Burundi: Let Pierre Claver Ndayicariye stop manipulating public opinion to incite Hutus to exterminate Tutsis.
We heard about him during what the former Hutu students of the University of Burundi in 1995 grouped together in their association ZIRIKANA UB-95 called commemoration of “ 25 years of traumatic memory of the assassination of Hutu students of the University of Burundi ”. The ceremonies took place on July 9, 2020 at Campus Mutanga, where a monument in memory of these students killed on July 11, 1995 is built. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye is president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR). Was he invited as a Hutu, a former university student at the time? Not at all. Was he invited as a Hutu who supports the ruling military clique since most were at university in 1995? Was he invited as president of the CVR? Let’s say it’s this latest version that’s correct. It can be combined with the second. If we retain the last reason, we would be led to ask questions: What truth Pierre Claver Ndayicariye does he want to find out about what happened at the university on July 11, 2020. Everyone knows that Tutsis students killed Hutus students. This is a fact. And this is unfortunate. How many students have been killed? Eyewitnesses speak of 11 Hutus students at Mutanga Campus, where the monument was erected. Who killed them? This is the justice’s job.
With his easy verb, he manipulates opinion by enlarging the figures and showing that he has done research to find the corpses of these poor students killed. He talks about more than 100 Hutus students killed at Mutanga Campus in Bujumbura and Zege in Gitega. If Ndayicariye was not manipulated by the ruling clique and in turn only sought to manipulate public opinion, there was a way to establish the truth about these facts. The names and photos of all the students exist in the university archives. Let them display the names and photos of these students killed that day on the monument. They know they are lying about the numbers. They inflate them on purpose to increase the degree of hatred of Hutus against Tutsis; a way to incite them to revenge.
Ndayicariye also seems to be concerned about finding the corpses of these killed students. Which is a good thing. But that he stops lying that he has information that the corpses would be thrown into the Rusizi, that bodies were seen in Tanganyika Lake the next day. Who would have taken the initiative to transport these corpses? Did the Tutsis university students who killed them have the means for this work? Are they state services that transported these corpses? All genocide is organized and executed by the authorities. We saw it on December 12, 2015 when the police and the army, especially the presidential guard, massacred Tutsis in the Nyakabiga, Jabe, Musaga in Bujumbura , under the pretext that the military camps located in Ngagara and in Musaga were attacked. The corpses were quickly picked up by administration and police vehicles and were thrown into mass graves dug by the imbonerakure (cnddfdd militia, ruling party). However, many people were killed at home or near their homes; these criminals did not even allow families to bury them with dignity. Yet Ndayicariye does not talk about it and will not talk about it.
Returning to the 1995 case, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya was the President of the Republic. He is the first responsible. If Ndayicariye’s thesis that these corpses were dumped in the Rusizi proved correct, Ntibantunganya should be able to say who gave the order and who transported them to this place. There is a growing body of opinion that this president did not have full power over the military and the police. As long as he is President of the Republic, he is at the same time supreme commander of the Defence and Security Corps. As long as he has not established the responsibilities for punishing the culprits, or if he could not and has not handed over the apron, he remains primarily responsible.
URN HITAMWONEZA once again asks Ndayicariye Pierre Claver not to manipulate opinion based on the corpses of Burundians, just to divide them while he heads a commission called “truth and reconciliation”. Otherwise, it will have to be called the commission ’lie and division’ ’. We will never stop asking for independent justice to do its work to try and punish all criminals, Hutu and Tutsi alike. This is the only way to reconcile the Burundian people. Unfortunately we note with regret that the aim of the government which guides Ndayicariye is to show that it cares very much about the interest and well-being of the Hutu for its own political interests. It is also to incite the Hutus to take revenge against the Tutsis; a way to prepare them morally for the genocide in preparation. Whether it is Pierre Claver Ndayicariye or the members of the ruling clique, we will continue to monitor their words and actions, when the time comes, they will have to appear before independent courts and answer for all the crimes they have committed.