Burundi. Truth and Reconciliation Commission failure. The ravages of intolerance make dialogue and peace impossible
The impossibility of a peaceful process towards demcracy, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission total failure, the roots of ethnic hatred and HutuPower philosophy of death , are explained to us by an illustrious Burundian intellectual who currently lives in exile, from where he diligently follows the politics of his homeland: Nestor Nduwaha.
I’m pleased to submit his precious and clarifying intervention to public opinion.
Seventeen years ago Pierre Nkurunziza, leader of the Hutu racial party CNDD-FDD (National Council for the Defense of Democracy — Forces in Defense of Demoracy) came to power after 10 years of ethnic war against the Burundian governments of Madame Sylvie Kinigi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and Pierre Buyoya following the coup organized by army officers against Melchior Ndadaye, the first democratically elected Hutu president in the country’s post-colonial history who was assassinated during the coup.
The violent regime change was carried out by the armed forces as they considered that Ndadaye government represented a real danger to the peace, stability of Burundi and to the survival of the Tutsi ethnic minority. Indeed Ndadaye during the 103 days in the presidency promoted a “double face” policy, presenting himself to the West as an Head of State capable of overcoming the centuries-old ethnic divisions between Hutu and Tutsi, to promote national reconciliation and identity and offer the Burundi an age of peace, stability and progress.
This idyllic external image contrasted with the real policy promoted by Ndadaye in the country which was based on a concept of HutuPower. Starting from the fact that the Hutus represented about 80% of the population, Ndadaye considered the construction of a mono-ethnic country as the only guarantee to have peace, stability and development. He considered the Tutsi ethnic minority a constant danger and obstacle as well as a serious threat to the Hutu majority to be eliminated permanently.
The 2004 peace, originating from the Arusha 2000 Accords, was based on a complicated mechanism of alternation and balance of power between the two ethnic groups. President Pierre Buyoya (Tutsi) proposed a gradual entry into power of the Hutus through a long intermediate period to create non-ethnic parties and strengthen civil society, a period under Hutu leadership Domitien Ndayizeye belonging to the Hutu party of FRODEBU where the armed forces represented the republican guarantee.
United States, Canada, European Union, South Africa and the Community of Sant’Egidio, wishing to immediately reach peace and democracy, opted to appoint Piere Nkurunziza as president for 5 years, with the possibility of accessing only one subsequent term. These external actors thought that offering the presidency to the main Hutu guerrilla force in exchange for democratic guarantees was the best way to avoid the risk of continuing civil war.
Paradoxically, the international actors entrusted the task of creating the democratic conditions for the 2010 elections to Nkurunziza, a warlord thirsty for blood and ethnic hatred instead of continuing with the provisional government of Domitien Ndayiseye, an Hutu leader who abjured extremism and it was oriented towards overcoming ethnic divisions. As was to be expected, once he reached the presidency, Nkurunzia resumed Ndadaye’s policy of creating a mono-ethnic country. Politics pursued as a political legacy after his death by the current military junta.
In Burundi peace and national reconciliation are needed to get the country out of the cycle of violence that has lasted since 1993 and which has its origins in the massacres of the 1960s and the horrible events of 1972. A necessity also for the Great Lakes Region since Burundi under the leadership of the current HutuPower regime it poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to start a process of democratization and national dialogue, entrusted to the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation due to the ideological nature of the military junta currently in power. The solution for Burundi seems destined to go through a regime change carried out with arms.
Fulvio Beltrami
Burundi: les ravages de l’intolérance and the Commission Vérité et Réconciliation
Nestor Nduwaha
Burundi is currently notorious for human rights violations that our leaders seem unable or unwilling to stop. This country has suffered massacres and other ethnic crimes in 1965, 1972, 1987–88, 1991 and from 1993 to the present. Governments and regimes change, but disrespect for human life seems to be a constant. Several years ago a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) to look into this matter. Despite the controversy surrounding its establishment, there was a subtle hope that it could do an honest job, confirming the known facts and exposing the unknown ones. Unfortunately, we were quickly disappointed. His first major decision, to focus on 1972 at the expense of other eras, was not already a good omen. It has now presented a progress report, the methods and conclusions of which are not unanimous.
