-rights abuses because they have not been trained well enough. "The majority of them were integrated into the national police yet they had been participating in former rebel movements," he said.
Some senior police officers, however, had been trained at the National Police Institute in Bujumbura, he added.
In its report, HRW said the government had to bring to justice members of its national intelligence services responsible for serious rights abuses.
Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, the chairman of Burundi's human-rights watchdog, l’Association Burundaise pour la Protection des droits humains et des personnes détenues, said: "Several human-rights abuses, including killings and torture, [have been] committed by the agents of the national intelligence services."
Most of the recent cases of abuse, he said, were committed in the northern province of Muyinga, where secret-service agents allegedly killed 19 people in July.
"Some of them were stabbed to death and thrown in the River Ruvubu," he said.
The remains of the bodies are still floating in the river, he added. The people were accused of collaborating with the Forces nationales de libération (FNL) rebel group led by Agathon Rwasa. The group signed a ceasefire agreement with the government in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, on 7 September.
A Joint Verification and Monitoring Mechanism, created to implement the agreement, began work on 11 October in Bujumbura, without the FNL representatives, who want all political prisoners released before they join up.
In Muyinga Province, Mbonimpa said, 52 families had complained that at least one member of their families had gone missing. "Some of them were detained in the prison of Muyinga or in the custody of the intelligence service, and they are no longer there," he added.
"Since the new government took office, the intelligence services have been free to use any means necessary, including killing and torture, to reach its goals," Alison des Forges, HRW’s senior Africa adviser, said on Wednesday. "The government must address this pattern of continuing violations."
The HRW report said government authorities had ignored many incidents of torture and extrajudicial killings allegedly involving agents of the national secret services. However, it said, in two cases, two agents of the national intelligence services had been arrested and investigations were under way. One of the cases involved an agent who allegedly took part in the disappearance and presumed murder of 19 people in Muyinga province in July and August.
The second case involves a man affiliated with the secret services who allegedly killed four men held in state custody in the Bujumbura suburb of Kinama. No one has been prosecuted for these crimes.
Human-rights monitors from non-governmental organisations and the United Nations Operation in Burundi, known by its French acronym, ONUB, have rarely been permitted access to detainees held by the secret services.
Burundi is emerging from 13 years of civil war. The country held democratic elections in 2005, with the largest rebel group winning and assuming power under the leadership of President Pierre Nkurunziza.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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