Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I certainly share your concerns. As I mentioned earlier, the International Criminal Court, whenever it's finished its preliminary examination, will make, we hope, some sort of conclusion on or assessment of whether these crimes constitute crimes against humanity. We certainly believe there is a good case for looking into that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The short answer is no, sadly. On the contrary, the response of the Burundian government to the UN investigation team's report has been, once again, a categorical denial of the gravity of the human rights crisis in the country. You may have followed the intervention of the Burundian minister for human rights in Geneva, who bluntly rejected the UN report, while the foreign minister in New York, at the UN, on the one hand affirmed the government's commitment to human rights and then proceeded to dismiss and try to discredit international reports by the UN and others.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  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.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I am.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you very much, and thanks for this opportunity to talk about Burundi. I very much welcome this session, especially as Burundi has been slipping away from the international headlines, despite the fact that the crisis is becoming more and more entrenched. By way of introduction, Human Rights Watch has been working on Burundi since the 1990s.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Okay, thank you. As many of you probably know, what we call the current crisis in Burundi began in April 2015, and it was triggered by the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to stand for a third term in the elections, which was seen by many Burundians as being against the spirit of the Arusha accords, which were the agreements that ended the war that lasted for many years in Burundi.