Until the resumption of independence in 1962, the kingdoms of Burundi and Rwanda were administered together as a single territory entrusted to Belgium by the League of Nations (SDN), and later by the United Nations Organization (UN). Burundi and Rwanda operate as communicating vessels, as they still are today. For this reason, for a better understanding of the Burundian problem, the latter country is also sometimes invoked.
The bad seed was planted a long time ago
The year 1972 was one of the most traumatic and was the continuation of other crises. The seed of hatred that sprouted in these disasters had been planted by colonization, but has continued to be nurtured by ourselves, mainly by Burundians. When colonial agents reached Africa from the Great Lakes (and elsewhere), they looked at local populations with a coloration that reflected the racist theories of their time (Gobineau racial inequality). So they classified the population into upper and lower groups, between almost Europeans and primitives, between naive and deceptive … the list goes on. From there to the infamous Hamitic theory that Tutsis are Ethiopian migrants who deceived themselves against the indigenous Bantu peoples, there was only a small step. Although “Bantu” is a linguistic classification, and even if the Tutsis themselves are Bantu.
Burundi has three main so-called falsely “ethnic” groups: the Hutus, the Tutsis and the Twa. Many have probably already seen the photos of Belgian anthropologists who take measurements of the characteristic morphological features of these groups. Based on prejudice, decisions were made as to who could or could not assist colonial administrators. Thus, for example, while the traditional administration of the kingdom of Burundi was ensured by blood princes, Tutsi and Hutu, in 1925 the colonial resident of Burundi (the man who ruled Burundi in the name of Belgium) systematically replaced all the leaders Hutu and sub-chiefs with princes and Tutsis. Access to Western schools, entrusted by colonization to Catholic missionaries (White Fathers, Jesuits, Xaverians, etc.) also favored princes and Tutsis. The elite thus became mainly Tutsi, with the princes (Ganwa) assimilated to the Tutsis. It was this elite that demanded independence.
With the wind of independence and the demands of the mostly Tutsi elites, the colonial administration and the Church immediately changed their tone: neutralizing yesterday’s assistants, the Tutsis, and promoting the Hutus, who after the colonial racist ideology, they were more malleable. Particularly in Rwanda, the colonial administration and its ally, the Catholic Church, have begun to speak of exploitation of the Hutu masses, not by Belgian colonization, but by Tutsi “colonization”.
Hutu leaders had the same reading, more particularly in Rwanda. Therefore, in 1957, Rwandan Hutu leaders sent a document, the BaHutu Manifesto, to the deputy governor general of Rwanda-Urundi (Burundi) talking about the Hamitic (Tutsi) racial problem and supporting the promotion of the Hutu masses. One of the co-authors of this manifesto, Grégoire Kayibanda, was the private secretary of Msgr. A. Perraudin, the future archbishop of Rwanda. Grégoire Kayibanda also created the first party whose guideline was the supremacy of the Hutus over the Tutsis, the ParmeHutus. Two similar parties have been created in Burundi: the Parti du Peuple and the UproHutu.
Msgr. A. Perraudin will speak in 1959, with a pastoral letter “Super Omnia Caritas” accusing the Tutsi “race” of being responsible for social inequalities, and having to give way to the Hutu ethnic majority. In the same year, with the assistance of the Belgian colonial administration, a “Hutu revolution” would have led to pogroms against the Tutsis and the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy. The king and thousands of Tutsis will go into exile. Grégoire Kayibanda will become president of Rwanda upon independence. His political agenda will establish the foundations of “Hutu power”. He will preside over the first genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis in 1963.
