Posts Tagged ‘Welly Nzitonda’

MEA Laureate Mbonimpa has message of hope at his son’s funeral

November 12, 2015

Since I published my post about MEA Laureate Pierre Claver Mbonimpa two days ago (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/burundi-what-more-early-warning-does-one-need/) the situation has not improved and the hope is that the UN will find the muscle to impose itself. In the meantime, the Huffington Post of 12 November carries a long piece on Mbonimpa and his Burundi by Charlotte Alfred under the title “Burundi’s Human Rights Legend Urges Hope After His Son’s Killing“.

<span class='image-component__caption' itemprop="caption">Pierre Claver Mbonimpa is founder and president of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detainees in Burundi.</span>

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa founder and president of the APRODH in Burundi (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa wasn’t able to attend his son’s funeral. Instead, he sent a message from Belgium, which was read out at the funeral of his son, Welly Nzitonda, on Tuesday, according to independent journalist network SOS Médias Burundi: “Do not lose courage … The tragedies we face will end with a resolution of the conflict in Burundi.”

……..

“The problem that plagues the country is not ethnicity, but politics,” Mbonimpa told the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2010. “It is politicians who manipulate the population in pursuit of power.”

For the full article, worth reading, see: Burundi’s Human Rights Legend Urges Hope After His Son’s Killing

Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 2 Comments »
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Burundi: what more ‘early’ warning does one need?

November 10, 2015

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa is President of the Association for the Protection of Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH) in Burundi. He was the Laureate of the MEA 2007 and on 27 October 2015 he received the Pan African Human Rights Defenders Network’s East Africa Shield Award. What happened to him in the last months is telling (for earlier items see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/pierre-claver-mbonimpa/):

MEA Laureate Mbonimpa, Burundi

MEA Laureate Mbonimpa, Burundi

  • On 3 August 2015, prominent human rights defender Pierre Claver Mbonimpa – laureate of the MEA 2007 – was shot in the face and neck. He was forced to seek medical treatment abroad.
  • His son-in-law, Pascal Nshimirimana, was shot dead outside his home in Bujumbura on 9 October.
  • On 6 November, the body of Welly Nzitonda, the son of Mbonimpa, was found dead a few hours after he was arrested in the Mutakura neighborhood of Bujumbura where protests have taken place.
  • Just before that – on 3 November – Mbonimpa spoke out on a video message from the place where is recovering: https://www.defenddefenders.org/2015/11/voices-that-cannot-be-silenced-pierre-claver-mbonimpa-speaks-out-on-burundi/

On 9 November 2015 eleven leading human rights NGOs addressed an Open Letter to the UN Human Rights Council urging them to organize a special session to prevent (further) atrocities in Burundi.

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Posted in awards, FIDH, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, MEA, OHCHR, UN | 4 Comments »
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