Burundi genocide

Since Burundi's independence in 1962, there have been two events called genocides in the country. The 1972 mass-killings of Hutu by the Tutsi army, [Staff. [http://www.preventgenocide.org/edu/pastgenocides/burundi/resources/ pastgenocides, Burundi resources] on the website of Prevent Genocide International lists the following resources:
*Michael Bowen, "Passing by;: The United States and genocide in Burundi", 1972, (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1973), 49 pp.
*René Lemarchand, "Selective genocide in Burundi" (Report - Minority Rights Group ; no. 20, 1974), 36 pp.
*Rene Lemarchand, "Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide" (New York: Woodrow Wilson Center and Cambridge University Press, 1996), 232 pp.
*Edward L. Nyankanzi, "Genocide: Rwanda and Burundi" (Schenkman Books, 1998), 198 pp.
*Christian P. Scherrer, "Genocide and crisis in Central Africa : conflict roots, mass violence, and regional war"; foreword by Robert Melson. Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002.
*Weissman, Stephen R. " [http://www.usip.org/pubs/peaceworks/pwks22.html Preventing Genocide in Burundi Lessons from International Diplomacy] ", United States Institute of Peace] and the 1993 killing of Tutsi by the Hutu population that is recognised as a genocide in the final report of the International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi presented to the United Nations Security Council in 2002. [http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/burundi_coi/burundi_coi1996toc.html International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report] Source Name: United Nations Security Council, S/1996/682; received from Ambassador Thomas Ndikumana, Burundi Ambassador to the United States, Date received: 7 June 2002. Paragraph 496.]

Burundian history

The demographics of Burundi through the 1960s and 1970s was roughly 86 percent Hutu,13 percent Tutsi, and 1% Twa. However, for most or this period the Tutsi maintained a near monopoly on senior government and military postions. Burundi gained its independence in 1962, and in May 1965, the first post-independence elections were held. The Hutu candidates scored a landslide victory, capturing 23 seats out of a total 33. Instead of a Hutu prime minister being appointed, the king appointed one of his Tutsi friends. On 18 October 1965, Hutus, angry with the king decision, attempted a coup. The king fled the country, never to return, but the coup ultimately failed. fact|date=September 2008

May to July, 1972

On 27 April, 1972 a rebellion, led by some Hutu members of the gendarmerie broke out in the lakeside towns of Rumonge and Nyanza-Lac and declaring the "Martyazo Republic". [Lemarchand (1996), [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T8W6RfqiYf0C&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&source=web&ots=9TYnc8BD1i&sig=8qJGeH5ZkDlpOB-Hlf-UD2zXlKs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result p. 89] [Lemarchand, (2008). Section "B - Decision-Makers, Organizers and Actors"] Countless atrocities were reported by eyewitnesses, and the armed Hutu insurgents proceeded to kill every Tutsi and Hutu moderate in sight. It is estimated that during this initial Hutu outbreak, anywhere from 800 and 1200 people were killed. [Lemarchand, (2008). Section "B - Decision-Makers, Organizers and Actors" cites (Chrétien Jean-Pierre and Dupaquier, Jean-Francois, 2007, "Burundi 1972: Au bord des génocides, Paris: L’Harmattan". p. 106)] President Michel Micombero (Tutsi) proclaimed martial law and systematically proceeded to slaughter Hutus en masse. [Lemarchand (1996, p. 97] The initial phases of the genocide were clearly orchestrated, with lists of targets including the Hutu educated, the elite, and the militarily trained. Once this had been completed, the Tutsi-controlled army moved onto the larger civilian populations. The Tutsi-controlled government authorities originally estimated that roughly 15,000 had been killed while Hutu opponents claimed that the number was actually far closer to 300,000.fact|date=September 2008 Today, estimates hover in between these two figures, at between 80,000 to 210,000 killed. [White, Matthew. [http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat2.htm#Rwanda Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century: C. Burundi (1972-73, primarily Hutu killed by Tutsi) 120 000] ] Several hundred thousand are estimated to have fled the genocide into Zaire, Rwanda, and Tanzania. [Longman, [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XvlJIAAfiYEC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=1973+Rumonge+and+Nyanza-Lac+killed&source=web&ots=wLU_hDKrGq&sig=Lb5JtdlYEWh_8t3KRV67Z5Rn4wo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result p. 12] ]

1993

In 1993, the Hutu Party, "Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi", FRODEBU, and its presidential candidate, Melchior Ndadaye, won the election forming the first Hutu government in Burundi. On 21 October 1993, President Ndadaye was assassinated throwing the country into a period of civil strife. The Hutu leadership, through FRODEBU's structures responded violently to Ndadaye's assassination and it is estimated that possibly as many as 400,000 Tutsi were killed. Trying to bring order back, elements of the Burundian army killed culprit together with innocent hutus who were not part of the killings.Today, the 1993 mass-killing of Tutsi is the only genocide officially acknowledged by the United Nations.

Rwandan connection

The genocide of 1972 left a permanent mark in the collective memory of the Hutu population, both in Burundi and in neighbouring countries. Tens of thousands of Hutu civilians fled the country during the violence into their northern neighbor, Rwanda. The increased tensions in Burundi and Rwanda sparked episodes of civil and cross-border violence in Burundi which inevitably resulted in more large-scale killings by both sides of the conflict. These episodes further radicalized elements of the Hutu population in Rwanda who also faced pressure from a militant Tutsi opposition known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front. In 1994, a Hutu-led genocide was perpetrated in Rwanda which, along with the resulting civil war, claimed the lives of between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people.fact|date=September 2008

Notes

References

*Lemarchand, René (1996). "Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide", Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521566231
*Lemarchand, René (27 June 2008). "Case Study: The Burundi Killings of 1972", [http://www.massviolence.org/ Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence] supported by [http://www.ceri-sciences-po.org/indexang.php Sciences Po. CERI/CNRS]
*Longman Timothy Paul (1998), Human Rights Watch (Organization), "Proxy Targets: Civilians in the War in Burundi", Human Rights Watch, ISBN 1564321797
* [http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/burundi_coi/burundi_coi1996toc.html International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi: Final Report] Source Name: United Nations Security Council, S/1996/682; received from Ambassador Thomas Ndikumana, Burundi Ambassador to the United States, Date received: 7 June 2002

Further reading

* United Nations Committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, Fifty-first session, Summary record of the 1239th meeting . Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, 20 August 1997, [http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/cb661c2b8f769f6e8025650100552f0b?Opendocument Seventh to tenth periodic reports of Burundi (continued) (CERD/C/295/Add.1)]
** [http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CERD.C.304.Add.42.En?Opendocument Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination : Burundi] . 18 September 1997.
* René Lemarchand. "The Burundi Genocide". Century of Genocide. Ed. Samuel Totten "et al." New York: Routledge, 2004. 321-337.
* [http://www.burundi-agnews.info/agnews_selectgenobur.htm "Selective Genocide in Burundi"] , Report on the 1972 genocide by René Lemarchand and David Martin (1974)
* [http://www.burundi-agnews.info/agnews_burundisincegeno1972.htm "Burundi Since the Genocide"] , Report tracing the consequences of the 1972 genocide, by Reginald Kay (1987)
* [http://www.burundi-agnews.info/genocide.htm "Burundi Genocide"] , News about Burundi crimes since 1962, by Agnews (2000)