BURUNDI

INTO DISASTER

Dec 1997 - 29'13"


Having fled for their lives from battle between army and guerrilla, the people here are squeezed together under primitive circumstances, cooking food on open fires. In the last months, 1.500 innocent civilians are said to have been killed in the area.

Here at the missionary station in Buyengero there are 3.000 refugees since one month, in the area there are at least 30.000 living in conditions like this.

This is once again a result of the violence where no one is spared, not even small children.
The Italian missionaries have detailed lists of killed, their family names are not shown in fear of reprisals.

Missionary (in Italian) -Five years, two years...

The bullet-holes are still there. Three years ago (September 1995) three missionaries were killed in cold blood by Burundian army soldiers.

Luciana Gianesin, missionary Buyengero (in Italian)
-...and then they shot him just above the ear. Aldo was lying here, his head pointing there...

The night is falling. Most refugees are forced to sleep rough but inside the chapel a few have find shelter for the night.

The people here have fled from just those who's duty it is to protect them - here, the response from the Burundian army towards the guerrilla has instead been directed towards the population.

Woman (in Kirundi)
-They entered in all the houses in the colline, they came every day, every day to kill. The people ran away from the soldiers and when some people turned their head back to see, they saw only bodies.

Few of the refugees dare to give interviews in front of the camera in fear for their lives. But it becomes clear that the killings of the people in the area have been systematical.

Man in profile against window (in Kirundi)
-I saw the Burundian soldiers going on hunting people while the rebels were no longer there. Those who died were only Hutus and no Tutsies died.
-The soldiers killed men, women and children first of all, so as to eradicate the Hutu ethnic group.


-The advise I give to overcome this crisis is that the soldiers when they see a civilian they should not kill him or her, but they should arrest him and put him under investigation until they find the truth. Then they should negotiate with the rebels and come to a compromise.

Burundi is in a state of low-intensity civil war between army and guerrilla, and no one can ever defeat the other in the difficult terrain. Both sides are badly equipped. Those are weapons the army claims to have seized from the guerrilla. The Burundian army counts less than 50.000 troop in spite of large recruitments. The standard is far from any modern army - discipline is negligible. The results are abuse of the population.

Lt Col Longin Minani, Defence Ministry advisor
-No army in the world is perfect, we know that, there are some people in our army who committed some acts of violence. They are punished severely and we are very adamant on that.

But few, if any, high-ranking officers have been convicted for abuse, because the army is part in the conflict between Hutu and Tutsie that holds Burundi in a steady grip. According to uncertain numbers, 200.000 lives have been lost the last five years.

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-Who is not genocidal in Burundi? Who? So I think that the genocidal problem, which is a reality in Burundi, is being manipulated by the politicians. What we need is to understand why genocide is a fact in the history of Burundi.

In Burundi and Rwanda, the principle of "ruling by parting" has been practised in every sense possible. The division of people into Hutu or Tutsie is social and lacks any ethnical relevance. There is no cultural difference whatsoever, but never the less, during history it has become a reality.

The Belgian colonial period enhanced the differences between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsie, and when Burundi gained independence in -62, prerequisites for democracy didn't exist. A Tutsie-dominated military dictatorship followed and tension between Hutu and Tutsie increased. But at the end of the eighties a process of democratisation began and in the ethnically divided elections that followed 1993, the Tutsiedominated UPRONA-party lost heavily to the Hutu-based FRODEBU-party, whose leader Melchior Ndadaye became president.

But only a few months later, Ndadaye was brutally murdered in a military coup d'etat. Immediately massacres erupted where over 100.000 were assassinated by extremists from both sides.

The genocide in the neighbouring country Rwanda in 1994 where close to one million were massacred by hutu-extremists, further increased tensions in Burundi.


Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
-Today the feeling of ethnic belonging in Burundi and Rwanda has become a matter of survival basically, or is perceived anyway as a matter of survival, and in that sense, those groups, although they are not technically speaking ethnic groups, have now become politically much more important than real ethnic groups elsewhere in Africa.


