Burundi: Halt Crackdown on Opponents, Critics | WPN World People News

Burundian authorities should halt their crackdown on opposition party members. Officials should also quash a March 21, 2014 verdict in which 48 people were handed sentences ranging from two years to life in prison.

The trial of 70 people, most of them opposition party members, lasted no more than one day, and neither the defendants nor their lawyers were able to prepare their defense properly, Human Rights Watch said. Those charged with credible offenses should receive a retrial that meets international fair trial standards.

“The trial of opposition party members was blatantly unfair and seriously flawed from beginning to end,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Burundian government should stop any further politicization of the justice system and ensure the courts are not used to collectively punish opponents ahead of the 2015 national elections.”

Human Rights Watch has documented a pattern of restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly in Burundi over the past four years. Since late 2013, there have been escalating confrontations between the ruling party and the opposition, and persistent harassment of opposition parties by state agents and ruling party members. Civil society activists and independent journalists have also been targeted. Most recently, a prominent human rights activist was put on trial on July 4, accused of endangering state security.

On March 8 and 9, police arrested more than 70 people in the capital, Bujumbura. The majority were members or supporters of the opposition Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD) party.

A first wave of arrests occurred on the morning of March 8, when police detained 22 people who were jogging in the capital. The police alleged that they were MSD members using their Saturday morning exercise – a common activity in Bujumbura – as a cover for an unauthorized demonstration. Government officials claimed the MSD members were planning “an insurrection.”

Police trucks blocked roads leading to the town center, and the police used teargas to disperse joggers and people they suspected were linked to the MSD. Witnesses, including some of those arrested, told Human Rights Watch that in many cases, the police targeted people simply because they were wearing sports clothes.

As news of the arrests spread, MSD members gathered at the party’s headquarters and police were deployed outside the building. Amid rising tensions, MSD youths took two policemen hostage and held them in the party headquarters for several hours. After attempts by representatives of a Burundian human rights organization, the United Nations, and the National Independent Human Rights Commission to negotiate the release of the policemen failed, the police opened an assault on the building, using teargas and live bullets. At least nine MSD members and several policemen were injured.

The police then carried out a second wave of arrests, rounding up at least 17 people at the MSD headquarters. The following day, they returned to the area and arrested at least 28 people.

“Those responsible for taking the two policemen hostage should be brought to justice, but their offense does not justify the heavy-handed and disproportionate police tactics nor the dozens of arbitrary arrests,” Bekele said.

In a group trial on March 18, 70 defendants were tried on charges of rebellion, insults and acts of violence against law enforcement agents, grievous bodily harm, and participation in an insurrectional movement. During the trial, which Human Rights Watch observed, little attempt was made to establish individual culpability.

The defendants and their lawyers complained that they did not have time to read their case files before the trial. Many of the lawyers walked out of the trial in protest at the unfair proceedings.

On March 21, the High Court in Bujumbura sentenced 21 defendants to life in prison, 10 defendants to 10 years in prison, and 14 defendants to five years. Twenty-two defendants were acquitted. Three younger defendants, all about 17 years old, were tried by a separate chamber for minors on March 19 and sentenced on March 26 to two years in prison.

One of the defendants told Human Rights Watch: “There was no real logic behind who was sentenced and who was acquitted. The accusations were the same for everyone: ‘rebels, rebels, rebels.’… Those arrested doing sports, those arrested at the MSD headquarters, those arrested on the roads, all of us were ‘rebels.’”

The brief questioning by police after their arrest was “a mere formality,” said one defendant.
“They had already decided we would go to prison.” When he explained to the police officer questioning him that he was on the way to work when he was arrested, the police officer told him: “You are already in prison.”

Those found guilty appealed on March 28. The date of the appeal hearing has not been announced.

“If the 2015 elections are to be free and fair, it is crucial for the government to end its repression and make every effort to prevent tension from spiraling further,” Bekele said. “Governments and donors engaged in Burundi should raise their voices and demand an end to the crackdown on critics.”

Source: Human Rights Watch