Burundi: Assassination of President Ndadaye in 1993 followed by the genocide of the Tutsis: Terrible testimonies (part 5)
This is no longer to be demonstrated; President Melchior Ndadaye was killed by a group of soldiers, guided by many other actors that we are trying to discover gradually. We have seen a few examples from France with François Mitterrand, the Rwanda of Juvénal Havyarimana, European countries like Belgium and others who would be directly or indirectly involved in this assassination. The height of the misfortune is that it is the ordinary Burundian Tutsi peasants who have paid the price. We also know that these killings have already been qualified as genocide of Tutsis by the Hutus of Frodebu by a UN commission sent to Burundi in 1995 (see report S / 1996/682 of 22 August 1996). No one can deny that this genocide was planned for a long time even before the elections of June 1993, because it would be incomprehensible for Hutus from all over the country to have the same reaction at the same time to the news of the death of President Ndadaye. We have many testimonies from survivors gathered during an investigation that was carried out across the country. The reactions were the same: cutting trees to obstruct the roads and avoid the intervention of the security forces, mobilization of all the Hutus by the administration to systematically kill all the Tutsis and some Hutus of the Uprona, even striking model to kill ” level ni ugutwi ” (hit the machete at the ear), etc … All this shows that the project was prepared and taught throughout the country, either before or during the campaign electoral campaign that preceded the June 1993 elections.
Today, we offer you testimonies from survivors of Kayanza, in Muruta commune, who tell how the Tutsis were rounded up, tied up and killed, thrown into mass graves, in the toilets and others burned alive in the interior of hangars and houses. We first offer you the slogans used all over the country: “Isekeza ry’ukwica abatutsi n’abahutu bahemutse ryatanguye” to say “The campaign to kill Tutsis and” traitors “Hutus has begun – Isango ryageze . Hagarara bwuma, twikureko abansi n’ivyitso vyabo “The appointed day has arrived. Be upright like iron. We are going to get rid of our enemies and their accomplices hidden among us “; -” Level “ni ugutwi” the level is the ear “. NB: that is to say, knock above the ear. The slogan was usually used in Frodebu meetings to invite members to raise the point. It therefore had a double meaning, like most of the terms in this party’s lexicon; – susuruka “Warm up” N.B: The slogan was already used in Rwanda in 1959 to say burn the houses of Tutsis. It was used for the same task in October 1993 in Burundi; – ‘’ Bahe itike y’ugusubira i misiri bagende iwabo “Give them the ticket back home to Egypt” N.B: Colonial literature brought down, we do not know how, the Tutsi from Egypt. This slogan was inspired by this whenever it was necessary to throw, alive and tied up, the victims in the rivers. This same phenomenon had taken place in Rwanda. It will happen again during the genocide of April 1994 (Rwanda); -Ica imporona “Kill the Upronists”. This pejorative term “Imporona” was used to demonize the Upronists during the electoral campaign which, for FRODEBU, was mainly an ethnic mobilization with campaign overtones for democracy; –Twice abatutsi gushika hamwe umwana w’umuhutu azobaza ingene umututsi yasa ’let us kill Tutsis to the point that a Hutu child could later ask what a Tutsi looked like’ ’; – Tema umututsi aho ari hose. Muhige n’inda muyikure muri nyina “Cut all Tutsi in half wherever they are; chase him down. Even the foetus must be removed from its mother’s womb “; – Mara inkotanyi “Exterminate the Inkotanyi” (Rwandan Patriotic Front). N.B.: To mobilize for extermination, it was necessary to identify the Tutsis with the militants of a foreign party, qualified as anti-Hutu by the killers; – Murindiriye iki? Akataraza karahinda “What are you waiting for. What is on the way is even more frightening”; – Umuhutu iyo ashavuye ntibagarura “When a Hutu is angry, there is no way to bring him back”.
Here is a small excerpt from testimonies on the genocide unfolding in Muruta commune in Kayanza province: Early in the morning, Thursday, October 21, 1993, upon the news that there had been an attempted coup, the Administrator of the MURUTA commune, Mr. Sévérien NZORUBARA, toured the whole commune, launching the slogan to destroy the bridges, to cut down tree trunks on the roads. ; He was accompanied by Mr. NTIHABOSE Patrice, Advisor to the Governor of KAYANZA and NANKUWUNGUKA Aloys, municipal councillor. Before this morning trip to the hills of the town, the administrator NZORUBARA had received a visit from the Governor of the province, SURWAVUBA Malachie.
From 10 am, crowds of Hutus rushed to the bridges and felled the trees along roads and tracks to make them impassable. Then Administrator NZORUBARA ordered the massacres to begin. As the groups of Hutus armed with spears and machetes were reluctant to undertake this gruesome task, the communal admirer suddenly grabbed a machete and killed two people as an example; the adviser Mr. BANKUWUNGUKA Aloys, followed the example of his leader, then the whole pack of killers rushed on the victims, competing in zeal and horror.
The massacres of Tutsis and of certain Upronist Hutus of the MUTANA, NKONGE and MIKUBA hills took place at the same time and in the same place, that is to say on Friday, October 22, 1993 in the afternoon around 2 p.m. in MURANGARA, in the same house; except, however, for 12 people who were massacred later (either at home ‹for example 6 members of the KAZOSI family in June 1995 including 3 children aged 4.4 and 12 years old›, or in the fields ‹like CIMPAYE Mesmus, 46 years old, and his 18-year-old son Samuel ›).
In short, the first massacres of 104 people took place the day after the death of President NDADAYE, ie Friday October 22, 1993; the others later in June 1995. Those who died in this way had either left the centre for displaced people in CAMPAZI, or had preferred to stay at home, believing that people would no longer dare to kill.
You see with URN HITAMWONEZA that the assassination of Ndadaye was only a trigger for a long-prepared genocide. The proof is that afterwards, the rebellion which followed only chased the survivors who were in the IDP camps and other Tutsis wherever they could meet them. It is Evariste Ndayishimiye who is active today in completing this genocide. All Burundians must stand up as one man to block his way. Hutus who think they are not affected are very wrong. We know how the war begins; we don’t know how it ends.