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Roundup: Burundi cancels civil society organization over tarnishing country's image

Xinhua, January 4, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Burundian home affairs ministry has cancelled activities of Iteka human rights league over accusations of tarnishing the east African country's image, the ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

"The Iteka human rights league had diverted from its original assignments provided in its constitution. It was collaborating with enemies of democracy in Burundi through fabricating lies and false information on Burundi," Burundian Home Affairs and Civic Education Ministry Spokesman Therence Ntahiraja said.

He indicated that Iteka League continued to commit errors despite its suspension, by the ministry, on Oct. 24, 2016.

Ntahiraja said, "Iteka League issued biased reports containing lies and false information that could destabilize the country."

According to him, the ministry reanalyzed the conduct of Iteka League and decided to "indefinitely" cancel its activities on Dec. 21, 2016.

In November 2016, the Burundi-based Iteka Human Rights League and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) jointly published a report entitled "Repressions with a Tendency to Genocide" where they said that the crisis that broke out in Burundi since April 2015 following the third term bid of Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza has left over 1,000 deaths and between 300 and 800 disappearances.

The report also said that about 8,000 people were detained in various custodies and prisons in the east African nation while some 300,000 people had fled to neighboring countries, mostly Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) since the outbreak of the crisis.

However, the Burundian government rejected the report.

In October 2016, the Burundian home affairs and civic education ministry indefinitely cancelled five other civil society organizations for "failing to behave well" during their suspension period.

Those organizations include the Umbrella for Civil Society Organizations in Burundi (FORSC), the Forum for Development Consciousness (FOCODE), the Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-Burundi), the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees' Rights (APRODH) and the Network for Honest Citizens (RCP).

Some civil society organizations have been accused of organizing, in April 2015, protests against Nkurunziza's third term bid that he later won three months later.

Burundi has suffered turmoil since April 2015 when President Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term in violation of the national constitution and the 2000 Arusha Agreement that ended a decade-long civil war.

More than 500 people in Burundi have been killed and the UN Refugee Agency estimates that about 300,000 people fled to neighboring countries mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, DR Congo and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis. Endit