NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Human Rights Watch has accused Burundi's national intelligence service of serious rights abuses, including executions and torture.
The group, with headquarters in New York, said such abuses have been committed at all levels of the service's chain of command and that the guilty must be brought to justice.
"Over the past year, (the service's) agents have been implicated in at least 38 extra-judicial executions and more than 200 arbitrary arrests, some involving torture," Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch's senior Africa adviser Alison Des Forges said since the new government took office in Burundi, the intelligence service has been free to use any means necessary, including killing and torture, to reach its goals.
After more than a decade of civil war in Burundi, the largest rebel group, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy won elections in 2005 led by President Pierre Nkurunziza.
Human Rights Watch said the intelligence service has often presented its activities as necessary to counter threats from other rebel groups.
