UNITED NATIONS, November 5 (RIA Novosti) — UN is sounding an alarm about threats of political violence in Burundi in the run-up to that country's 2015 elections, UN envoy Parfait Onanga-Anyanga told on Wednesday the UN Security Council of the banning of public meetings and continuing impunity for extrajudicial killings.
Onanga-Anyanga, whose BNUB mission in Burundi is set to end in December 2014, told the Security Council of "threats against, and physical assault on, members of opposition parties. Civil society organizations and journalists were also affected."
Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, head of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons, was arrested on May 15 and charged with endangering state security and inciting public disobedience for his remarks on the radio about allegations that members of the Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling CNDD-FDD party, were being armed by the government and receiving military training in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On Wednesday, Onanga-Anyanga told the Security Council that "in a positive development, on September 29 human rights defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa was released on health grounds. However, his case is still pending at the court."
On accountability, Onanga-Anyanga said that "no significant progress has been seen in the fight against impunity, including the cases of extrajudicial killings that BNUB has documented since 2011, considering that only a small number of cases have been tried in a court of law."
"The government [in Burundi] should continue to do everything in its power to preserve peace and stability and to consolidate democracy. As the country prepares itself for the upcoming 2015 elections, there is no better way to achieve this goal than to proactively implement inclusive and transparent policies to ensure the credibility of the electoral process," Onanga-Anyanga concluded.