In 1994, after a new government was negotiated under UN supervision, Sylvester Ntibantunganya from FRODEBU became president. But the government's work was sabotaged, violence increased and the president was heavily criticised from Tutsie groups. Large ethnically based demonstrations were organised demanding Ntibantunganyas resignation. Finally, in July 1996, there was a military coup d'etat where Major Pierre Buyoya from UPRONA was installed as president, the same president that directed the democratisation-process leading up to the elections
in -93.

The military take-over was heavily criticised internationally, recognised by few countries.

Pierre Buyoya, President
-The legitimacy of my government is coming from the achievements of this government. When the coup took place last year in July -96 the country was on the verge of genocide,
of disintegration. Now it's again security in Burundi. Now it's again the question of peace-process. I think the legitimacy is gaining in that way.


The ousted president took refugee at the American embassy, but is since half a year living in a government-paid villa in the capital Bujumbura.
Ex. president Ntibantunganya, whose wife and child were murdered in the coup against Ndadaye, sees a strong connection between the two coups in 1993 and 96.

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-Because when you see the force, the political forces, military forces and the social forces which were implicated in the coup d'etat against Ndadaye and the coup d'etat against me, they are the same.







The parallels to Europe are obvious, in Europe, wealth of the few was created during centuries of power-struggle between oligarchies, often disguised as religious or ethnical purposes. Not until the development of the democratic state, the power of the oligarchies could be broken. Filip Reyntjens, Professor in African history at the University of Antwerp sees Africa as going through such a process today.

Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
-In Africa, including in Burundi, control of the state is much more important than it is in Europe. It is through the state that you access everything, all the privileges, wealth - not just political power but wealth, access to credit, access to scholarships for your children, impunity, you can basically do whatever you like. The state is the main instrument of accumulation and reproduction of a social class, and in the case of Burundi, it is a very small social class indeed.

In general, the two major political parties UPRONA and FRODEBU attract Tutsie respectively Hutu. But since FRODEBU didn't gain legitimacy until 1991, an ethnic
unbalance in the society was created.


Augustin Nzojibwami, General Secretary FRODEBU (in French)
-In all the thirty years of one-party-system, there was a great (ethnic) exclusivity in the schools, commerce and army, so that today all sectors of justice, army, commerce, education and public systems are dominated by only one ethnic group, the minority one. The great majorities are excluded from those sectors.


For the FRODEBU-party, which with an overwhelming majority won the ethnically divided election 1993, is it a frustrating situation to be denied the legitimate power.

Augustin Nzojibwami, General Secretary FRODEBU (in French)
-In spite of the indisputable victory, FRODEBU has a great disadvantage. All the forces of the police and the authorities, the army, the gendarmerie, the juridical system are still in an unofficial way controlled by the other party.


The Army has always been a factor of power in Burundi, characterised by several coups. According to the UN Commission of Inquiry, the planning and the execution of the coup against President Ndadaye was carried out by officers highly placed in the line of command of the Burundian Army. And the army still consider themselves to carry a special responsibility for the country.





Lt Col Longin Minani, Defence Ministry advisor
-We are not there to rule, we are there to work with the administration, to work with the population, not to rule. But if there are some rulers who are there who are prohibiting us to protect the population - obviously we are not going to sit down, lay our arms and let them abuse the population. No way. We fight them if needs are there.

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-What we have is to reform the army to be a national, a republican army, not an army who is there to serve the interest of a minority - not an ethnic minority - but a group, a minority of some men.

The real power in Burundi is well kept within a small group, acting behind the curtains of the existing official structures.

Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
-A number of central players are actually civilians, and sometimes one wonders to what extent initiatives like a coup d'etat for instance - very much destabilising initiatives - are taken by the military, they may well be taken by civilians actually, but they are exercised on the ground of course by military. But it is certainly a very, very small group, I would think a couple of dozen people rather than thousands.

Immediately after the coup d'etat in July 1996 sanctions were imposed on Burundi. This has mostly affected civil life, especially health care which was of extremely low standard even before due to the general level of poverty in the country. The sanctions are total, not even the most essential drugs can be imported. And the operation-theatres here in the main hospital are hardly working due to lack of spare-parts for the technical equipment.

