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V. Torture by agents of the SNR

Human Rights Watch has learned of at least 13 cases of torture in the SNR facilities in the past year. Burundian human rights organizations League Iteka and the Burundian Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (Association pour la Protection des droits humains et des personnes détenues, APRODH), and ONUB human rights monitors have documented numerous other cases of torture at the SNR as well.⁷⁹  One victim has described the most senior leaders of the SNR directing his interrogation and looking on as he was tortured. Another has claimed that the head of the SNR personally participated in torturing him.

Most victims were young men, arrested without a warrant and suspected of collaborating with FNL rebels. One older woman was arrested and tortured by SNR agents for cooking fish for armed members of the FNL.⁸⁰ While some victims of torture were eventually transferred to the prison system, many were released without charge. In August 2006, several prominent political leaders were arrested by SNR agents on suspicion of attempting to mount a coup. Agents of the SNR were reportedly involved in torturing the detainees during interrogation sessions.

At the March 30 meeting of SNR agents with President Nkurunziza, mentioned above (see section III, Context), three agents were reported to have been excluded from the meeting by the president after they admitted to having mistreated detainees.⁸¹ According to the information available to Human Rights Watch, however, the three agents are still working at the SNR.⁸²

Torture of suspected FNL supporters

One Kinama resident and member of the opposition party the Front for Democracy in Burundi (Front pour le démocratie au Burundi, Frodebu) stated that he had been detained five times by agents of the SNR during and after the election period in the summer and fall of 2005. During one detention, he was severely beaten with an electric cable by members of General Nshimirimana’s bodyguard. He showed Human Rights Watch large cuts and bruises extending from his thighs to his back.⁸³ Another man whose brother was suspected of being an FNL member was arrested and detained on October 26, 2005, by SNR agents and questioned about his brother’s whereabouts. He was beaten in a small room (referred to as “the morgue”) inside the jail of the SNR, until he lost consciousness. He told Human Rights Watch that when he awoke, he was told to get on the ground and General Nshimirimana placed rocks in his mouth so that he couldn’t scream. He was then beaten again until he lost consciousness. He was transferred to the holding cells of the Interior Security Police (Police de Sécurité Intérieur, PSI) and then released by a member of the prosecutor’s office who was conducting a regular jail inspection on December 2, 2005, and noticed his wounds.⁸⁴

In January 2006 a local official and Frodebu member was summoned to the SNR and questioned by an SNR chief of service about his knowledge of the FNL’s whereabouts. When he denied knowledge of the rebel movements, he was told to remove his shirt and trousers and lie down on the floor. The chief of service then ordered another agent to beat the detainee with a baton; he was hit several times. The victim told Human Rights Watch,

After six hits, I begged him to stop and asked him why he was doing this, why he thought I was lying to him. I said I didn’t know anything. After I said this, he got angrier and said he would hit me 30 more times, but if I cried out it would be more because those hits wouldn’t count and he then began to hit me again.⁸⁵

He was released after receiving more beatings, and was never charged with a crime.⁸⁶

Torture of alleged coup plotters

In early August 2006, agents of the SNR arrested seven former high-level officials and opposition political leaders, including former Vice President Alphonse Marie Kadege, Déo Niyonzima, the president of the Party for the Reconciliation of the People (Parti Pour la Réconciliation du Peuple, PRP), and Col. Damien Ndarisigaranye, a member of the Burundian military.⁸⁷  They were suspected of plotting a coup. Several days later family members who were allowed to visit them reported having seen evidence that the detainees had been mistreated.⁸⁸ In comments to the BBC, Kadege’s wife said that she had seen her husband lying on the floor with a man standing on him. She also claimed that agents had broken her husband’s arm.⁸⁹ After Kadege’s lawyer, Isidore Rufyikiri, asked the intelligence service to provide a medical report on the condition of his client, he too was arrested by SNR agents.⁹⁰ Members of the Burundian Bar stopped work for a week beginning on September 22 to protest this arrest, labeling it an arbitrary detention.⁹¹

Human Rights Watch researchers, ONUB human rights officers and Burundian human rights monitors tried repeatedly to visit these detainees, without success. On August 3, a monitor from League Iteka was allowed to see them and on the basis of his observations confirmed reports that the three detainees had been tortured.⁹² A joint declaration issued by 10 human rights NGOs working in Burundi noted that “Mr. Kadege had been suspended by his hands and feet and beaten with a leather belt by agents of the SNR and Mr. Niyonzima had been beaten with a baton on the lower back and arm during interrogations. Colonel Ndarisigaranye was beaten on the back.”⁹³ 

Minister of National Solidarity, Human Rights and Gender Françoise Ngendahayo also visited the detainees on August 4 and told the media that she had seen signs that they had been tortured, though she did not precisely state what she saw.⁹⁴ The next day, Minister of Communications Karenga Ramadhani told the press that Minister Ngendahayo had been speaking only for herself, not for the government.⁹⁵

