Burundi: The unspoken on the genocide of the Tutsis in 1993
It will never stop being said; the 1993 Tutsi genocide is not at all directly related to the assassination of the late President Melchior Ndadaye. Genocide had been planned for a long time; it was going to happen even if Ndadaye was not killed. Probably he would have succeeded more than he was. This means that the putsch followed by the assassination of Ndadaye were only a trigger for a well-studied project, with equipment to execute it already in place. Let the people stop talking about the ”little anger” and make it clear: this is genocide of the Tutsis planned and executed by the Hutu of Frodebu as the report S/1996/682 of 22 August 1996 established by a commission appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations has made it clear.
Apart from this UN report which described as genocide what happened in 1993 after the assassination of Ndadaye and his close associates, the testimonies of the survivors who lived through this whole scene, from the moment it was prepared for its implementation, are quite eloquent.
Today, we offer testimonies of the Tutsi survivors of this 1993 genocide in the commune of Mwumba in Ngozi province. The commune borders Rwanda, a country where the Hutus of Burundi drew all this ideology of exclusion based on ethnicity and the extermination of the Tutsis. Havyarimana’s Rwanda trained all these Hutu from Palipehutu and Frodebu to such an extent that some Burundian Hutus, after completing the 1993 Tutsi genocide, to the military intervention, returned to Rwanda and actively participated in the genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis in 1994. With the arrival of the RPF, they returned to Burundi and it is not excluded that some of them are now among the leadership team because, out of a sense of guilt may be, or by extremism pushed to the extreme, they quickly joined the rebellion supposedly to defend democracy when it was more a question of giving themselves another opportunity to exterminate all the tutsis survivors who were in the camps of the displaced and those who had remained on the hills. Nor have they succeeded in exterminating them all; and now they have continued their plan even being in power.
Let us return to the testimonies of the survivors who show us how the genocide project had been prepared long before the victory of the Frodebu.
In the Mwumba area, Gitasi hill, the members of the Frodebu youth, the Gedebu, had already drawn up a plan to share the lands and houses of the Tutsis during the various talks between them. Thus, for example, a certain Marc Twahirya , son of Bagacaribariza often said that he would occupy the house of Mbazumutima then area chief Mwumba and Phocas , son NTUKAMAZINA Emmanuel, that he will also have the property left by the late Sabukwishimira Avit.
The survivors testified that in the same community, trenches had been dug and multiplied five years ago at the home of a Kavundera Gaspard who was working on the Caprin project and a very influential member of the Frodebu. They did not realize what it was. They saw the usefulness of these trenches when it came time to throw in slain Tutsis
Mr. Barasokoroza Albin (employee of the goat project) brings a sword (inkota ) and places it in an office of Hakizimana Albert (employee of the same goat project). The latter asks him: why this knife in my office and not in yours? And he answered: “hora ico ubonye , iyo ntizova ngaho idakoze ikintu ” ( Keep secret, this sword will not leave this place without having done something).
On Karungura hill, in May 1993, towards the end of the presidential campaign, a list of names of the tutsis who should die at all costs circulated as well as those who were going to commit the despicable crime. The list of victims was known to the province and the Ngozi Brigade. The candidates for death were: Bariyuntura Etienne; Nsanzamarushwa Boniface; Serombo; Sebutama Languide; Barihuta; Munya; Buregeya, etc……. The two first were effectively massacred on Friday, October 22, 1993. The others were able to escape. Such illustrative cases are very numerous; we will continue to share them with our readers.
URN HITAMWONEZA will continue to shout until there is a fair and independent justice so that all those who have participated in some way in the crimes committed in Burundi are tried and punished in accordance with the law. All those who have pardoned each other to keep our country in total impunity will also be responsible for the damage caused by this act. Burundians must now stand up as one man to refuse to be governed by the very people who have blood on their hands and who have always hidden behind this impunity. Sooner or later, they must be held accountable for their actions. WhatsApp contact: +31685638237
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