The kingdom of Burundi will escape this fate, because the local Catholic Church did not have the same anti-Tutsi fervor, and because the Burundian people remained unanimously united behind the king … or almost. However, the ideology of “Hutu power” was already ingrained in some minds. Indeed, the elite of the Burundi and Rwanda knew each other intimately because they had attended the same Catholic schools. The ideologues of Rwandan Hutu power have been emulated among the Hutus of Burundi. In addition, a Belgian settler, Albert Maus, a council member of the Urundi colony, had begun to agitate over a Hutu revolution in Burundi.
He financed and wrote the manifesto of an exclusively Hutu party, the People’s Party, whose members spoke openly about bringing the Tutsis back to the place they came from, namely Ethiopia and / or Misri (Egypt). In the first legislative elections of 1961, this party had little success and as a result Albert Maus committed suicide. But he should have been patient, because the PP will be more successful in the next elections, in 1965. In fact, that year, the Hutus (of all political parties) became the majority in parliament. Some time after the elections, gendarmes and Hutu soldiers supported by Hutu politicians will attempt a coup (October 19, 1965) and try to assassinate the king and his prime minister. On the same day, members of a militia founded by a prominent Hutu politician, Paul Mirerekano, massacred Tutsis in Muramvya province. The perpetrators of these killings were assisted by agents sent by the Rwandan regime of Grégoire Kayibanda. It was the realization of the first ethnic massacres and the first attempt to purge Burundi of its Tutsi population. Thank God he didn’t make it.
Fear and radicalization
With the arrival of thousands of Rwandan Tutsis as refugees in Burundi in 1959 and 1963, the world view has obviously changed for Hutus and Tutsis, especially among the elites. For the former, the example of Rwanda required them to take power because they were “the majority”, and physically eliminate or marginalize the Tutsis. For the Tutsis, the danger of being massacred was looming on the horizon. The Muramvya massacres of Tutsis in 1965 seem to have proved them right. It was during this period of anxiety that a coup (July 8, 1966) dominated by young Tutsi officers brought a 26-year-old captain, Michel Micombero, to power. The fact that military coups were in vogue in Africa was probably also a catalyst. Micombero was in office in 1972 when the country saw more widespread massacres.
April 29, 1972
It was the weekend of May 1st, International Labor Day. Apparently dance parties were held across the country by public officials and other Hutu officials. The aim was to capture the prominent Tutsis in their regions there. In particular, a party evening was organized in the officers’ mess and the President of the Republic, Michel Micombero, was invited. Two young officers from his close guard went to check the situation before the president arrived, but were ambushed very close to the Catholic cathedral of Bujumbura and were killed. It was after 6:00 pm The two agents were driving the president’s car and the ambush was aimed at him. Several Tutsi soldiers, who were returning to nearby barracks, were killed in the same place.
Almost simultaneously, some fifty kilometers further south, along Lake Tanganyika, towards Kabezi and Mutumba, the Tutsis were slaughtered with machetes, particularly teachers, by their colleagues reinforced by other Hutu rebels. Any captured male Tutsi suffered this fate.About 50 miles further south, still along Lake Tanganyika in Rumonge, the Tutsis who had come to the dance party and the Tutsis who lived there were slaughtered by Hutu insurgents, supported by Congolese sorcerers or sorcerers. The whole group of killers went around shouting “Never, Mulele”. This is why they are generally known as ‘the Mai-Mulele’, even though ‘Mulele’ was a Congolese political leader.
Still about 100 kilometers further south, Captain Misigaro, Hutu and the head of the Nyanza-Lac gendarmerie position disarmed the Tutsi gendarmes and shot them all. The same is true of the Tutsi population of Nyanza-Lac. In fact Nyanza-Lac was completely purged of its Tutsi population.
The same thing was happening at the same time as Cankuzo in the north-east of the country, but on a smaller scale. Everything seemed to work according to a well-established plan, a plan to exterminate the Tutsis. Without organization, the massacres of the Tutsis would not have occurred at the same time on such a vast expanse of territory. It would seem that the kick-off of the killings should have been given through national radio, the insurgents had tried to storm her but had not been successful.