Dr. Augustin Rukeratabaro, Hospital Prince Charles, Bujumbura (in French)
-The medicines for the operation and everything which is expensive and technically advanced, if we don't have it, we just loose the lives of people. People die.

Some patients have been badly hit by mines occasionally put down in the roads by the Hutu-guerrilla, and the sanctions are viewed by the present government as a support to these groups. The sanctions were imposed by the regional states, the decision mostly backed by Tanzania whose former president Nyerer acts as mediator in the Burndian conflict.
Nyerere is now seen as partial by the regime in Burundi.







Pierre Buyoya, President
-Some prominent personalities of the neighbouring country has been involved in trying to help Burundi to come out of the crisis, and my point of view is that the sanctions is the expression of their frustration when the change came and was not exactly what they expected, it's only that.

But here, on the main road from Tanzania, heavily loaded fuel-tankers can be seen, and paradoxically from the country mostly supporting the embargo. What is said and what is done in Africa are two different things and the Tanzanian numberplates are clearly visible.

The officially illegal fuel-import is saturating the market, the price is under European level and in the streets of the capital Bujumbura traffic is intense - as the boat traffic is on the clear and deep Tanganyika Lake into the port of Bujumbura. Because sanctions mean money, big money for those who control the tiny state of Burundi.

One example out of many, in February last year a contract was signed by the state coffee-company. 9.500 tonnes of coffee beans, about one third of the annual production was sold for 98 cents per pound. But the world-market value was at least the double, according to international coffee-dealers.
Close to 10 million US Dollars disappeared from the Burundian revenue.

A plan for actions against economic criminality was launched by the government, though the aim doesn't seem to be to convict everyone guilty of suspicious business.

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-Yes, in the black market, and they have a lot of money now, so the real power is for them and the government must respect them, because if the government doesn't respect them, they will say "You can do whatever you want..." because they know the government is not able to do anything now.

Burundi is a tiny, overpopulated Central-African country just south of the equator. 95% of the 6 million inhabitants are living in simple clay-houses in the countryside. Most agriculture is for the household. The country is one of the poorest and least developed in the world.

It is the lead-drummer who sets new rhythm-patterns, each with it's own strength and message - like the different dances.

In spite of the war, there is still a strong local culture maintained, and here in the village of Nymugari in the eastern part of the country, the traditions are used in trying to bring about peace and reconciliation.
 Drummer (in Kirundi)
-Yes, the drumming makes us come together all ethnic groups and together we create peace. Here and now we can change views without fear.

Not much effort was made during the colonial time to develop the country and a majority of the population are illiterates. But they have a will to build a future together, and by meeting and having courses, problems are solved. By discussions possibilities to developments on their own are exchanged.


Women singing (in Kirundi - yes, translation could be made more rhythmical.)
-The whites brought a lot of bad things.. So now, after the whites, let us create development ourselves... Let us develop our agriculture, our cattle breeding and let us have education..


But Burundi is lacking economical means for development. The whole state-budget equals the budget of a mid-sized European town. One third of Burundis GNP is foreign aid, an aid only covering humanitarian needs, and the needs are huge.


More than half a million displaced people are living in camps under unbearable conditions, many of them severely malnutritioned according to WFP. Most have been living here since the massacres in 1993 and do not dare to return home, the extremists are still controlling their home colonies. (villages)

Moise Nsengiyumva (in Kirundi)
-It is impossible for us to return home because they are still prepared to kill us. They have said that if we come back, this time they will spare no one. They will attack us in the night, surround our houses and then chop us dead. Just because they want to kill everyone of us so that only their group will be left in our colony.


Confidence building and dialogue are words in common use by the international community when speaking about Burundi. But for every part in the conflict, the other part is considered "genocidal" thereby ruling out negotiations. But the Buyoya putsch-government did dare to go into secret negotiations with the CNDD-guerrilla in Rome in the beginning of last year. The negotiations were heavily criticised when disclosed, especially from UPRONA, the president's own party, who accused him of high treason.
 

