publications

III. Context

After more than a decade of civil war in Burundi, the largest rebel group, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy—Forces for the Defense of Democracy (Conseil national pour la défense de la démocratie—Forces pour la défense de la démocratie, CNDD-FDD) won parliamentary and local administrative elections in 2005, and CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza ran unopposed in the indirect election for the presidency.  Nkurunziza and others promised that his government would be committed to human rights.2

Nonetheless, since the elections members of the state security forces have been responsible for serious human rights violations, often while pursuing alleged combatants and supporters of the FNL, the one rebel group that was still fighting the government. Hundreds of civilians were arbitrarily arrested and detained, and some have been tortured and killed by police, military, and intelligence agents.3 Human rights groups and ONUB4 human rights monitors denounced these abuses as violating Burundian and international law.5

After months of discussions, the government and the FNL signed a ceasefire agreement on September 7, 2006. Although a comprehensive peace accord has not yet been signed and demobilization of FNL combatants lags behind schedule, Burundi is closer to peace than at any time in the past 13 years.

The National Intelligence Service and rule of law

Since the new government took power in August 2005, the National Intelligence Service and its former incarnation the Documentation Nationale6 are documented as having committed torture and are strongly incriminated in having carried out extrajudicial executions, crimes for which those responsible have so far escaped punishment. One resident of the capital Bujumbura told a Human Rights Watch researcher,

The [SNR] agents make people afraid. The people don’t support them. We run when we see them. . . . A lot of arrests happened without reason.7

In March 2006, President Nkurunziza signed two new laws governing the structure and personnel of the SNR that had been adopted in the January session of parliament.8 The new law on the functions of the SNR states that its mission is “research, centralization, and exploitation of all information of a political, security, economic, and social nature necessary for the government to act to guarantee the security of the state.”9 It mandates the SNR to investigate a broad range of unlawful acts, from terrorism to threats to the environment.10

The SNR is headed by a general administrator and a deputy general administrator; both have the rank of minister and are nominated by the president with the approval of the Senate.11 The general administrator reports directly to the president, an arrangement that has led people to talk of the SNR as the “presidential police.”12 Since the new government took office, Gen. Adolphe Nshimirimana, an FDD13 combatant during the war, has headed the Documentation Nationale and then the SNR from its inception in March. General Nshimirimana’s own security escort was implicated in extrajudicial executions and torture in 2005 and some victims reported that General Nshimirimana himself was present during interrogation sessions involving torture.14 Col. Leonidas Kiziba, the deputy administrator, was an officer of the Burundian army and was previously a military prosecutor.

SNR agents wear civilian clothes but are supposed to carry identity cards identifying them as SNR agents.15 In addition to regular staff, the SNR pays others, many of them former FDD combatants, who deliver information or provide other services on an occasional basis.16   On March 30, Colonel Kiziba, speaking on Radio National after a meeting in Kayanza with SNR agents from around the country and attended also by President Nkurunziza, was reported as saying that “crimes of which some agents are accused are mostly perpetrated by informants who are not themselves members of the service” (see also below).17

As part of the Arusha Accords (the power-sharing agreement between warring parties signed in 2000), government forces in Burundi are currently required to maintain strict ethnic balances. The National Police and the military cannot have more than 50 percent of their members drawn from any one ethnic group. This was included to remedy large ethnic imbalances that had been present in government forces and had contributed to instability in the past. However, the special status of the SNR is underlined by its exemption from the ethnic quotas. The Arusha Agreement stipulates that “[t]he composition of the intelligence service shall be such as to enable the service, given its special nature, to preserve the secrecy of its operations while allowing for control by the National Assembly.”18 

Ambiguous powers and dual chain of command

The law establishing the SNR gives its agents vague powers to take all “legal measures necessary to accomplish their mission” of protecting state security, a scope that leaves wide latitude for action.19 It also charges them with “investigating legal cases and submitting them to the prosecutor for prosecution.”20 SNR agents have the competences of Officers of the Judicial Police (Officiers de Police Judiciaire, OPJ)21 who also are charged with investigating crimes, submitting evidence to prosecutors, making arrests, and carrying out the warrants of the prosecutor.22 

OPJs, including SNR agents, are supposed to operate “judicially under the orders of the public prosecutor [ministère public]” in carrying out investigations and preparing criminal cases.23 This arrangement creates a double chain of command: ordinary OPJs are subject to the police hierarchy (commissioner general of the Judicial Police, director general of the Police, and minister of interior) as well as to the prosecutor, while SNR agents are subject to the general administrator and the president, as well as to the prosecutor.

