LONDON (AlertNet) - The massacre of 160 Tutsi refugees at the Gutambe camp in western Burundi was the latest in a catalogue of atrocities conducted “in a cycle of impunity”, human rights observers say.

Agencies have accused the international community of ignoring evidence of previous human rights violations to secure diplomatic success in Burundi's troubled peace process, and are demanding a thorough investigation and public enquiry into the massacre.

The August 13 massacre at the Gutambe refugee camp near the Congo border was a tragic fulfilment of warnings from the humanitarian community since the breakdown of ceasefire agreements that sought an end to a civil war that has killed 300,000 people and displaced 700,000.

The killings, apparently by Hutu rebels, jolted hopes of a smooth transition to peace after 10 years of conflict between rebels from the Hutu majority and the politically dominant Tutsi minority.

Only a day before the Gutambe massacre, the United Nations had condemned abuses "committed with total impunity" during clashes between the Forces for National Liberation, an extremist Hutu group, and elements of the Burundian army and rebel group the Forces for the Defence of Democracy.

The U.N. Operation in Burundi (ONUB) reported that fighting in Burundi's Bujumbura province had been continuing almost daily since the U.N. assumed responsibility for the African Union's peacekeeping mission in June.

"During these clashes, international humanitarian law is being violated, even though Burundi has signed up to it," ONUB said in a statement.

"Military and human rights observers have obtained conclusive evidence of summary executions, torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detentions by armed men against innocent civilians."

Stephan Van Praet, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Africa, said the atrocities would not end until the international community insisted that armed actors in Burundi be held accountable.

"There must be a greater readiness within the international community to have a genuine commission of enquiry which can identify the perpetrators and refer them to a working justice system," Van Praet told Alertnet.

"The cycle of impunity in the Great Lakes region is one of the most fundamental causes of the ongoing crisis,” he said.

"Since the early ‘90s, HRW have reported on numerous crimes against humanity, including genocides, whose perpetrators have benefited from the weakness of international engagement and a kind of impunity.

"For reasons of diplomacy, people are sitting at the same table as war criminals, and in some cases granting them immunity. If the atrocities are to end there must be at least some indications that justice will be done."

UNREPORTED AND UNPUNISHED

Van Praet referred to HRW's June report on the situation in Burundi, which said: "In recent months, soldiers of the government army and combatants of both rebel forces violated international humanitarian law by killing, wounding, raping, and pillaging civilians in areas just outside the capital."

It continued: "Both Burundian and international actors focus on diplomatic developments and largely ignore these continuing crimes.”

Amnesty International, which has catalogued massacres and sexual violence carried out by all sides in the dispute, says atrocities in Burundi often go unreported and unpunished.

"It is very sad that most violations are not reported and publicly condemned, because this silence plays into the hands of those responsible," Alison Dilworth, Amnesty's spokesperson for Burundi, told Alertnet.

"Unless people are investigated and held to account there cannot be a lasting peace."

Dilworth said perpetrators of human rights abuses were often in positions of power within the government or rebel groups and enjoyed immunity from proper investigation and punishment.

"The procedures for tackling impunity are very clumsy, and the Pretoria agreement (talks held in June to facilitate the transition to full elections) granted indefinite political immunity to some of the leading actors in the negotiations," she said.

"This means that there is some ambivalence within the U.N. and internationally about holding proper committees of enquiry."

Amnesty reported the massacre of 183 civilians in Burundi's Gitega province in September 2002.

Dilworth said the weak investigation into that atrocity, which resulted in the trial and subsequent release of two soldiers, showed the need to ensure that the Gutambe massacre was properly scrutinised by the U.N.

"It is vital that it is properly investigated to establish who is responsible and the context in which the killings took place," she said.

"The U.N., with contacts in Congo and Rwanda as well as Burundi, is best placed to investigate. But they must produce an impartial report, a strong and sustained response- otherwise human rights abuses will continue to occur."