PUBLIC
AI Index: AFR 16/40/98
21 December 1998

Further information on UA 288/98 (AFR 16/36/98, 6 November 1998)

Fear of torture or ill-treatment

BURUNDI

Désiré and at least seven others, including new names :
Osias Bukuru, former Burundian soldier
Bernardin Harerimana, former Burundian soldier
Jean Bosco Muhimbare, former member, Rwandese Patriotic Front
Divin Nahimana, Congolese national
Augustin Muhimbare
Aimé Nkunziza

The seven men named above are in incommunicado detention at the Documentation nationale, Intelligence services headquarters, in the capital, Bujumbura. Unconfirmed reports suggest some of them were ill-treated and tortured before they were transferred there, and Amnesty International is concerned for the safety of all of them.

The government has reportedly acknowledged that five of the men named above are held in the Documentation nationale. However, there are consistent though unconfirmed reports that at least 10 people are detained there.

They and over 20 others were arrested after an attack on a military post in Cibitoke province, attributed by the government to a Tutsi armed opposition group, the Front national pour la libération du Burundi (FNLB), National Front for the Liberation of Burundi. The FNLB is reportedly allied to the opposition party Parti pour le redressement national (PARENA), National Recovery Party, led by ex-president Jean Baptiste Bagaza, now in exile in Uganda. PARENA has denied any involvement in the attack in Cibitoke. All those arrested have reportedly been accused of endangering state security and membership of armed groups. Most were arrested in Cibitoke province, although arrests have also been carried out in Kayanza province and in Bujumbura. There has been no official confirmation of how many people have been arrested and detained.

Twenty two of those arrested, mostly former soldiers, are now in detention in Mpimba central prison. They include Jean de Dieu Ezechiel Bukuru, 15, and Abdul Nduwimana, 17, who were both tortured during interrogation in police custody at the Brigade de Kayanza (gendarmerie headquarters) after their arrest in late November. Abdul Nduwimana is reported to have "confessed" after torture in Kayanza. He was reportedly too scared to retract this confession when he was subsequently questioned by the public prosecutor in Bujumbura, because the officer of the judicial police who tortured him was present and he feared further torture.

Some of those arrested have known links with PARENA or a hardline Tutsi movement, Solidarité Jeunesse pour la Défense des Minorités (SOJEDEM), Youth Solidarity for the Defence of Minorities, including Pacelli Ndikumana, a lawyer, and Diomède Nzobombana, who is in hospital. Another man, Jean Pierre Kagisye, alleged to have driven members of the FNLB from Bujumbura to Cibitoke, is also now in Mpimba central prison. He had fled to Kigali but returned on or around 30 November, apparently after receiving assurances he would not be arrested. He was arrested shortly after his return and held at the Documentation nationale before being transferred to Mpimba central prison.

FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please check whether postal services in your country are functioning to Burundi. Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail letters in French or in your own language:
- expressing concern for the safety of the men named above who are currently detained at the Documentation nationale and seeking assurances that they will not be harmed;
- calling for the identity and location of all those detained to be made public and for the authorities to allow them immediate access to their families, legal counsel, medical care and representatives of humanitarian and human rights organizations;
- asking that any official is found to have ill-treated or tortured any of those detained be removed from his post and brought to justice in accordance with international standards for fair trial;
- reminding the government of Burundi of its commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 5: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

APPEALS TO (Please note that fax tones can be difficult to obtain):

Major Pierre Buyoya
Président de la République
Présidence de la République
Bujumbura, Burundi
Fax: +257 22 74 90
Telex: 5036PRESIBU
Telegrams: Major Buyoya, Bujumbura, Burundi
Salutation: Monsieur le Président / Dear President

Minister of Justice
Monsieur Terence SINUNGURUZA
Ministre de la Justice et Garde des sceaux
Ministère de la Justice, Bujumbura, Burundi
Fax: +257 21 86 10
Telegram: Ministre Justice, Bujumbura, Burundi
Salutation: Monsieur le Ministre / Dear Minister

Head of the National Intelligence Unit
Monsieur Martin NKWIRIKIYE
Administrateur Général de la Documentation nationale
Documentation nationale
Bujumbura, Burundi
Salutation: Monsieur l'Administrateur Général / Dear Sir

Public Prosector
Mr Gerard NGENDABANKA
Procureur Général
Bujumbura, Burundi
Fax: + 257 21 86 10
Salutation: Monsieur le Procureur Général

COPIES TO:

Minister for Human Rights, Insitutional Reform and Relations with the National Assembly
Monsieur Eugène NINDORERA, Ministre des droits de la Personne humaine,
des réformes institutionnelles, et des relations avec l'Assemblée nationale, Bujumbura, Burundi
Fax: + 257 21 38 47

and to diplomatic representatives of Burundi accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 1 February 1999.