Charles Mukasi, President UPRONA
-We have even said that. We treated the initiative (to negotiate) as an act of treachery not only towards UPRONA, but also as an act of treachery towards towards the nation, because there has been lies and a consecration of immorality. Now, is UPRONA going to negotiate with genocidal organisations? I think that in a genocidal conflict the peaceful resolution of conflicts in case of genocide is not negotiations - it is the application of justice in it's integrity.

The search for a negotiated settlement of the conflict by President Buyoya, has made the leadership of UPRONA to break the connections.

Charles Mukasi, President UPRONA
-He has shown that he has no confidence in UPRONA by not seeking it's support otherwise than constraining UPRONA to adhere, so I think that this confidence doesn't exist any more in one way or the other.

New negotiations though were to take place in Tanzania in August last year, but the day before Buyoya was forced to cancel. Since then, formal talks are grounded. The forces in Burundi opposing negotiations are too powerful, and the tense relations to Tanzania and the mediator Nyerere were given as an excuse for the cancellation.

Pierre Buyoya, President
-We say we are ready to resume talks, but we have some concerns. We want to negotiate in a neutral venue, we want a neutral team of mediators. We don't accept some condition put forward by the regional leaders in Daar-es-Salaam.

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-I say, it seems that Mr. Buyoya is afraid of the oligarchy, but I say you that a political man has not to be afraid. If you are afraid in politics, you are not able to do anything.

Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
-The main political actor, I think, in Burundi, is fear. Fear and distrust make the confidence needed to strike a compromise, to engage in negotiations, then to loyally implement them make it extremely more difficult than if that fear and distrust were not present.

The fear of genocide affects everyone, and therefore the so-called ethnic belonging is seen as protection, and by maintaining this fear, the present groups can control the society.
The will to political co-operation and compromises, which are needed in a democracy, are lacking almost totally, and it will take a long process before the Burundian society is ready for democratic elections.
 

Sylvester Ntibantunganya, ex. President
-Now it's not time to go into elections in Burundi. We have before to negotiate some kind of reforms to introduce in our state, in organisation of our state. I don't want a state against the people. We can't organise democratic elections within a state that is against the people, it's impossible.

Pierre Buyoya, President
-We established a transitional period of three years, and in those three years we are going to organise a peace process and we are going to discuss a new constitution - how democracy is going to be re-established and this will come from the political dialogue which is now engaged.


Many international actors are trying to contribute to the peace-process in Burundi by their own agenda. Aid, sanctions, commerce, loans and other means are used in a contradictory way, causing an unmanageable pressure upon the small country.

Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
-This huge interest and this very diversified and uncoordinated interest has become eventually, I believe, a part of the problem rather than part of the solution of the problems of Burundi.


Pierre Buyoya, President
-Today in Burundi the international community is not really helping, it's only pressing. Then I think to build peace in Burundi, to build democracy we have to know that and we have learned that it is our duty, we Burundians or we Africans.


It is difficult for Burundi to control it's own development. The Governmental power is weak, it's stability under constant threat. Though the Buyoya-regime has good connections with the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose President Kabila openly defied the sanctions by visiting Burundi in November last year, together with the neighbouring country Rwanda, they have common security-problems with the guerrilla. Since the fall of Zaire, the instability in the region has increased.


Pierre Buyoya, President
-Of course, security in Burundi is influenced by security in the region. Our main concern is what is happening in the east of the DRC, this is our great concern.

The Hutu rebels moving freely in the densely forested border area, are stepping up their insurgency. The deliveries of weapons to the region are great and according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, countries as China, France, North Korea, Russia etc are supplying arms to all sides. And the mineral wealth, among them diamonds, provides the economical means necessary to finance the war for those who control the region.


Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics, Univ. Antwerp
- What is called the Great Lakes region, the most densely populated part of Africa is in a state of semi-civil war all of it, and I think, if no political solutions are found, is probably facing instability, violent destabilisation for a period that might actually be quite long -
10 -15 years and that means that 20 million people are at risk today.

end