My name is Emery-Patrick Ndabwunze. I am from ABC Montréal.
We have established a partnership with the Montreal Holocaust Museum, which conducted a study on the situation in Burundi using the scale that represents the 10 stages of a genocide. According to its study, we are at the eighth stage. It observes signs that Burundi is on the brink of a genocide including the fact that today in Burundi, opponents are being called stray dogs and the government is trying to dehumanize them.
As Mrs. Barankitse said earlier, everything in Burundi is under surveillance right now. We can't go anywhere without the government knowing it. Every household has to record the names of the visitors they receive and the police can come at any time to consult the “house record” and verify who is there, who has been there, or who has spent the night there.
In Burundi, the independent press has been dismantled. There is only room for the government's propaganda. Every speech delivered by the president or by the people from the party in power incites hatred. The report released on September 17 by the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi notes that for the first time, the President of Burundi has joined those who make speeches inciting hatred and violence.
These days there are at least 10 members of the Imbonerakure, a militia of the party in power, in every community in Burundi. The entire country is under surveillance. They are one excuse away from starting the killings.
As Mrs. Barankitse said earlier, three months ago the government suspended the activities of NGOs operating in Burundi claiming that they were breaking the law. The government imposed these requirements on the NGOs before they could resume what they were doing. The government did this because it doesn't want to have any witnesses to what it is currently doing.
They used to kill people and throw the bodies in the street in order to scare the public. These days, through technology, anyone can take photos or make video recordings and distribute them to make the international community aware of what's going on. With that in mind, the government now takes another approach. It kills people, puts the bodies in a bag with stones and throws them in the river.
The Burundian parliament, which is a mouthpiece for the party in power, passed legislation allowing police to enter people's homes unannounced, without a warrant, to search and arrest anyone they feel like. The police go to the homes of those they call opponents — real or alleged — arrest, torture or kill them and then hide the bodies. Enforced disappearances are on the rise. Unfortunately, human rights advocacy organizations cannot provide accurate numbers if they aren't certain that all those who have disappeared were killed. Since the government hides the bodies, it is hard to publish official reports on the number of deaths.