Authorities appear to have been caught off guard. There seems to have been rumors of a revolt or a coup. The Hutu teachers had left their homes to join the military training camps. F. Amosi Hutu leaders were in military training camps in Tanzania. In the confusion of the start of the massacres, the authorities seem to have thought that the royalists were on the attack and wanted to restore the monarchy. This may be the reason why former King Ntare V, who was under house arrest at the time, was executed.
The progression of the Tutsi massacres towards the interior of the country
After eliminating the Tutsis from the plain of Lake Tanganyika, the insurgents spent Sunday regrouping and advancing towards the hills where the Tutsi populations were numerous. On Monday morning the massacres continued in Mutumba, Bururi, Vyanda, Vugizo, Mabanda… Hutu conspirators. As they advanced, the insurgents killed men, boys and pregnant women to eliminate the possibility of their giving birth to boys. Some mothers have managed to save their children by disguising them as girls.
As soon as the government forces realized that they were facing an ethnic cleansing movement, of a genocidal nature, they intervened, starting from the vicinity of the capital, Bujumbura. On Tuesday and Wednesday there were fights in Rumonge, Bururi and Vyanda. The exception is the municipality of Vugizo, difficult to reach and completely surrounded by mountains. For nearly a week, the rebels occupied this commune and massacred all captured Tutsi men. In Mabanda the fighting took place on Wednesday and Thursday. Defeated, the conspirators fled mainly to Tanzania, but at the time also to Zaire. Subsequently, the repression led to the killing of Hutus suspected only of having participated or collaborated in the killing of Tutsis, without trial as such.
The ideology
A document produced by an underground Hutu party circulated in 1972 in Rumonge and the rebels had it with them. This document stated in particular: “Stand up, all as one man: arm yourself with spears, pruning hooks, machetes, arrows and clubs and kill all Tutsis wherever they are. May all our supporters unite to exterminate every last Tutsi, whoever he is, soldier or leader. Attack only the Ministers, Governors, Commissioners, Administrators, Councilors, Tutsi Party Leaders, slaughter them with their wives and children, do not hesitate to gut pregnant women. We compete in courage, discipline, agility to exterminate any Tutsi man and let history stop talking about it. No imprisonment, no trial for the Tutsis: Everyone, women and children to the grave! “. With their actions, the rebels tried to realize what was written.
A “Commission for truth and reconciliation” without concern for truth and reconciliation
This commission was controversial from the start because it served the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD. To put things in perspective, this party is accused of many crimes. He came to power following negotiations that ended a long civil war. When the CNDD-FDD was in the maquis, its modus operandi was to stop the buses, remove the Tutsis and kill them and attack the Tutsi villagers. According to a common opinion in Burundi, the cruelty of the crimes of the CNDD-FDD became more pronounced after absorbing elements of the former Rwandan army and the notorious Interahamwe militiamen, those alleged perpetrators of the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda.
His fighters massacred 40 young seminarians in Buta, because they refused to separate into Hutu and Tutsi. It was April 30, 1997. They also massacred some 648 children, women and old Tutsis living at a displaced persons site in Bugendana on July 21, 1996. More recently, the CNDD-FDD government security services are accused of killing 3 nuns. Italians, aged between 75 and 83: Olga, Lucia and Bernadette. Long ago, their fighters had killed 2 archbishops (Ruhuna and Courtney) in different places. The list is long. It is this party, now in power, that set up this commission.
Certainly, the Arusha peace accords of 2000 required the establishment of a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation, as in South Africa after apartheid. This commission was to include citizens chosen for their integrity, renowned foreigners and representatives of the United Nations. The current government of the CNDD-FDD party has decided otherwise. A first commission was set up chaired by a prelate known for his wisdom, Msgr. Luigi Nahimana. The first commission appears not to have worked at the pace and direction that the ruling party wanted. He was replaced by another led by a politician with extreme views, Mr. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye.
