CHAPTER 10 the Burundi Genocide RENÉ LEMARCHAND the First

406 Running H/F 5 CHAPTER 10 The Burundi Genocide RENÉ LEMARCHAND The first recorded case of genocide in the Great Lakes Region of Africa occurred not in Rwanda but in neighboring Burundi, 22 years before the more widely publicized 1994 bloodbath. The scale and targeting of the massacres, not to mention their purposefulness, leaves no doubt about their genocidal character. From May to July 1972 anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 Hutu lost their lives at the hands of a predominantly Tutsi army in an orgy of killings triggered by an abortive Hutu insurrection. Though largely forgotten in the West, the events of 1972 remain deeply etched in the collective memory of the Hutu people, not only in Burundi but among the older generations of Hutu in Rwanda. Piecing together a coherent picture of what happened before and during the killings is no easy task. Unlike what happened in Rwanda, the carnage attracted only minimal attention from the media. The few journalists who cared to investigate the massacres were denied access to the interior of the country, and their quest for credible accounts of the atrocities were restricted to official sources. No attempt was made by the government to conduct a serious investigation of the circumstances and scale of the bloodbath. Nothing comparable to Alison Des Forges‘ (1999) thoroughly documented inquest into the roots, mechanisms, and scale of the Rwanda genocide is available for Burundi. To this day, the search for explanations is trapped in divergent narratives. While some commentators (Tutsi) tend to impute genocidal intentions exclusively to Hutu insurgents, others (Hutu) blandly deny the existence of an insurrection, arguing against all evidence that unrest was deliberately instigated by the government in order to justify a genocidal response (Nsanze, 2003). Today the 1972 genocide has been obliterated from Burundi‘s official memory (Lemarchand, 2002). The only genocide officially acknowledged refers to the killings of thousands of Hutu by Tutsi in the wake of President Melchior Ndadaye‘s From Century of Genocide, 3rd Edition, © 2009 Taylor and Francis, Inc Running H/F 2 407 assassination in 1993. In Milan Kundera‘s felicitous phrase, the mass murder committed against Hutu has been ―airbrushed out of history.‖ This calculated amnesia and obfuscation notwithstanding, certain basic facts are well established: Whereas the victims belonged overwhelmingly to the Hutu majority, the perpetrators of the genocide were for the most part drawn from the ruling Tutsi minority; the killings occurred in response to a localized, abortive Hutu-led insurgency that caused thousands of deaths among innocent Tutsi civilians; the repression and subsequent massive physical elimination of Hutu civilians were largely conducted by government troops assisted by the youth wing of the ruling party; and, in the wake of the slaughter, tens of thousands of Hutu men, women, and children fled the country, seeking asylum in neighboring states. (All of the above and much more is graphically revealed in the cables sent out to Washington by the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission [DCM], Michael Hoyt, available from the author‘s collection at the University of Florida.) The carnage has had a devastating impact on Burundi society. It has drastically reconfigured the country‘s ethnic map, driving a deep wedge between Hutu and Tutsi. The immediate consequence was the physical elimination of the entire pool of educated Hutu elites, and of all Hutu officers and troops, thus paving the way for the emergence of a Tutsi ethnocracy, protected by an all-Tutsi army. Unlike what happened in Rwanda, the génocidaires won the day. For the next 20 years all positions of influence and responsibility in the government, the administration, the army, and the economy were in Tutsi hands. Unsurprisingly, it was among the refugee community of Tanzania, the largest of all refugee communities, that the most radical, bitterly anti-Tutsi sentiments took hold of the hearts and minds of Hutu exiles. The legacy of hatred is still being felt today. The Historical and Regional Context The histories of Burundi and Rwanda are inseparable from each other. No attempt to understand the roots of the Burundi carnage can overlook the impact of the Hutu revolution in Rwanda (1959–1962) From Century of Genocide, 3rd Edition, © 2009 Taylor and Francis, Inc 408 Running H/F 5 on the crystallization of ethnic enmities; similarly, only at the risk of greatly simplifying the dynamics of mass murder in Rwanda can one neglect the significance of the 1972 killings in Burundi (Lemarchand, 1995). That both countries should have experienced bloodshed on such an appalling scale must be seen in the light of their shared heritage — colonial and precolonial. No other two societies on the continent had more in common in terms of size, social structure, traditional political systems, and ethnic configurations. Minute in size, deeply stratified, held