Burundi: Convicts of Melchior Ndadaye’s murder are ready to appeal. When is justice for the victims of the 1993 Tutsi genocide?
Burundi has a very serious leadership problem; those who come to power, instead of focusing on peace and security, pillars of the development of all peoples, think first of revenge; which creates insecurity. All this is caused by the impunity of crimes that has become recurrent in Burundi.
Criminals have long been punished in accordance with the law; in some cases, it was the executors who were punished, but planners always found manoeuvres to cover themselves and go unpunished. They then continued to plan for further crimes.
It is unfortunate that Melchior Ndadaye, the democratically elected president, is being killed. Planners and executors had to be promptly targeted, arrested and convicted, each depending on responsibility for this crime. By what justice? In the freshness of the facts, this was not possible. And the powers that followed, what did they do?
After Ndadaye’s death, thousands of Tutsis were murdered by Hutu from Frodebu and Palipehutu. Some Hutu of uprona were also executed. The planners and incentives who even kicked off (some even set an example on their Tutsi wives) to push the Hutu to overcome fear and exterminate all Tutsis, they are mainly members of the administration starting with the governors, the administrators to the hill leaders. They were almost all members of the Frodebu, as is the case today where the whole administration is cnddfdd. The intelligence services, known as “National Documentation” at the time, even distributed new machetes among the Hutu population. A real genocide, as a United Nations commission that investigated the killings well (UN Report S/1996/682 of 22 August 1996).
Why have successive powers not implemented this report? For lack of strength to do so? Impunity was rather taken ahead: Those accused of being involved in the murder of Ndadaye Melchior lacked the courage or strength to try the genocidals. It was the ”You shut up, I’m silent” who won on justice. It is impunity that has taken hold.
The genocidals of 1993 soon took up arms to exterminate even the Tutsi survivors who were in the IDP sites, supposedly seeking to defend democracy. Their struggle was limited to ambushing the Tutsi who were travelling in vehicles, attacking IDP sites, schools to select and kill the Tutsis there. During more than a decade of war, they have not conquered any area of Burundi, as Reverien Ndikuriyo, the former president of the Senate, has claimed. Unfortunately, they benefited from all the facilities of the world on the part of the government to return through the front door after the Arusha negotiations, when at that very moment they were about to surrender, either abandon the fight or return to the initial phase of the guerrillas; told us one of the cnddfdd fighters.
It is then these criminals (who killed the Tutsis in 1993, who continued to exterminate them during the war period) who are now in power and who violated the Arusha Agreements, who are organizing parodies of justice to try the alleged murderers of Ndadaye after 27 years. It’s a pretty political trial. Where have they been since 2005? Why are they waking up today?
Some former politicians, including former President Pierre Buyoya, have been sentenced (without being able to present their defences) to life in prison and are willing to appeal to skill courts.
In his statement issued on 25 November 2020, former President Buyoya, who has just resigned as High Representative of the African Union for Mali and the Sahel, said that he made this decision to have the freedom to defend him and to wash his honour. He condemns the murder of Ndadaye and his associates and declares himself innocent of the crimes he was accused of in a travesty of justice. The communiqué adds that ”the assassination of Ndadaye was followed by inter-ethnic massacres that were matched only by the genocide in Rwanda in April 1994”.’
Here, the question that URN HITAMWONEZA allows himself to ask is why Pierre Buyoya calls what happened after Ndadaye’s assassination of the inter-ethnic massacres? Who killed who? We all know that it was the Hutus of Frodebu – who were in power – who planned and implemented the extermination of all Tutsis throughout the country. There is a report by a UN commission of inquiry which describes the killings as ‘the genocide of the Uprona Tutsis by the Hutu of Frodebu’ (S/1996/682). We do not believe that Pierre Buyoya is not aware of this report; he read it at least once. Why talk about inter-ethnic massacres when everyone knows that no Tutsi took a machete to kill a Hutu? Mr President, Burundian evil can never be cured if everyone fails to leave out this amalgam and call things as they are. Giving yourself more freedom to wash your honour is a good decision. But thinking also how to bring justice to the victims of this 1993 Tutsi genocide is a courageous and patriotic act. The criminals who systematically killed them must be tried and convicted by an independent and competent justice system. They’re all known. We have a document based on the testimonies of the survivors of the 1993 Tutsi genocide, which contains the names of both the victims and all the executioners, hill by hill. All Burundians who are against injustice and impunity for crimes must also stand up as one man to demand justice for all those who have been killed by the cnddfdd power from 2005 to the present day. This is only possible if this coalition of men of integrity uses all means to block the way for this group of criminals who are taking an entire people hostage. WhatsApp contact: +31685638237
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