Photo of the week : more than 240 soldiers are detained in four prisons for refusing to fight alongside the FARDC against the M23

These soldiers from the FDNB (Burundi National Defense Force) are detained in the prisons of Bururi and Rumonge in the southwest of the country, and in the remand centers of Ngozi and Ruyigi, respectively in the north and east of Burundi. Preventive detention has already been confirmed for some. They are, among other things, being prosecuted for “insurrection and refusal of the order of battle”. Very few have a lawyer. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Bururi and Rumonge prisons host 21 and 103 soldiers respectively. They have just spent more than a month in prison, according to prison sources.

The Ngozi remand center contains 84 soldiers while the Ruyigi central prison hosts 34.

The majority of these soldiers were arrested on December 9 on the orders of the FDNB staff, witnesses assure. They had already arrived on the Congolese soil, according to their testimonies.

They were held in various dungeons including the military police in the commercial city Bujumbura for more than a month before being transferred to prison, say sources close to the case.

Most of these soldiers were transferred to these respective prisons during the night between January 21 and 23, 2024, sources at Bururi, Rumonge, Ngozi and Ruyigi prisons confirmed to SOS Médias Burundi.

“Very few have a lawyer,” our sources say.

All 242 detainees have already been heard by military judges at the military prosecutor’s office. Preventive detention has already been confirmed for those in Ruyigi and Ngozi a few days ago, while the soldiers detained in Bururi and Rumonge await the decision of the military prosecutor who questioned them on February 12.

“They are being prosecuted for insurrection and refusal of the order of battle,” explain relatives of the detainees.

According to military sources, those concerned are detained for refusing to fight alongside the FARDC (Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo) against the M23.

For these soldiers “this operation is surrounded by total incomprehension, the government disowns us in the event of death and it is unacceptable to fight in the uniform of a foreign army (FARDC uniform). Worse still, no order mission nor additional salary for this task”.

“For a professional soldier to engage in combat, there must at least be the motive for the conflict, the motive, the motivation, the will. We must also measure his strengths and weaknesses and those of the enemy “But in the current situation, we are being asked to go and fight blindly,” said a captain in the Burundian army who preferred to desert to take refuge in a country in the sub-region.

Some senior officers who testified on condition of anonymity believe that “our colleagues should be released unconditionally.”

“Any combat order without any real cause to defend is likely to be refused,” they recall.

Brigadier General Gaspard Baratuza, in charge of communications and public relations within the FDNB, was not available to answer our questions. But a senior officer posted to the Burundian army headquarters who testified on condition of anonymity confirmed to SOS Médias Burundi that several soldiers are imprisoned “for having refused to fight alongside the FARDC against the M23 and embezzled war funds. He did not give the exact figures.

“Some have already been dismissed from the army but there are also some who have been acquitted. It is no secret that many soldiers are detained for these acts,” he concluded.

Burundi and the DRC signed a bilateral agreement allowing Burundian forces to intervene in Congo. Between September 2023 and January 2024, several Burundian soldiers, including senior officers, were killed in the North Kivu province in the east of the DRC.

On December 29, 2023 during a public broadcast, President Évariste Ndayishimiye announced from the province of Cankuzo in the east of the country that “it is normal for Burundian soldiers to be killed on the Congolese territory”.

“Burundi is helping to combat and eradicate terrorism; we are in Somalia, in the Central African Republic….As you know, the DRC is destabilized by several armed groups. There are mutual defense agreements. If you don’t help your neighbor put out the fire when his house is burning, tomorrow if it’s your turn, he won’t come to help you. If Burundi is going to help the DRC, it is defending itself because you fight a good war before you lead it. War is a game of death. If you deny that, you are no longer a soldier. A soldier must remember that he must die for his nation. That’s very normal. You must sacrifice yourself[….]. We, the military, signed up for that, the opposite amounts to sinning against its ethics,” he said.

And he continued in a very severe tone by answering a question from a local journalist relating to the imprisonment of soldiers who refuse to fight alongside the FARDC.

“The army has its own regulations, there is a soldier that you send for example to keep guard but prefers to go drink beer, he must be punished because the army has regulations. If you are on an assignment, the undisciplined are brought back to order…Whether in the Congo, in the Central African Republic or in Somalia, everywhere they are punished…Burundians like rumors, let the security forces keep their professional secrecy, if civilians get involved, tomorrow we we will no longer have people to secure and protect our country. Don’t get involved in this anymore.”

For senior Burundian journalist Athanase Karayenga based in France and a former Burundian army officer who studied at the Cairo military academy in Egypt, the Burundian military has the right to refuse bad orders.

“Burundian soldiers signed to defend Burundian citizens, to protect the borders of Burundi, but not to fight as mercenaries in the service of a foreign power and under the uniform of a foreign army. The Burundian soldiers have the right to refuse bad orders. Everywhere else they are called conscientious objectors. I therefore completely understand the dismay and revolt of several Burundian soldiers sent as mercenaries to fight the M23. They expose themselves to the supreme danger, to death.”, explains Athanase Karayenga.

For soldiers who die on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia, for example, the family receives the equivalent of half of 100 thousand dollars in Burundi francs at the official rate while the other half is paid to the Burundian government. For victims of the war in the DRC, the situation remains confusing.

Our photo : Burial of Major Ernest Gashirahamwe, the first high ranking officer of the FDNB to have been killed in North Kivu, November 16, 2023 in Bujumbura