1999 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.0
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 6

Ratings Change

Burundi's political liberties rating changed from 7 to 6 due to the effect of an internal political accord and ongoing negotiations to resolve the nation's crisis.

Overview

Burundi's overall political environment in 1999 was characterized both by slow and uncertain progress towards creating a new political equilibrium and by continued violence and civil strife within the country. Negotiations in Arusha, Tanzania mediated by former President Nyerere of Tanzania took place intermittently during the year to develop a commonly agreed-upon framework for addressing the country's deep polarization. By year's end, however, no final agreement had yet been reached. Violence within the country, generated both by the government security forces and Hutu guerilla groups, claimed an increasing number of lives as the year progressed. Polarization and suspicion between the country's Hutu majority and Tutsi minority ethnic groups remain high, and continued instability within the region further complicates efforts at reconciliation.

With the exception of a brief period following democratic elections in 1993, the minority Tutsi ethnic group has governed the country since independence in 1962. The military, judiciary, educational system, business, and news media have also been dominated by the Tutsi. Violence between the country's two main ethnic groups has occurred repeatedly since independence, but the assassination of the newly elected Hutu President Melchoir Ndadaye in 1993 resulted in sustained and widespread violence. Since 1993 an estimated 200,000 Burundi citizens, out of a population of 5.5 million, are estimated to have lost their lives.

Ndadaye's murder fatally weakened the hold on power of the Hutu-backed political party, FRODEBU. Negotiations on power-sharing took place over the succeeding months, as ethnically backed violence continued to wrack the country. Cyprien Ntaryamira, Ndadaye's successor, was killed along with Rwanda president Juvenal Habyarimana in 1994 when their plane was apparently shot down while approaching Kigali airport. The event intensified killings in Burundi.

Under a 1994 power-sharing arrangement between the main political parties, Hutu politician Sylvestre Ntibantunganya served as Burundi's new president until his ouster by former President Pierre Buyoya in a 1996 military coup, which Buyoya claimed to have carried out to prevent further human rights violations and violence. Peace and political stability within the country continued to be elusive as armed insurgents sporadically staged attacks and the government security forces pursued an often ruthless campaign of intimidation. Since then, the search for peace has led to an agreement to allow a measure of political space for the parliament, which has a FRODEBU majority, and the beginning of negotiations in Arusha in 1998.

The Arusha negotiations on ending the civil war resumed in January 1999. Regionally imposed economic sanctions were provisionally lifted that month in recognition of progress made in the negotiations. These reflect an effort at broad-based consensus-building among the nation's political forces. Eighteen organized groups from across the political spectrum continue to discuss recommendations from committees on the nature of the conflict, reforms in the nation's governing institutions, security issues, and economic restructuring and development. Progress through the year was intermittent and slow. The form of the political institutions through which power would be shared, and the reform of the military proved to be especially sensitive and difficult issues.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Political and civil liberties within Burundi continue to be circumscribed, although parties and civic organizations do function. President Buyoya is an unelected chief of state. The constitution was suspended when he took power, as was the legitimately elected parliament. In June 1998 a transitional constitution was put into place; it reinstituted and enlarged the parliament through the appointment of additional members and created two vice presidents. The parliament's powers remain limited in practice, although it provides an outlet for political expression and remains an important player in determining the nation's future. It is not clear when the next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held, or under what conditions.

There are over a dozen active political parties, ranging from those that champion extremist Tutsi positions to those that hold extremist Hutu positions. Most are small in terms of membership. FRODEBU and the Tutsi-dominated Unity for National Progress (UPRONA) party remain the leading political parties.

Burundians continue to be subject to arbitrary violence, whether from the government or from guerilla groups. Although detailed, specific figures on the number of dead or injured are difficult to obtain, widespread violence continued in parts of Burundi in 1999. This has been documented by respected independent organizations inside and outside Burundi, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the ITEKA Human Rights League. Amnesty International reported, for example, that at least 500 civilians were killed by government soldiers in the Bujumbura area alone between November 1998 and March 1999. Scores more are reported to have been subsequently killed, and violence increased as the year progressed. Hundreds were reportedly massacred by the Burundian army in early August, to cite one example, after rebel forces attacked a marketplace outside the capital of Bujumbura. In response, Hutu rebels attacked Tutsi neighborhoods on the night of August 28, killing more than 30 people, including many children. In addition to government security force operations, there has been intense activity by armed opposition groups, particularly in the province of Rural Bujumbura and the southern provinces of Makamba, Bururi, Rutana, and Ruyigi.

Reprisals by the armed forces have often been brutal and indiscriminate and have resulted in hundreds of extrajudicial executions, mainly of members of the Hutu ethnic group. Much of this violence has been committed in zones where the local civilian and military authorities ordered the civilian population to leave the area because of counterinsurgency operations. While this is ostensibly a measure aimed primarily at protecting the civilian population, members of the government and the armed forces have publicly stated that people remaining in the areas would be considered to be linked to the armed groups, and therefore would be military targets. The continued impunity of the armed forces, and the weakness of the Burundian judicial system are important contributing factors to the violence.

Citizens have also been subject to arbitrary displacement from their homes. In September 1999, after a major relocation exercise near the capital, Bujumbura, the United Nations estimated there were more than 800,000 people – 12% of the population – in these sites. In October, Amnesty International reported that as many as 260,000 people had recently been moved from their homes by the military in the area around the capital, Bujumbura. The report stated that virtually the whole population of Rural Bujumbura had been forcibly moved from their homes as a counterinsurgency measure.

Some different viewpoints are expressed in the media, although they operate under significant self-censorship and the opposition press functions sporadically. The government-operated radio station allows a measure of diversity. The European Union has funded a radio station. The Hutu extremist radio broadcasts sporadically and has a limited listening range.

Women have limited opportunities for advancement in the economic and political spheres, especially in the rural areas. Approximately 80 per cent of Burundi's population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, with few links to the modern economy.

Constitutional protections for unionization are in place, and the right to strike is protected by the labor code. The Organization of Free Unions of Burundi is the sole labor confederation and has been independent since the rise of the multiparty system in 1992. Most union members are civil servants and have bargained collectively with the government. Freedom of religion is generally observed.

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