BUJUMBURA December 7th (ABP) – Outgoing Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Bishop Jean Louis Nahimana and incoming Chairman, Ambassador Pierre Claver Ndayicariye proceeded to the handover ceremony at the headquarters of that commission on Thursday December 6, 2018.
Regarding the achievements of the TRC during the past four years, Bishop Nahimana reported that the commission was able to inventory in the 18 provinces of the country, in all 119 communes and in nearly 2,000 villages and neighborhoods, and 67,000 depositors with extensive information on the main human rights violations committed during the crises of 1965, 1969, 1972, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993 to 2008, known as the year of the official end of belligerency in Burundi. He pointed out that the victims told the commission that they had been subjected to physical attacks, arbitrary detentions, attacks on honor and physical integrity. The TRC discovered 4,400 mass graves.The outgoing chairman first congratulated the incoming one to whom he indicated that it is a privilege to occupy that position and also a heavy responsibility, especially that they are called on to reconcile a people deeply shocked by several bloody events which had cyclically bereaved thousands of families.
Bishop Nahimana informed the incoming chairman that the TRC currently has open sites that are underway, including the mapping of mass graves, the digitization of testimonies, the counting of sound recordings collected by the commissioners from a thousand people resources, the characterization of crimes by recently recruited legal experts for the purpose, the quantitative compilation and exploitation of field data and more others. He concluded his remarks by encouraging the new team and wishing it full success.
In turn, Ambassador Ndayicariye, incoming chairman, expressed his thanks to the team of the TRC which has just completed its term of office for the various achievements which, he said, will be a good basis for the new team. He called on all Burundians to support the TRC because the site that has just been presented to the new team is important.
