A/HRC/33/37 (f) Are institutions responding promptly and effectively to claims by citizens regarding possible violations or abuses? (g) Are institutions responding to those claims effectively and are they establishing initiatives to prevent new violations? 131. There are serious concerns on all those fronts. 132. The independent experts are gravely concerned about the fact that the violations and the lack of accountability are “patterned”. The independent experts’ investigations suggest that the number, modes of operation, alleged perpetrators, apparent identity of the victims, apparent motivations and the lack of either remedial or preventive action on the part of the State authorities show that the violations are not simply the result of chance, “bad apples”, provocation or necessity. The robust correlation between the violations and particular political incidents also strongly suggests that they are the result of deliberate choices. The investigations also suggest that widespread and systemic patterns of violations are taking place, of the sort that call for, among other things, judgments of State, individual responsibility for perpetrators and effective remedies for victims through an international process. 133. The independent experts are deeply concerned about the tendency of the Government to view itself as being under an onslaught from the international community, and indeed as being in conflict with the United Nations and other human rights bodies, as opposed to being engaged in a common pursuit to address the challenges faced by the country. 134. The role of observers on the ground, in the capital and wherever else violence takes place, is crucial. Rumours are rife in the country and uncertainty fuels insecurity. Accountability is impossible without reliable facts. 135. The attention of the international community may have helped to put a damper on the more overt manifestations of violence, but it is clear that the crisis continues. Most stakeholders agree that an inclusive political settlement aimed at establishing a system based on strong institutions that protect the rule of law and human rights is required, but the political process has largely stalled. 136. While there is no simple way to characterize the ethnic dimension of the crisis in Burundi, the independent experts are alarmed that, in a context in which so much was achieved through the Arusha Agreement to remove the ethnic component from the area of political contestation, State officials, including at the highest levels, use language that can only provoke previously bridged divisions and fuel mistrust among ethnic groups both in Burundi and beyond its borders. Those divisions are starting to manifest themselves within the security forces, the ethnic integration of which was both a signal success of the Arusha Agreement and a bulwark against a tragic relapse into ethnic strife, inside and outside Burundi. 137. The independent experts also express alarm about the potential threat to peace and security in the Great Lakes region posed by the events they were mandated to investigate. In a region with a history of complicated ethnic relations with significant cross-border consequences, stalemated political initiatives, continuing and systematic gross human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity, a humanitarian crisis involving massive flows of internally displaced persons and refugees, the disruption to trade and the rampant impunity, to cite only the most obvious factors, cannot be ignored by the international community. 21