(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Pierre Buyoya, RSF has protested the recent threats made against journalists. RSF asked that the president “publicly comment on this matter and do everything to ensure that press freedom is respected across the country.” Recalling that Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions obligates authorities to protect persons (such […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to President Pierre Buyoya, RSF has protested the
recent threats made against journalists. RSF asked that the president
“publicly comment on this matter and do everything to ensure that press
freedom is respected across the country.” Recalling that Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions obligates authorities to protect persons (such as
journalists) not directly involved in hostilities, and that Burundi has
ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
guarantees the right to inform and to be informed, Robert Ménard, the
organisation’s secretary-general, asked the head of state to “ensure the
protection of Burundian journalists and foreign media correspondents who
carry out their profession in conflict zones.”
**Updates IFEX alert of 10 September 1999**
According to information obtained by RSF, on 9 September 1999, during a
speech to army officers, the minister of defence, Colonel Alfred Nkurunziza,
recommended to his subordinates that they consider journalists who enter the
rural Bujumbura region as enemies, equal to the rebels. Expressing himself
in Kirundi, the national language, the minister was reacting to news
delivered by the Radio France Internationale correspondent on 8 September,
concerning the rebels’ blocking of a road leading to the country’s north.
These statements come at a time when journalists of foreign and Burundian
media are prevented by the military from covering clashes between Burundian
Armed Forces and Hutu rebels, notably in the rural Bujumbura region. In
addition, journalists have been directly threatened after having published
information concerning massacres of civilians by soldiers. These massacres
were recently confirmed in an Amnesty International report.
