UN rights chief blames Burundi leaders for mounting violence

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights accused Burundi's authorities on Thursday of dragging the country towards full-blown civil war and called for travel bans and asset freezes targeting key officials to try to halt the bloodshed. Speaking at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein condemned a campaign of political repression that included beatings, arrests and house-to-house searches in which he said at least 400 people had been killed and nearly 3,500 detained.
As Zeid, other UN officials and Western envoys expressed alarm at the escalating violence in a country that only emerged from a 12-year civil war in 2005, the government in Bujumbura insisted it was open to "a broad-based inclusive dialogue". The surge of violence in Burundi has unnerved a region that remains volatile two decades after a genocide in neighbouring Rwanda. The country's current political crisis pits supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza against opponents who say his re-election in July for a third term violated the constitution. Tensions have been running particularly high since gunmen attacked military sites in the capital Bujumbura last Friday. "Burundi is at bursting point, on the very cusp of a civil war," Zeid told the session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which agreed by consensus to send an investigation team to Burundi, an initiative led by the United States. "Today's special session is an attempt to prevent - and that's a key word, prevent - mass atrocities by focusing attention and providing expert assistance in the region before it is too late," said US Ambassador Keith Harper.