The three detainees each filed a complaint of torture with the Attorney General. Déo Niyonzima’s complaint, seen by a Human Rights Watch researcher, states that both the SNR administrator General Nshimirimana and the deputy administrator of the SNR, Colonel Kiziba, were aware of the torture.⁹⁶ The complaint alleges that Colonel Kiziba told Niyonzima to “tell them everything or he would be beaten” and General Nshimirimana said that he must “say everything or he would suffer.” Colonel Kiziba allegedly then told two agents who were present to ask questions about the coup and names of accomplices. When the detainee didn’t reveal relevant information, six other agents entered the room, carrying various batons, electric cables and steel pipes. Niyonzima then alleges that he was beaten for several minutes on the lower back, legs and feet. According to his complaint, he was interrogated and beaten during another three sessions in similar circumstances, including with Colonel Kiziba present each time.⁹⁷

Once the detainees had been transferred to the central prison in Bujumbura, Human Rights Watch researchers observed marks and scars on the body of the complainant consistent with his explanation of the events.⁹⁸ He had large scars on his shoulders and back. According to the prosecutor of Bujumbura the complaints are being investigated.⁹⁹

Legal provisions and government reactions to torture

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture), to which Burundi became a party in February 1993, prohibits torture at all times and under all circumstances.¹⁰⁰ State parties undertake to adopt “effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent” torture.¹⁰¹ Burundi is a party to the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which prohibits torture.¹⁰² The Burundian constitution guarantees that “no one will be subjected to torture,”¹⁰³ and the law establishing the intelligence service specifically prohibits SNR agents from using torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.¹⁰⁴

The Burundian criminal code does not contain a criminal offense of torture. In the isolated cases where government agents have been brought to justice for physically mistreating detainees, they have been charged as individuals with the crime of “voluntary bodily injury.” ¹⁰⁵ The prosecutor of Bujumbura indicated that if he were faced with a case in which a state agent carried out mistreatment on orders from a superior, he would charge both the person who gave the order and the person who executed it with “voluntary bodily injury” but he said that he has never dealt with such a case.¹⁰⁶ Such a charge does not draw a distinction between the acts of private citizens and those either working as state agents or acting under orders of state agents. As currently written, the statute fails to encompass a component of mental suffering or incidents where physical wounds are not inflicted. 

According to the information available to Human Rights Watch, no intelligence service agents have been indicted for physically mistreating a detainee between September 2005 and September 2006.  When questioned about specific cases of torture involving SNR agents, Colonel Kiziba stated that one agent had been given an “administrative sanction” of one month without pay for beating a local official with a baton during an investigation.¹⁰⁷ Colonel Kiziba also mentioned that the SNR was currently preparing three cases against three SNR agents so they could be prosecuted for ill-treatment of detainees, but he would not state the names of the accused or the dossier numbers, and a Human Rights Watch researcher was unable to find records of these cases. Staff of the Prosecutor’s office was unaware of any pending cases of this nature.¹⁰⁸

On August 17, President Nkurunziza gave a speech in which he restated the government’s determination to stop destabilization of the state. Regarding the status of human rights protections, he stated that the situation was “satisfying, despite some exceptions… It’s better than before and the security services must continue to improve their performance.” He went on to declare that “those whose rights have been violated should file complaints… and their cases will be analyzed and judged.”¹⁰⁹  Lacking in his speech was the recognition that the state was obligated to investigate reports of torture or extrajudicial execution by SNR agents even in the absence of a complaint brought by an alleged victim.  

The Convention against Torture obliges state parties to investigate and prosecute allegations of torture. Article 4 states that: “Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.” Article 13 states: “Each State Party shall ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture in any territory under its jurisdiction has the right to complain to, and to have his case promptly and impartially examined by, its competent authorities.” Article 12 obliges states to act even where a torture victim does not initiate the complaint: “Each State Party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction.”

The UN Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2001) sets out standards for conducting impartial investigations into allegations of torture. Principle 2 provides that complaints of torture or merely reports of torture with some basis must be investigated: “States shall ensure that complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment are promptly and effectively investigated. Even in the absence of an express complaint, an investigation shall be undertaken if there are other indications that torture or ill-treatment might have occurred.” Victims and their family members who provide testimony to such an investigation are entitled to protection under Principle 3: “Alleged victims of torture or ill-treatment, witnesses, those conducting the investigation and their families shall be protected from violence, threats of violence or any other form of intimidation that may arise pursuant to the investigation.”¹¹⁰   

There are no provisions for court appointed lawyers in Burundian law, despite Burundi having ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which requires free legal counsel for those without means.¹¹¹ All lawyers are either provided by NGOs or privately contracted by clients. Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world¹¹² and few people have the resources for private legal counsel who can draft complaints alleging ill-treatment and press the case through the criminal justice system. In this context, the government has a particular responsibility to ensure criminal investigations of alleged torture by government officials.