Off the wire
• Majority of Chinese firms' global business profitable: survey  • Kenya official hails China's help in wildlife conservation  • U.S. stocks fluctuate narrowly amid data, rate hike concerns  • China's Xi to attend G20, APEC meetings to promote economic, regional cooperation  • 4 injured in Italy's military helicopter crash  • Feature: Flight bans to Egypt's resort worries business owners  • Urgent: U.S. Justice Department to take Obama's immigration reform lawsuit to Supreme Court  • Xi says China-Mongolia relationship at "historical best"  • Nearly 100 attacks on health facilities since March 2015 in Yemen: Red Cross  • Syrian army breaks years of siege on military airbase in Aleppo  
You are here: 　 Home

Burundi is at an "extremely dangerous tipping point": UN official

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Tuesday warned that an increasingly grave human rights crisis has gripped Burundi, with potentially very serious regional repercussions.

According to a statement issued by his office, the High Commissioner appealed on Monday night to the UN Security Council to explore all possible options to prevent further violence, including asset freezes, travel bans and other steps to stop the ongoing violence and prevent a regional conflict.

Informing the UN Security Council, the UN official said that Burundi is at "a crucial and extremely dangerous tipping point".

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza last week issued an ultimatum for Burundians to hand in all weapons, warning that those who would not do so would be dealt with as "enemies of the nation."

"Phrases such as these recall language that this region has heard before, and should not be hearing again. They could signal the imminence of much worse, and more widespread, violence," the high commissioner warned.

According to the UN official, within Burundi, and particularly in Bujumbura, there have been increasing numbers of extrajudicial killings documented in recent months, including multiple alleged political assassinations.

The human rights chief told the UN Security Council that at least 240 people have been killed since protests began in this April and there have been hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention in the past month alone, targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and their families, people attending the funerals of those who have been killed, and inhabitants of neighbourhoods perceived to be supportive of the opposition.

"To make matters worse, it is reported that armed groups are recruiting in some refugee camps in neighbouring countries, and that agents of the Burundi Government are also present to identify opponents, these and other signs of a suddenly escalating regionalisation of this crisis lead me to emphasise that host countries must ensure the camps are duly protected and remain civilian in nature," he said. Endit