Burundian Ambassador in Russia Says Recent UN Report on Human Rights in Country Biased.

BurundiBwizaActualité (BBA) * BURUNDI * UN * REPORT * CREDIBILITY * BIZIMANA *MOSCOW, October 5 (Sputnik) – The recent UN report on the human rights in Burundi is “biased and unprofessional,” as UN experts did not visit the country, collected information online, and most of its interlocutors were refugees who had long left the country, Burundian Ambassador to Russia Edouard Bizimana told Sputnik in an interview.
In early September, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi (COIB) published a report, claiming that Burundi has seen the atmosphere of fear and intimidation of all persons who do not show loyalty to the country’s ruling party. The authors of the report accused the Burundian ruling party’s youth league, intelligence, police and local authorities of multiple human rights violations.
“The way they collected information is not accurate. They ask anyone who has information on Burundi to send it by email or Whatsapp, and there is no way to verify what is said. The members of the commission did not go to Burundi, and all the information they published is collected through internet, the social media, and through interviews with people. They talked to the [Burundian] refugees in the neighboring counties. I think there is no objectivity in what they did,” Bizimana said.
The report also puts the sovereignty of Burundi into question, criticizing all its institutions, he stressed.
“The commission doesn’t consider Burundi a sovereign state. They see it as a colony, and that is not acceptable for Burundi,” the ambassador said.
Bizimana claimed the report looked like it was aimed at dividing the country, setting the military against the authorities, just as it has been done in Libya.
Burundi has been engulfed in political crisis since 2015, when president Pierre Nkurunziza was re-elected for a third term in a vote boycotted by most of the opposition. It prompted violence in which at least 1,200 people were killed and thousands fled the country.

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