A/HRC/17/50 39. The independent expert met several persons held in Mpimba prison in Bujumbura, who stated that they had been beaten and threatened with death by SNR officers during their interrogation. 40. The adviser to the Executive Office of the Union pour la démocratie et le développement (UDP), himself a former police officer, stated that he had been arrested in the company of two members of FNL on 1 July 2010 by the police and SNR agents at a petrol station in Bujumbura on his way back from the FNL office in northern Mutanga. On arriving at the petrol station, he had seen two vehicles approach. One of them was an SNR van. The driver, whom he identified, was accompanied by officers who had formerly been his colleagues in the police. He alleges that the police officers fired shots into the air to intimidate him, then overpowered him and took him directly to the SNR office. 41. The UDP adviser told the independent expert that he had been struck by four police officers during his interrogation, in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the DirectorGeneral of the SNR and the deputy Director of PNB. The questions put to him were said to concern the grenade attacks carried out in certain districts of the capital. He alleges that he was then struck in the back with a large stone by an officer whom he was able to identify. He added that he had been slapped and beaten with pliers by a demobilized former soldier, who ripped off part of his ear with pliers and then forced him to swallow it. The independent expert was able to see the scars on the victim's ear. The UPD adviser went on to say that other officers had beaten him all over his body, particularly on the buttocks, genital organs, face, nose, forehead and feet. When he tried to stop the bleeding from his nose with his hands, he was reportedly told to swallow his own blood. United Nations observers were able to see for themselves that a part of his ear had been severed, that his nose and feet were swollen and that his buttocks were blistered. The victim stated that he had suffered such acts of torture until Monday, 5 July 2010 and that he had then been held in the toilets for five days. 42. The victim further stated that, on 5 July 2010, the Chief of Staff of the DirectorGeneral of SNR ordered the duty officer to take him out of the dungeon before the arrival of the United Nations observers, who visited the SNR cells on that date. He was taken to the shore of Lake Tanganyika, where he remained until the end of the visit. On his way there, at the place of the monument known as "chez Ndadaye", an SNR officer told him to say his last prayer before being executed. 43. According to the UPD adviser, an officer of the judicial police then drew up a report and asked him to sign it. He said that he had refused to sign the record of the interrogation on the grounds that the officer of the judicial police had not asked any specific question during the interrogation. He stated that he had filed a complaint through his lawyer against the officers who had mistreated him on SNR premises, but that there had not as yet been any judicial follow-up to his complaint. 44. The Government of Burundi informed the independent expert that the police authorities had taken disciplinary measures against some hundred police officers who had violated the institution's code of ethics. The independent expert regrets, however, that SNR did not investigate the alleged commission of human rights violations by intelligence agents against persons held in that institution's cells. The independent expert considers that the question of human rights will not be resolved in Burundi so long as the authorities continue to deny the alleged violations. The Burundian authorities should consequently shed light on the human right violations alleged to have been committed on SNR premises in order to restore the people's trust in the security forces. 45. The independent expert nevertheless notes that the senior management of the institution conducted disciplinary investigations into certain human rights violations committed by the National Defence Force. The independent expert was informed indeed 12 GE.11-13751 (EXT)