Burundi

Burundi has announced the setting up of a committee to investigate alleged cases of extra-judicial executions in the country. Public prosecutor Valentin Bagorikunda announced that a committe of six magistrates of the Public prosecutor's office would investigate allegations made over the past few months by national and international human rights organizations.

The verdict on 22 May 2012, in the trial of those accused of killing Ernest Manirumva, a Burundian anti-corruption activist, has been a missed opportunity to deliver justice, 20 Burundian and international nongovernmental organizations said today in a joint statement. The outcome was a grave disappointment to those who have campaigned for his killers to be held to account, as potentially important evidence in the case was not pursued. Manirumva had been investigating several sensitive cases a...read more

State prosecutors requested a life sentence for Burundian radio reporter Hassan Ruvakiki who was imprisoned after airing a November interview with a purported rebel leader, according to news reports. Chief Prosecutor Barbatus Ntakarusho made the request during a hearing at a court in Cankuzo, a city in eastern Burundi, saying the reporter had engaged in 'acts of terrorism', the journalist's defense lawyer, Onesime Kabayabaya, told CPJ. Ruvakiki is a reporter for the French government-funded R...read more

The Burundi government has rejected a recent critical report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 'the escalation of violence in Burundi' describing it as 'a declaration of war'. A statement said: 'As the previous reports were seen by the Burundi government as simple signs of provocation, the one which came out on Wednesday 2 May...is a true declaration of war against the Burundi people bound, according to the NGO, to disappear if it continues to live with the leaders it elected in the last electio...read more

The Burundian Interior Minister ordered Human Rights Watch to cancel a news conference in the capital, Bujumbura, on May 2, 2012, that was planned to release a report on political violence in Burundi, Human Rights Watch said. The police also ordered Human Rights Watch to stop distribution of the report in Burundi. The Human Rights Watch report documents the rise of political killings in Burundi from late 2010 to late 2011.

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