CAT/C/60/D/612/2014
1.2
On 10 June 2003, Burundi declared that it recognized the competence of the
Committee against Torture to receive and consider individual communications under article
22 of the Convention.
1.3
On 16 June 2014, in application of rule 114 (1) (formerly rule 108) of its rules of
procedure (CAT/C/3/Rev.5), the Committee asked the State party effectively to prevent any
threats or acts of violence against the complainant and his family, in particular for having
submitted this complaint, while the complaint was being considered, and to keep the
Committee informed of the measures taken to that effect.
The facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant is a teacher. He taught at Rwizirwe Community School. Since the
events related in this communication, he has stopped working. At the time of the events,
Burundi was in a serious post-electoral crisis. The complainant was communal
representative of the National Liberation Forces (FNL), which opposed the ruling party.
2.2
On 23 April 2011, A.N. was arrested at his home by police officers. At around 4
a.m., some 20 officers surrounded his house. The police broke into the home at dawn and
one of the officers instructed the complainant’s apartment mate to knock on his bedroom
door and to inform him that the police wanted to see him. A few seconds later, the
complainant appeared in his bedroom doorway. Six heavily armed policemen suddenly
broke into his room without speaking to him and began searching the premises without
presenting a search warrant. A police officer ordered the complainant to stay in a corner of
the bedroom and not to move. The search lasted about an hour. The police confiscated two
computers, a printer and a scanner, a registry of the FNL party and two deeds for land plots
in Kwibuye, Muyinga Province.
2.3
Following the confiscation, one of the officers, who was apparently in charge of the
operation, told the others that the complainant should be arrested. The complainant had
already been arrested several times at public demonstrations organized by the FNL. He was
thus known and easily identified by the authorities.
2.4
The complainant was arrested and placed in the back of a national police van with
about 15 police officers. During the trip, his apartment mate, who had also been arrested,
was delivered to the jail at the Muyinga commune. A.N. was taken to the Muyinga police
station, arriving at about 8 a.m. He was brought to the office of the provincial deputy
commissioner. On the way to the office, the complainant saw six barefoot men sitting on
the floor in the hallway, hands bound and with injuries to various parts of their bodies, their
clothing stained with blood. There were clearly rope markings on their wrists.
2.5
The deputy commissioner ordered the complainant to sit down and began to
question him. He asked him where he planned to go with the other six persons that he had
just seen. He told him they were all accused of starting a rebellion from the United
Republic of Tanzania. The complainant replied that he did not know what accusations were
being brought against him, adding that he did not know any of the persons he had seen,
with the exception of one, who was a member of the FNL political party.
2.6
The deputy commissioner, who was obviously upset by the complainant’s answers,
then took his nightstick and a cast-iron rod and began striking A.N. on the legs and back.
A.N. tried to protect himself using his hands, but the deputy commissioner hit him so hard
that he collapsed under the force of the blows. The deputy commissioner, while dealing him
blows, continually urged the complainant to confess his plans to foment a revolution. He
grabbed him by the collar, pinned him against the wall and held his pistol to his ear,
threatening to kill him “like the others” and to throw his body into the Ruvubu River. 1 The
beating continued. In the end it was the noise of a nearby vehicle that distracted the torturer
and made him leave the victim lying on the ground, in excruciating pain.
1
2
The complainant notes that the deputy commissioner’s reference was to the Muyinga massacre.
https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2008/10/24/burundi-les-condamnations-pour-le-massacre-de-muyingasont-une-victoire.
GE.17-09955