together by popular allegiance to monarchical symbols, they also share strikingly similar ethnic maps. In each state the socially dominant ethnic minority, the Tutsi, held sway over the Hutu majority, representing about 80 percent of the total population (estimated at roughly 7 million in each state in 1994). These commonalities can be easily overdrawn, however, and unless the contrasting elements are taken into account, the essential difference between the two genocides — the victimization of Hutu in one case and of Tutsi in the other — will remain obscure. Reduced to its simplest expression, where Burundi differed from Rwanda most markedly is in the greater complexity of its social hierarchies. Unlike Rwanda, where power was highly centralized and the line of cleavage between Hutu and Tutsi straightforward, in Burundi the real holders of power were a distinct category, namely the princes of the blood (ganwa), with the king (mwami) reduced to a primus inter pares. Furthermore, the Tutsi were themselves divided into two groups, the lowly Tutsi-Hima, concentrated in the south of the country, and the more prestigious and status-conscious Tutsi- Banyaruguru, found predominantly in the north — again, the kingship was never identified with Tutsi rule to the extent that it was in Rwanda. Because of its greater pluralism and social complexity, Burundi was spared the agonies of a Hutu revolution before the advent of independence. Unlike what happened in Rwanda, where a revolutionary conflict pitted Hutu versus Tutsi, in Burundi preindependence politics revolved around princely factions, each drawing support from a mixed From Century of Genocide, 3rd Edition, © 2009 Taylor and Francis, Inc Running H/F 2 409 following of Hutu and Tutsi. The country crossed the threshold of independence not as a Hutu- dominated republic but as a constitutional monarchy, with a government consisting of a mixed assemblage of ganwa, Tutsi, and Hutu elements (Lemarchand, 1970). Not until after independence (1962), and largely as a consequence of the demonstration effect of the Rwanda revolution, did a significant hardening of Hutu–Tutsi tensions emerge on the political horizon. The proclamation of a Hutu republic in Rwanda served as a powerful source of inspiration for many aspiring Hutu politicians; indeed, for many, Rwanda became the model polity that helped shape their vision of the future. For most Tutsi, on the other hand, republican Rwanda evoked a nightmarish scenario, to be avoided at all cost. With tens of thousands of Tutsi asylum seekers from Rwanda entering the country, each with tales of horror to tell, the message was driven home loud and clear. A turning point in the escalation of the Hutu–Tutsi conflict came in May 1965, with the first postindependence elections to the national assembly, in which Hutu candidates scored a landslide victory, capturing 23 seats out of a total of 33. Their victory quickly proved illusory. Instead of appointing a Hutu as prime minister, the king turned to a princely figure and longtime protege of the Court (Leopold Bihumugani). Robbed of their victory at the polls, the Hutu elites reacted angrily to what they perceived as an intolerable interference. On October 18, 1965, Hutu anger broke out in an abortive coup directed at the king‘s palace, followed by sporadic attacks against Tutsi elements in the interior. Panic-stricken, the king fled the country, never to return. In reprisal, Tutsi units of the army and gendarmerie arrested and shot 86 leading Hutu politicians and army officers. After the discovery of an alleged Hutu plot in 1969, 70 Hutu personalities, civilian and military, were arrested on the grounds of conspiring against the state; 25 were meted out a death sentence, and 19 of them were immediately executed. In the minds of those few Hutu politicians who survived the repression, recourse to force was increasingly seen as the only viable option. This hardening of attitude on the Hutu–Tutsi problem was From Century of Genocide, 3rd Edition, © 2009 Taylor and Francis, Inc 410 Running H/F 5 largely shared among Hutu students at the Université Officielle de Bujumbura. In point of fact, according to reliable accounts (Kiraranganiya, 1985), the instigators of the Hutu rebellion of April 1972 were three students (Celius Mpasha, Albert Butoyi, and Daniel Ndabiruye), affiliated with the Parti du Peuple, knownfor their pro-Hutu militancy. The systematic exclusion of Hutu elements from all positions of responsibility in the government, the civil service, and the higher ranks of the armed forces was the central element behind the abortive Hutu rebellion. But if the insurgency must be seen in the context of the growing polarization of ethnic ties, its timing draws attention to the violent intra-Tutsi squabbles and maneuverings that preceded the uprising. This growing split within the ruling oligarchy is what prompted the insurgents to exploit the situation to their advantage. In the months preceding the slaughter, the country seemed to be tottering on the brink of anarchy.

Load more