The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution setting the stage for deployment of UN police to Burundi, where killings, torture and increased disappearances have created a climate of fear and led more than 250,000 people to flee to neighboring countries.
The resolution requests that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon consults Burundi’s government and coordinates with the African Union to present options within 15 days for deployment of UN police to increase monitoring of the security situation, promote respect for human rights and advance the rule of law.
Burundi has been hit by unrest since April last year, when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his decision to seek a third term, which he eventually won.
Photo: Reuters
His government has been wary of outside intervention, last year rejecting the idea of an AU peacekeeping force and calling foreign troops an “invasion.”
The French-drafted resolution welcomes the consent of Burundi’s authorities to increase the number of African Union human rights observers from 100 to 200 and allow 100 African Union military experts.
It says that 30 human rights observers and 15 military observers have been deployed so far.
Burundian Ambassador to the UN Albert Shingiro said the government “is ready to discuss and to come to an agreement on the nature, the size and the missions” of a UN police presence that is unarmed.
Shingiro said that the option of an “international unarmed presence” was a recommendation of the last African Union heads of state summit.
French Ambassador to the UN Francois Delattre said the main objective of the resolution is to back African efforts to help Burundi emerge from its crisis.
The resolution strongly condemns human rights violations including extra-judicial killings, sexual violence, torture, intimidation of civil society organizations and journalists and restrictions on fundamental freedoms.
Two weeks ago, UN Human Rights High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told the council that many people in Burundi are living in “terror” with almost daily grenade attacks and arbitrary arrests, while perpetrators go unpunished.
The resolution reiterates deep concern at “the persisting political impasse in the country” and stresses the urgency of convening “a genuine and inclusive inter-Burundian dialogue.”
The final draft was changed to overcome an objection from the US. A reference to “disarmament” was removed from a section calling for the UN team to work with the government and other parties “in the areas of disarmament, security and rule of law.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not