Burundi : Rwanda’s enemies are multiplying in Burundi and taking it to Court

For six Burundian organizations based in Burundi, Rwanda must pay for its probable support for the Red-Tabara rebels that claimed responsibility for an attack that left at least 20 dead in December 2023 in Gatumba not far from the border with Congo. They complained to the Court of Justice of the East African economic bloc. Kigali speaks of an act “without effect”.

(INFO SOS Médias Burundi)

These organizations are Folucon F, ACOPA-Burundi, Ligue Izere Ntiwihebure, ONLCT Ou Est Ton Frère, Pisc-Burundi and “Abana Bacu, ABA”. The complaint was filed and received last April.

For them, Kigali must answer for its responsibilities before the Court of Justice of the East African Community to which Burundi and its “brother-enemy” are affiliated.

“According to our investigations, Rwanda provided support to the rebels who massacred women, children and old people in Gatumba in December 2023. These are crimes against humanity. So this country violated the EAC treaty which stipulates that no country must destabilize the other or support troublemakers,” explains Gérard Hakizimana, legal representative of Folucon F on behalf of the plaintiffs.

The latter expect miracles from the EAC Court.

“We presented tangible evidence, demanded compensation of more than 3 billion USD on behalf of the families of the victims and demanded that injunctions be given to Rwanda to stop attacking Burundi,” continues Mr. Hakizimana.

Kigali was notified by the EAC Court last April according to a copy at our disposal. For this country, the complaint filed by Burundian civil society organizations has no effect.

“First, before going to the regional Court, they would have to exhaust all avenues of appeal in the domestic courts, which has not been done to our knowledge. Then, the Burundian president and his chief of staff signed a document confirming that the rebel group is based in Congo. So, what does Rwanda do in all this?”, says the deputy spokesperson for the Rwandan government Alain Mukularinda.

The Rwandan official minimizes the case which he describes as “unfounded” and a “case already lost in advance”.

Even if Articles 27 and 30 of the EAC treaty allow organizations and individuals to seize its Court, lawyer Dieudonné Bashirahishize, who pleads before it, when he learned of the case, says he was amazed.

For him, it is unimaginable.

“These organizations known as sounding boards for the tyrannical Burundian government, which remained silent when others shouted about human rights violations and targeted assassinations, singing that nothing was happening while we were seizing international jurisdictions, if they wake up to plead in favor of the oppressed, for me this is a step forward! “, he quips.

And he says worryingly, “If really it is their initiative and it is not the government which is hiding behind the complaint to carry out blackmail at the sub-regional level! But, I doubt it!”

For him, such cases require independent and internationally recognized investigations as required by the Red-Tabara rebel group, which does not recognize the figures for civilian victims put forward by the Burundian government.

However, Rwanda would not be the first to be indexed on the Gatumba attack, according to lawyer Bashirahishize.

“The main culprit is Burundi, whose security services have failed to protect its citizens. The second is the country from which the rebels came and retreated towards, and it is the DRC, bordering directly with Burundi and Gatumba which suffered the attack. And besides, these rebels recognize it themselves,” explains this legal professional, former vice-president of the East African Community Lawyers Forum, “East Africa Law Society”.

Kigali reassures that it will respond to the bar to trample on the complaint of these Burundian organizations which seem to replace themselves as emissaries of Gitega, for whom, the Red-Tabara rebel group is a pure product of Rwanda.

“This group is housed, supplied and financed by Rwanda,” accused Head of State Évariste Ndayishimiye at the end of 2023.

For its part, Kigali always washes its hands and rejects all these allegations outright.

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Photo : coffins of the victims of the Gatumba attack stretched out before the Catholic parish of Gatumba before a mass in their memory that was followed by their burial, December 26, 2023

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