Independent investigative commission into political prisoners mooted

A working group of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) has recommended that an independent investigative commission into political prisoners be composed of eight Burundians and four UN-appointed international experts, the Hirondelle news agency reported. It should be headed by a UN-appointed judge, assisted by two Burundian deputies, according to a report drawn up under the chairmanship of Burundi’s Peace Process Minister Ambroise Niyonsaba. The report added that the commission should urgently investigate the following areas: prison conditions, treatment of prisoners, and training and employment conditions of prison warders; liberation of prisoners awaiting trial whose files have been handled with “excessive delay”; and the “existence and liberation of all political prisoners”.