He is a former president of the national electoral commission subservient to the CNDD-FDD, and a former minister in a government that the CVR must examine; hence a serious conflict of interest for Mr. Ndayicariye. Besides, he has know held the Nkurunziza regime in the bloody repression of 2015 that targeted those who oppose Nkurunziza’s third illegal mandate. The opponents were Hutus and Tutsis, but the bloody repression quickly focused on the young Tutsis. The CNDD-FDD government is accused of enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions of opponents, retired Tutsi soldiers and simply young Tutsis. It destroyed the independent press. Independent civil society was banned and forced into exile. In addition to more than 400,000 refugees at a time. As for Mr. Ndayicariye, he led two controversial elections that brought Nkurunziza and the CNDD-FDD party to power, and defended the serious human rights violations of 2015. Mr. Ndayicariye continues to say he does not belong to any party. politic.
Even Mr. Ndayicariye’s colleagues are not without serious conflicts of interest that disqualify them. For example, two of the most prominent commissioners, Aloys Batungwanayo and Deo Hakizimana, have long been founders and presidents of organizations fighting for the Hutu cause. Therefore, they cannot be expected to exercise the impartiality required by a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. As members, the TRC also has in its ranks a priest who was convicted of murder, then released: he killed a person suspected of being a thief with a stick, and this. More worryingly, a man recently appointed as commissioner, Sadiki Kajandi, is suspected of having actively participated in the Tutsi massacres in Mutaho in 1993.
The doubts about this CVR have unfortunately been realized in the field. While it is expected to cover from the colonial period to 2008, it has decided to focus on 1972, to further the political gains that the ruling party could ensue. The reason given is that the witnesses are aging and dying. Yet the first ethnic massacres took place in 1965 and these are the witnesses who are disappearing. Was it because the 1965 victims were mainly Tutsis? The TRC chose 1972 because it is the period that inflames the Hutu component of our population the most, that it radicalizes the most, and because the party in power can validly present itself as the defender of the Hutus. Mr. Ndayicariye and his CVR therefore appear as a support for the political propaganda of the ruling party. This CVR appears to be working towards a conclusion in sight. No neutrality, no impartiality, no independence.
Its main activity has been the excavation of human remains across the country, remains found in illegal graves and without scientific identification. Lately, his agents have been stopped by locals trying to collect bones from a normal graveyard. The human remains they unearth are labeled “Hutu”. In a country that has seen so many massacres like Burundi, it is beyond imagination how can the bones of the Tutsi be separated from those of the Hutus, on sight? From this activity a progress report was presented to the parliament and the government. But this relationship remains secret.
The TRC has just published a summary of its discoveries made on less than a third of the territory and has drawn the conclusions. This summary also amply demonstrates the flaws in his approach. For example, mirror allegations are plentiful there. Change the description and circumstances of Tutsi’s murder into killing Hutus at will. The massacres of the Tutsis in 1972 are attributed to other Tutsis. It does not accept feedback when these errors are evident. It does not use any recognized scientific approach for the identification of human remains. No forensic expertise. No DNA identification. It is true that the TRC has recorded various testimonies, in particular from former Tutsi, Hutu and peasant Tutsi civil servants, but it is surprising that the Hutu leaders of the Tutsi massacres still alive in Burundi and Tanzania did not interview, nor survivors, orphans. or widows of Tutsi.
What about the future?
Burundi is experiencing an almost permanent political crisis. The virus of hatred is very present among its current leaders, who still see themselves as guerrillas and defenders of the Hutu cause. The end of the civil war brought neither peace nor prosperity. On the contrary, the institutions that it was hoped could help eradicate the racist ideologies of Hutu power appear to have been trapped by the latter.
In particular, we observed the ethnic display of public employees, employees of non-governmental organizations and some private companies. Attempts at exclusion, blood repression or exile seem to be in the DNA of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD. The young Hutu militiamen of the ruling party (Imbonerakure) patrol and monitor every movement of any Tutsi nationwide.
At this rate, un other genocide in the Great Lakes is more plausible than one might think. To avoid this catastrophe, leadership that has the interests of the country and all components of our society at heart is essential.
