E/CN.4/1991/56
page 64
were redirected for urgent goals; the system of allocating provisional housing
was corrected while a data base was created for all citizens in need of
housing; citizenship was restored to persons returning from Turkey. A
purpose-oriented fund of 30 million levas has been set up to meet the needs in
the solution of these problems.
The issues related to the elimination of the consequences of these
violations are the object of active public discussions. A special
parliamentary commission on human rights and the national question is now
studying all aspects of these problems.
The Republic of Bulgaria reaffirms its readiness to implement fully and
effectively all provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms
of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Bulgaria
considers further that this cannot infringe in any way on the right of the
freely and democratically elected Bulgarian Parliament to examine these
matters and to determine suitable legal and other means to implement them in
accordance with the sovereign will of the Bulgarian people."
Burundi
42. In a communication addressed to the Government of Burundi
on 13 October 1989 (E/CN.4/1990/36, para. 31), the Special Rapporteur
transmitted the following information:
"According to information received, at a meeting of governors of
provinces in February 1989 attended by the President of the Republic, it was
recommended that the parochial activities of Jehovah's Witnesses in Burundi
should be limited and that Jehovah's Witnesses who were arrested should be
severely punished. Since then, two Jehovah's Witnesses performing pastoral
functions are said to have been arrested and one of them severely beaten in
order to obtain the names and addresses of the other members of the
congregation. They are alleged to be held at the security forces' police
station in Gitega.
According to the same reports, the authorities are looking for an
itinerant pastor who visits the country's congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses
and they want to arrest him. In the meantime they are said to have arrested
his wife, Charlotte Nijimbere and to be holding her until her husband gives
himself up."
43. In a communication dated 8 November 1989 (E/CN.4/1990/46, para. 32), the
following information was transmitted:
"According to information received, in March 1989 the Governor of the
Province of Muramvya incited the local population to attack Jehovah's
Witnesses. On 16 March 1989, the police burst into the houses of certain
known Jehovah's Witnesses and beat both men and women for refusing to chant
Party slogans. The next day, four women members of the congregation were
beaten for having refused to renounce their faith. In addition, Pierre
Kibina-Kanwa, headmaster of Nyabihanga primary school, is' alleged to have
expelled pupils who were Jehovah's Witnesses and whom he wanted to force to
salute the national flag.