Lack of oversight

SNR agents have used the ambiguity inherent in this arrangement to operate with little control from the Prosecutor’s office, detaining persons as they wish. The prosecutor of Bujumbura, who according to the law is charged with directing agents of the SNR for judicial matters, told a Human Rights Watch researcher that he rarely works with SNR agents; he said that he contacts them when an accused person whom he is seeking is very difficult to find.24 Commenting on Burundi in March 2006 the UN secretary-general noted that “weaknesses in the command and control structure” of the intelligence services, as well as those of the military and police, contributed to the significant number of human rights violations and common crimes being committed.25

In seeking possible solutions to the problem of oversight of the SNR, a Human Rights Watch researcher spoke to some members of the National Assembly. Deputy Jean Marie Ngendahayo, a member of the CNDD-FDD, agreed that a parliamentary committee on intelligence with oversight over the SNR could improve the situation. He noted that perhaps parliamentarians would be less likely to feel intimidated by the SNR than some judicial officials, and could ensure the support of the government to officers of the Prosecutor’s office during investigations.26

Should a parliamentary committee on intelligence be established, it is crucial that it be comprised of various political parties, to ensure that the SNR serves the interests of all Burundians. Ending the abuses of the SNR will also require both amending the law to define their powers more clearly and increasing supervision over their activities, while allowing the judiciary the independence to carry out criminal investigations of SNR agents.  




2 “Burundi: President lays out new policy,” IRINnews, August 29, 2005, http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=48797 (accessed October 9, 2006).

3 Human Rights Watch, Burundi - Missteps at a Crucial Moment, November 4, 2005, http://hrw.org/backgrounder/africa/burundi1105/; Human Rights Watch, Warning Signs: Continuing Abuses in Burundi, February 27, 2006, http://hrw.org/reports/2006/burundi0206/.

4 The United Nations Operations in Burundi (ONUB) began activities on June 1, 2004, pursuant to UNSC resolution 1545. ONUB is mandated to monitor implementation and investigate violations of ceasefire agreements, provide security at disarmament assembly sites, collect and dispose of weapons, protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence; to carry out institutional reforms as well as the constitution of the integrated national defence and internal security forces and, in particular, the training and monitoring of the police; and to complete implementation of the reform of the judiciary and correction system. United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1545 (2004), S/RES/1545 (2004), http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/359/89/PDF/N0435989.pdf?OpenElement (accessed October 18, 2006) paras. 5-7.

5 “Burundi: Iteka Denounces Rights Violations” IRINnews, October 21, 2005, http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=49673 (accessed October 9, 2006).

6 Previously the intelligence service was known as the Surêté Nationale, but was referred to informally as the Documentation Nationale. It was originally established by Décret no 100/90 de 14 juillet 1984 portant réorganisation et Fonctionnement de la Surêté Nationale and Décret no 100/91 du 14 juillet 1984 portant statut de Personnel de la Surêté Nationale.

7 Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, August 30, 2006.

8 “Adoption de l’ordre du jour de la session extraordinaire de l’Assemblée nationale,” Agence Burundaise de Presse, January 18, 2006.

9 Loi No 104 du 2 mars 2006 portant creation, organisation et fonctionnement de service national de renseignement, art. 3: “Le Service National de Renseignement a pour mission la recherche, la centralisation, et l’exploitation de tous les renseignements d’ordre politique, sécuritaire, économique et social nécessaires à l’information et a l’orientation de l’action du Gouvernement en vue de garantir la sûreté de l’Etat.”

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid., arts. 4 and 5.

12 Ibid., art. 11. According to Article 117 of the Burundian constitution, the president himself is guaranteed immunity for all official acts except in case of high treason.

13 The FDD (Forces pour la défense de la démocratie)  is the name of the armed rebel group which was a precursor to the current ruling political party, the CNDD-FDD.

14 Human Rights Watch, Missteps at a Crucial Moment, pp. 11-12; U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005: Burundi,” March 8, 2006, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61557.htm (accessed September 28, 2006).

15 Loi No 1/05 du 2 mars 2006 portant du personnel du service national de renseignement, arts. 5-10. According to this new law on the personnel of the SNR, staff is ranked as inspector, officer and administrator, in ascending order of power.

16 Human Rights Watch, Missteps at a Crucial Moment, p. 11.

17 Radio-Télévision nationale du Burundi (in French), March 30, 2006, reproduced (in French and in English translation) in United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Morning News Brief, March 30, 2006, http://www.reliefweb.int/ochaburundi/am_brief/bur300306.htm (accessed September 29, 2006).

18 The Arusha Peace and Reconcilation Agreement for Burundi, http://www.usip.org/library/pa/burundi/pa_burundi_08282000_pr3ch2.html (accessed October 10, 2006), Protocol III, art. 14.  The Parliament of Burundi is made up of two chambers, the National Assembly and the Senate.

19 Loi No 1/04 du 2 mars 2006 portant création, organisation et fonctionnement du service national de renseignement, art. 7.

20 Ibid., art. 8.

21 Loi No 1/05 du 2 mars 2006 portant du personnel du service national de renseignement, art. 13.

22 Loi No. 1/08 du 17 mars 2005 portant code de l’organisation et de la competence judiciares. arts. 142-147.

23 Loi No. 1/020 du 31 decembre 2004 portant creation, organisation, missions, composition et fonctionnement de la police nationale, art. 31.

24 Human Rights Watch interview with Prosecutor of Bujumbura Mairie Stanislas Nimpagaritse, September 29, 2006.

25 United Nations Security Council, Sixth report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Burundi, S/2006/163, March 14, 2006, http://www.un.org/docs/sc/sgrep06.htm (accessed October 10, 2006).

26 Human Rights Watch interview with Deputé Jean Marie Ngendahayo, September 27, 2006.