BUJUMBURA,
Burundi
The last
time Jean Bigirimana's family saw or
heard from him was 1,500 days ago.
The Burundian reporter and father of two went missing on July 22, 2016, allegedly after being arrested by the country's National Security Service in Bugarama, some 45km (28 miles) from the capital, Bujumbura.
Unlike dozens of other Burundian journalists, Bigirimana had decided
against fleeing the country in the aftermath of the widespread violence that
erupted in 2015 following late President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial decision to seek a
third term in office.
Later that day, one of Bigirimana's colleagues at the independent Iwacu
newspaper received an anonymous phone call alerting him them of the arrest.
Rights groups at the time had documented a series of kidnappings,
arrests and killings of civil society activists, journalists and others by government
forces, armed opposition groups and unidentified attackers.
More than four years sinceBigirimana's enforced disappearance, the
agony of his family is "unimaginable", Deprose Muchena, Amnesty
International's director for East and Southern Africa, said in a statement on
Sunday marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced
Disappearances.
"The
Burundian government's failure to account for him is an affront to the
principles of truth, justice and accountability," Muchena added, urging
the new goverment of President Evariste Ndayishimiye
to "end the practice of enforced disappearances immediately" and
prosecute perpetrators of such acts.
"Families have the right to know the truth about the fate of their
loved ones."
Amnesty
also called on Burundi's government to ratify the 2006 International Convention
for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. To date, 63
countries have done so.
In a
report last year, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said
security forces, police and the governing party's youth league had continued to
commit serious human rights abuses.
Noting
reports of "numerous disappearances", the UN investigators said they
were "deeply concerned about the frequency of such disappearances"
and called on the government to set up an independent body with a
mandate to investigate cases of disappearance reported since April
2015, locate potential mass graves and exhume and identify the remains.
Every
year on August 30, families, activists and humanitarian groups around the world
mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances to draw
attention to a practice that is frequently being used "as a strategy to
spread terror within the society", according to the UN.
In 1980,
the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was established
to assist relatives to determine the fate of their disappeared family members.
To date, some 55,000 disappearances have been registered with the body.
But
Bernard Duhaime, professor of law at the University of Quebec and member
of the working group, said this figure was just "the tip of the
iceberg".
He noted
that it was almost impossible to assess the extent of disappearances
worldwide due to their "clandestine nature".
"It
is an intentionally hidden crime by nature," said Duhaime.
The
working group typically receives disappearance reports from family members or
organisations around the world. It then transmits this information to the
relevant governments requesting them to carry out investigations.
Since the
issuing of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced
Disappearance in 1992, the body has also has been mandated with monitoring the
states' compliance with their obligations under the declaration.
But
Rachel Nicholson, Amnesty's Burundi researcher, said reporting disappearances
to international bodies such as the working group or the UN Committee on
Enforced Disappearances could be dangerous for relatives seeking the truth.
"Families
reporting a disappearance risk reprisals," said Nicholson. "They have
to be very brave to do so."
The
extent to which disappearances can remain a burning political issue and tear at
the social fabric is vivid in the case of Nepal, where 2,500 disappearances
have been registered to the Commission of Investigation on Enforced
Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), which was established to probe such cases in the
country following the end of a decade-long civil war in 2006.
Commenting
on the situation in Nepal, human rights activist Ram Bhandari said the issue of
disappearances still haunts the country.
"The
government is fully betraying victims and survivors and has not been honest
about implementing the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement to address the legacy
of forced disappearances," argued Bhandari, founder of the Network of
Families of the Disappeared in Nepal.
"After
years of state denial there is still no closure for families or for society.
This might turn into revenge and a cycle of violence."
According
to Eva Nudd, who runs the enforced disappearances project at victims-rights
organisation Redress, lack of access to justice is one of the most difficult
consequences of disappearances for families to live with.
In her
view, this is particularly acute in countries such as Sudan and Algeria where
alleged perpetrators have received immunity.
Nudd said
one of the biggest problems with the definition of enforced disappearances is
that such disappearances are defined as being committed by a state - whereas
now non-state actors are increasingly becoming perpetrators of disappearances,
as is evident in countries such as Libya and Sudan.
While
families are further deprived of the ability to exercise funeral rites and
traditions associated with burials, Nicholson said one of the practical
problems flowing from disappearances is obtaining documentation for the
children of a disappeared person.
She
described disappearances as a "continuing violation" since their
effects are "felt by families for years and years". Meanwhile, the
time-consuming burden of looking for the disappeared person also mostly falls
on women who then struggle to carry out their other daily duties.
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