X. Annex: Analysis of Mpimba InterviewsSome of the conclusions drawn in this report are based on data collected from 136 children at the Mpimba central prison in Bujumbura only in late January 2007. Children jailed at the central prison may not be representative of all children in prison. The vast majority of children accused of FNL collaboration are detained in this prison and there are prisons with no one held on these charges. However, little or no differences are expected in the general social profile of children jailed at the central prison compared to other prisons in Burundi. Children are jailed based on proximity to where the crimes occurred but can sometimes request transfer to another prison, for example closer to family, so not everyone in the prison Mpimba is from the Bujumbura area. Because of the small sample size, statistical conclusions may not always be drawn. Descriptive Information Table 1 Grounds for Arrest
Table 2 Parental Status
Table 3 - Education
Table 4 Work Prior to Arrest
Table 5 Legal Assistance
Table 6 Grounds for Arrest and Legal Assistance
Legal Assistance and Education Among the respondents, those accused of rape were 6.5 times more likely to see a lawyer compared to those accused of theft. Those accused of rape were also 16.1 times more likely to see a lawyer than those accused of being part of the FNL. This is likely because of NGO programs such as Victims of Torture that provide legal assistance in some rape cases. Among those accused of being part of the FNL, only one out of 32 had seen a lawyer. There were too few observations in the other category for meaningful comparison.
Table 7 Grounds for Arrest and Parental Status
Overall, most respondents were in jail on charge of theft (39.7 percent of all the respondents). Data suggest that orphans were more frequently in jail for alleged rape compared to the other groups. Respondents with both parents alive reported more frequently accused of FNL as the reason of their arrest. However, none of the differences among groups were statistically significant, possibly because of the small sample size. Table 8 Education and Parental Status
The data suggest that orphans are on average less educated than those with one or two parents. Over 70 percent of the orphans had only completed third grade or lower, compared to less than 50 percent among children with one or both parents alive. |