Five-member commission of inquiry to investigate violence, massacres.

A five-member international Commission of Inquiry has been set up by the Security Council to establish the facts relating to the 21 October 1993 assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye of Burundi during a failed coup attempt, as well as the massacres and related violence that followed.

"Deeply concerned that impunity creates contempt for law and leads to violations of international humanitarian law", the Council on 28 August, in adopting resolution 1012 (1995), asked Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to create the new body as a matter of urgency.

It stressed that "all persons who commit or authorize the commission of serious violations of international humanitatian law are individually responsible for these violations and should be held accountable".

On 15 September, the appointment of Commission members was announced: Edilbert Razafindralambo of Madagascar, Chairman; Abde El Ali El Moumni of Morocco; Mehmet Guney of Turkey; Luis Herrera Marcano of Venezuela; and Michel Maurice of Canada.

To eradicate impunity

The Commission was to recommend measures of a legal, political or administrative nature, after consulting with the Burundi Government, as well as measures aimed at bringing to justice those responsible for acts falling within its mandate. This was intended "to prevent any repetition of deeds similar to those investigated by the Commission and, in general, to eradicate impunity and promote national reconciliation in Burundi", the Council stated.

Also in resolution 1012, the Council stipulated that States, relevant UN bodies and international humanitarian organizations should provide substantiated information on acts under the Commission's purview.

Burundi authorities and institutions, including all political parties, should fully cooperate with the Commission, the Council declared. The Government should adopt "any measures needed for the Commission and its personnel to carry out their functions throughout the national territory with full freedom, independence and security".

The UN would provide security, in cooperation with the Burundi Government. A trust fund has been established to receive voluntary contributions to finance the Commission.

In debate, Burundi declared that a new "movement has been furiously intensifying strategies that would lead to a genocide similar to that in Rwanda". Crimes against humanity had been committed and were continuing, he said, warning that a "new variant of Nazism is being created in the heart of Africa at the end of the twentieth century".

Given the facts and the seriousness of the crimes in his country, he urged that the international Commission identify the real perpetrators".

Rwanda stressed that Burundi's problems could not be resolved without taking into account what was happening in the other countries of the subregion, which was "now considered a powder keg and a source of refugees".

'Deep-seated crisis'

In recommending on 28 July to the Council that a commission be established, Mr. Boutros-Ghali emphasized (S/1995/631) that "the full cooperation of the Burundian authorities will be a necessary condition for the success of the commission's work".

His Special Envoy, Pedro Nikken, visited Burundi earlier in the year, reporting that the country was going through "a deep-seated crisis". The violence, formation of militias, summary executions and every manner of abuse against human dignity" had continued unabated, he said. Tens of thousands had been murdered and "the level of atrocities has often reached a peak of hysteria".

Calls for an end to the impunity, which the perpetrators, instigators and abettors of the many violent crimes had enjoyed, had become more insistent, he said. However, the courts were "virtually paralyzed" and large segments of society had no trust in the impartiality of the judicial system.

On 11 August, Special Rapporteur on Burundi, Mrs. Shanti Sadiq Ali, reported to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that extremists on both sides of the conflict had strengthened their bases of support, which had further escalated the conflict. Human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrests and killings, torture and disappearances, had been widespread.

'A solemn appeal

for tolerance'

On 17 July, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali addressed the Burundi authorities and officials in Bujumbura. He said he had come to the country first of all as Secretary-General of the UN, but also "as an African, to make an appeal to all my sisters and brothers of Burundi. A solemn appeal for peace, tolerance and reconciliation."

He stated: "We are all aware that the African continent-and your region in particular-is today witnessing one of the most difficult, one of the saddest and most tragic periods in its history."

With mistrust dividing Burundi's leaders and communities, he said that 'the time has come to banish the spirit of confrontation" which had inflicted such harm upon the country. "May Burundi realize at last that no one wins through confrontation, no one wins through violence."