Burundi is one of the few countries in this part of Africa to have a vibrant independent media and a very dynamic independent civil society movement, despite many years of repression and war, even before the current crisis. Unfortunately, all of that is finished now, because one of the government's first targets last year was that independent civil society movement and media. Very soon after the crisis began, the government closed down the country's main and most popular independent radio stations, particularly after the coup attempt. There were also physical attacks on these radio stations. They destroyed the buildings, destroyed the equipment, and the journalists had to flee.
A little while later, even the Burundi correspondents of Radio France Internationale and Agence France-Presse were arrested by the intelligence services and beaten up.
Finally, there was one independent media that did remain, a newspaper called Iwacu. The director of this newspaper was summoned and was likely to face imprisonment. He fled the country. Skipping ahead, just two months ago, in July 2016, one of the journalists of that newspaper disappeared, and up to this day, there is no trace of him.
Then Burundian human rights activists also paid a heavy price. The country's leading human rights activist, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, a man in his late sixties, was shot in the face a year ago as he was leaving work. Incredibly he survived, but with very serious injuries, and he is now in exile.
The government suspended the activities and bank accounts of several other Burundian human rights organizations.
Finally, with political parties, it was just as bad. Several of the members, including some leading figures, were killed last year, and many others were arrested.
The result of this is that almost all the country's leading political activists, human rights activists, and journalists have fled. The few who remain are working underground.
As I mentioned, several hundred people have been killed since the start of the crisis, some—I should say many—by the government, by the security forces, others by the opposition, because armed opposition groups have also become increasingly violent.
A third category is people killed by unknown perpetrators. This is one of the most distressing aspects of the situation. Since last year, dead bodies just appear on the streets and are found in rivers. No one knows who they are and no one knows who killed them. They're sometimes found with their arms tied behind their backs, mutilated. It's a very gruesome situation, and there are never any investigations.
Last year, you may recall, the news finally became the object of a lot of international coverage, and then we noticed that the patterns changed. Since the end of last year, there have been fewer blatant killings. Instead, the repression went underground, and we saw more covert forms of repression, an increase in disappearances, for example, abductions, people taken away by the intelligence services, and no one knows what happens to them. One such case is a woman called Marie-Claudette Kwizera. She was the treasurer of a human rights organization. She disappeared last December. No one knows what happened to her.
Another aspect I would like to mention is torture. Human Rights Watch has documented torture for many years in Burundi. Sadly, it's not a new practice. In recent months, we've noticed it becoming increasingly brutal and vicious, particularly by the intelligence services, against anyone suspected of supporting the opposition. Mostly young men are the victims, but not only.
Intelligence agents have used unbelievably brutal methods. They've smashed people's bones with hammers. They've driven sharpened metal rods into people's limbs. They've tortured their genitals. They've used electric shocks. I'll spare you the details. It's extraordinary that anyone actually survives. Many victims in fact don't survive, because even when they're released, they're too scared to seek medical treatment.
The final form of violation is large-scale arbitrary arrests, again mostly of young men, who are rounded up by the police, sometimes scores at a time, sometimes even hundreds at a time. Some are released; others remain in detention.
As I said, it's mainly the police carrying out the arrests, but they're often assisted by members of the youth league of the ruling party, who are called Imbonerakure in the national language. These Imbonerakure are the ones who do a lot of the dirty work for the ruling party. They have killed people. They have beaten people. They have arrested people, despite having no legal powers of arrest. They collaborate closely with police and intelligence. Because they're local, you find them in every town, every village. They know everybody, so they identify and denounce people who should be arrested.
They've also been responsible for rapes and acts of sexual violence, particularly against women whose husbands are opposition members or supporters.
In this context, the government has become so brutal and people are so afraid now in Burundi, in this wonderful country where people used to express themselves so freely, nobody dares to speak anymore. The result is that it has become extremely difficult to get reliable first-hand information.
The last time I was there, for example, it was really, really hard to persuade victims and witnesses to speak. Even when we did, it was very difficult, even confidentially. There was one man who was very reluctant to speak to us. Eventually he agreed and it was all confidential, and after about 10 minutes, mid-sentence, he stood up and walked out because he was just so frightened. That gives you an idea of how bad it is.
I'll finish by talking about what has been done at the international level about the situation.
Actually, quite a lot has been done. At the UN level, at the level of the African Union, individual governments, donors, there have been countless statements, resolutions, and interventions. Most of Burundi's big donors have suspended direct aid to the government, particularly the European Union which was one of the biggest donors.
The U.S. and the European Union have imposed sanctions on some of the key top officials of both government and opposition, but still the situation has not improved.
The Government of Burundi, on the contrary, has become even more intransigent. It seems impervious to pressure, even though many of its own senior officials have defected, so we are really just talking about the president and a small clique of people around him. They've reacted in a very hostile way to international criticism. For example, last year when the African Union proposed a peacekeeping force, the Burundian government, even the president, said that if that force was sent to Burundi, they would consider it an invasion and they would fight it.
This is the kind of challenge that we're facing.
Earlier this year, in April, the International Criminal Court, the office of the prosecutor there, announced they were opening a preliminary examination of the situation in Burundi. This is not an investigation. It's a study to see whether the crimes committed in Burundi would fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. But still it was an important step.
To conclude, I will highlight one issue and one recommendation. What is really striking in Burundi is that there is total impunity for these crimes, particularly those committed by state agents. So the priority, in our view, has to be to find a way to hold the perpetrators to account.
Human Rights Watch is suggesting the creation of an international commission of inquiry to do this. This is currently being discussed in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council. We hope the Human Rights Council, today or tomorrow, will issue and adopt a resolution calling for a commission of inquiry that would establish individual responsibility for the crimes committed, with a view, eventually, to delivering justice.
Thank you.