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Human rights
Burundi: Massacres and abductions of children continue
2001-11-22, Issue 43
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/4270
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Whilst the world's attention is directed towards Afghanistan and the wider fall-out of the events of 11 September in the United States of America, Amnesty International today urged the international community not to ignore Burundi, where the short period since the commencement of a government of transition on 1 November has been marked by massacres of civilians by government forces and the abduction of hundreds of children by an armed political group.
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
14 November 2001
AFR 16/041/2001
201/01
Whilst the world's attention is directed towards Afghanistan and
the wider fall-out of the events of 11 September in the United
States of America, Amnesty International today urged the
international community not to ignore Burundi, where the short
period since the commencement of a government of transition on 1
November has been marked by massacres of civilians by government
forces and the abduction of hundreds of children by an armed
political group.
"Two weeks into the new transitional government and the
key players in the Burundi conflict are showing little sign of
strengthening their commitment to the protection of human
rights," Amnesty International said.
"Human life continues to be treated with contempt, while
cynical efforts are made to drag children as young as 12 into the
horrendous cycle of violence that has plagued the country in
recent years," the organization added.
Between 2 and 4 November 2001, at least 93 civilians are
reported to have been massacred by government forces at Maramvya
in Rural-Bujumbura province. The killings reportedly began at
around 1pm on 2 November, apparently in reprisal for an incident
the previous day in which combatants, believed to belong to the
armed political group the Forces nationales pour la libJration
(FNL), National Liberation Forces, opened fire on a government
army vehicle. Some of the civilians were shot as they worked in
the fields, while others, who took refuge in their homes when
they heard the gunshots, were bayonetted to death. The bodies
were buried some days later in mass graves, with as many as six
bodies to a grave.
The Maramvya killings followed the extrajudicial
execution by government forces of at least 31 unarmed civilians,
including at least six women and two children, on 25 October in
the Buzige and Migereka II collines in Bubanza Province.
In a separate and disturbing new development, another
armed political movement, the Conseil National pour la DJfense de
la DJmocratie - Forces pour la DJfense de la DJmocratie
(CNDD-FDD), National Council for the Defence of Democracy -
Forces for the Defence of Democracy, has begun abducting
school-children and students from schools.
In the early hours of 6 November four teachers and around
54 children, aged between 12 and 15, were forcibly abducted from
a primary school in Ruyigi, while on 9 November some 250
children, aged between 15 and 18, were abducted from Musema
boarding college in Kayanza province. The college itself was
burned down.
All of those abducted from Musema are understood to have
been subsequently released or to have escaped, and the four
teachers and 25 of the children abducted from Ruyigi have also
returned home. However, as many as 29 of the children abducted
from Ruyigi remain unaccounted for and their current whereabouts
are unknown.
Claims by the CNDD-FDD that the children were taken away
in order to protect them from reprisals by government troops
appear to be misleading. Some of the children were reportedly
made to carry military equipment or assist wounded soldiers, and
it is feared that one of the motives in abducting the children
may have been to forcibly recruit them as child soldiers for the
CNDD-FDD.
On 13 November the United Nations Children=s Fund
(UNICEF) reported that over the previous three days 107 children
had also been abducted from refugee camps in Tanzania by Hutu
armed political groups. The fate of these children is currently
unknown.
Amnesty International is calling for the immediate
release of all the abducted children and is renewing its appeal
to all parties to capitalise on the start of the transitional
government by establishing a new era of respect for fundamental
human rights in Burundi.
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