Event Summary:
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic has announced a UN Probe into an alleged mass grave in Burundi after a Burundian Prosecutor opened an investigation into the matter earlier in the year.
The UN has said it will send forensic experts to investigate the alleged mass graves which the government has responded to.
Analysis:
on December 11th armed gunmen attacked military barracks in Burundi that left a dozen people dead resulting to retaliatory action by a govern security crackdown.
According to witnesses, the security shot and killed more than 100 youths in Bujumbura with accounts of the witnesses stating there are at least 9 mass graves scattered in and around Bujumbura where the bodies were buried.
The killings were allegedly conducted by the police and military during the security crackdown when the conducted the raids to arrest the perpetrators of the military barracks attacks.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told reporters that a Burundian prosecutor had opened an investigation of the alleged mass graves and that the United Nations had offered to help.
Summary:
The Burundian government has however dismissed the claims of mass graves being there and has not responded to the United Nations’ offer to provide forensic expertise. The UN is analyzing the satellite imagery of the alleged graves and seeks to press the government to look into the allegations prompt.
Burundi has been in turmoil since April with at least 400 people dead and hundreds of thousands others displaced both internally and externally. Burundian government has failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the conflict rejecting peacekeeping troops from the African Union, East Arica Standby force or the UN with fears of a Rwanda-like 1994 genocide looming.
