A/HRC/36/54 C. Human rights violations and abuses 1. Right to life 29. The Commission received numerous testimonies concerning violations of the right to life for which the Burundian State can be held responsible. These violations include excessive use of deadly force by the defence and security forces during the demonstrations between April and June 2015. In some cases, the police allegedly took action following acts of violence by demonstrators which led to the death of police officers and members of the ruling party.18 Members of the Unit for the Protection of Institutions (Appui à la protection des institutions), the Anti-Riot Brigade and the Combat Engineer Battalion also committed extrajudicial executions in some neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, including on 13 October 2015 in Ngagara and on 31 October 2015 in Buringa (Bubanza Province). In reprisal for armed attacks against several military positions in Bujumbura and Mujejuru (Bujumbura Province) on 11 December 2015, police and military personnel summarily executed dozens of persons in Bujumbura Mairie, including in Nyakabiga and Musaga. The bodies of persons who had been executed were also found in the commune of Mukike (Bujumbura Province). The extrajudicial executions that took place in December 2015, on a scale that exceeded those reported since April 2015, were accompanied or followed by torture, rape and arbitrary arrests. 30. According to several testimonies, after the events of December 2015 the local administrative authorities ordered bodies to be buried in common graves, particularly in Kanyosha (Bujumbura Mairie) and Mpanda (Bubanza Province). On 29 February 2016, the mayor of Bujumbura informed the media of the discovery of a common grave in Mutakura (Bujumbura Mairie), asserting that the bodies were those of CNDD-FDD sympathizers who had been killed by members of the opposition. 19 Only access to all the alleged sites of common graves, as well as forensic studies and more thorough investigations, would make it possible to determine the validity of those allegations. 31. The Commission received reports of extrajudicial executions of members of the security forces, particularly members of the former Burundian Armed Forces (“ex-FAB”). For example, General Athanase Kararuza, security and defence adviser to the First VicePresident, together with his wife, his daughter and a bodyguard, were killed in Bujumbura by members of the police and the army on 25 April 2016. 32. According to some testimonies, people have died while in the custody of law enforcement agencies, including in places of detention. 33. Lifeless bodies have regularly been found in several provinces, often with their arms tied behind their back, and sometimes decapitated. In several cases, the authorities have ordered the interment of these bodies without identifying the victims and without any credible investigation, thereby failing in their duty to protect the right to life. In other cases, the victims were identified as persons who opposed President Nkurunziza’s candidature for a new term in office or as members of opposition parties. Corpses, sometimes weighed down with stones, have been found in the Rusizi River and Lake Tanganyika. Witnesses asserted that persons arrested by the police, military personnel or Imbonerakure had been taken into the Rukoko forest and executed there. 34. The Commission also received reports of summary executions by Imbonerakure, acting either as auxiliaries of the defence and security forces or on their own initiative. For example, on 5 August 2015 in Cibitoke (Bujumbura Mairie), members of the Imbonerakure, accompanied by police officers, executed two men after ordering them to kneel with their hands in the air. 18 19 8 These acts do not fall within the framework of the Commission’s mandate. Since they were not committed by organized groups, they do not constitute human rights abuses, but acts that are punishable under Burundian criminal law. This assertion was repeated in the March 2016 report of the commission established by the Attorney General to investigate the events of 11 December 2015. GE.17-13865