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CIAO DATE: 4/5/2007
Burundi: Democracy and Peace at Risk
November 2006
Abstract
Since the new, democratically elected government came to power in September 2005, the first since 1993, there has been marked deterioration in Burundi’s political climate. Led by the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), the government has arrested critics, moved to muzzle the press, committed human rights abuses and tightened its control over the economy. Unless it reverses this authoritarian course, it risks triggering violent unrest and losing the gains of the peace process. The international community needs to monitor the government’s performance, encouraging it to adopt a more inclusive approach and remain engaged even after UN troops depart in December 2006.
The arrest of prominent opposition politicians in July 2006, accompanied by questionable claims that a coup was being planned, has been the most disturbing development. Some of those arrested were tortured into signing confessions. But this was only one, albeit high-profile, example of the deterioration in human rights and political pluralism. Soon after its inauguration, the government launched military operations against the last remaining rebel group, the Palipehutu-FNL, in the course of which it imprisoned, tortured and even executed many suspected combatants as well as civilians accused of colluding with the rebels, often with the National Intelligence Service (SNR) behind the abuses.
