UN Security Council mulls sending up to 228 police to Burundi

Burundian police officers collect a cache of weapons recovered from suspected fighters after clashes in the capital Bujumbura, Burundi December 12, 2015.

The United Nations Security Council is considering whether to send up to 228 UN police to Burundi.

This is in a bid to monitor the security and human rights situation in the East African country, where deadly political violence has simmered for more than a year.

France circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member council on Friday, seen by Reuters, that would deploy police for one year and ask UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report immediately on grave security incidents or human rights abuses.

Burundi’s UN ambassador, Albert Shingiro, said on Friday his country would only accept up to 50 unarmed UN police, adding that “the sovereignty of Burundi must be fully respected.”

In response to a council request, Ban gave the council three options for a possible police deployment in a report in April: a light footprint of 20 to 50 police personnel to assess the Burundi police, a monitoring presence of 228 police, or a protection and monitoring deployment of some 3,000 police.

Akshaya Kumar, deputy United Nations director at Human Rights Watch, said the option contained in the draft resolution “won’t provide the kind of protection of civilians we were hoping for. But it’s a really important step forward for enlarging the UN footprint and getting more consistent human rights reporting directly to the Security Council,” she said.

Government officials and members of the opposition have been among those killed in tit-for-tat violence by rival sides. A Burundian member of the East African Legislative Assembly was shot dead last Wednesday.