Briefing: Are Burundians ready to hear the truth about what happened in 1972?
The Briefing, Issue #24, Tuesday, January 28, 2020
BURUNDI IN THE HEADLINES
Dear Readers,
While Burundi and International media were spreading news of the Cndd-Fdd chosen Candidate for the presidential election, this Monday a very sensitive chapter of Burundi history was being brought once again to life by the Burundi Truth and Reconciliation Commission(CVR) at Ruvubu river, Shombo in Karusi province (Center of Burundi).
This Monday, the Gitega province and Karusi Governors, as well as various authorities, attended the official launch of the first phase of exhumation of the human bones of the victims of the 1972 bloodletting on the hill of Bukirasazi, zone Nyabibuye, Shombo commune of Karuzi province, an old district of the Gitega province.
The president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), Amb. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye said that 7 mass graves on 14 of identified mass graves have been verified and confirmed. According to testimonies over 7,000 people were thrown into this site located near the Ruvubu river.
Pierre Claver Ndayicariye says that the purpose of this activity is to restore dignity and offer families the opportunity to mourn their loved ones and to bury them in dignity.
Victims of the 1972 genocide against Hutu, still have vivid memories about what happened, as we can hear in this video (in Kirundi) recorded at Ruvubu site. More testimonies are to be shared and stir up painful memories of a dark chapter of Burundi history.
Freddy Nkurikiye, an officer at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue specialized in the prevention, mitigation, and resolution of armed conflicts through dialogue and mediation once said in this article that Burundians still fear to talk about what happened in the country. “We really need to know where to start and find solutions to the Burundian crises,”
On many occasions, Burundians expressed their concerns over the protection of witnesses who recounted what happened or showed the commission mass graves in which are buried victims of crimes committed in Burundi from 1885 to 2008.
They wonder how the commission will protect these witnesses whereas it has no police. “Some witnesses and victims of conflicts will be afraid to report what they saw or experienced to protect their family,” said one of the speakers in the meeting.
This raises a serious question “Are Burundians ready to hear the truth about what happened in 1972?” I kept asking myself this question as I was following a thread of CVR president’s tweets, with pictures of bones and clothes or when I was reading this New York Times article published in June 1972.
“Refugees reported that at Gitega, in the center of the country, an average of 400 people was killed daily by beatings and shootings.
A foreign doctor said that Hutus were being herded into prisons with as many as 16 persons crushed into cells with space for two.
“They were given some food at first,” he said, “but now they're dropping dead because they're getting nothing, not even air.”
Six Europeans, including an Italian priest, were killed, according to reports reaching here last night, when they intervened on behalf of a Hutu friend or servant.”
It is hard to imagine what victims endured, but the answer is obvious, no one (victim or a perpetrator) will ever be ready to hear such kinds of stories, but it is necessary to heal the memories of all Burundians.
During the first 50 years of independence in Burundi, over 500,000 Hutus and 100,000 Tutsi were killed in mass atrocities, according to the Combat Genocide Association.
CVR was set up by the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement signed in 2000 to put an end to the civil war which erupted in 1993 after the assassination of the first democratically elected Burundian president, Melchior Ndadaye. CVR had the mission to investigate cases of injustice committed since the independence of Burundi.
Fabrice Iranzi, Editor
RegionWeek
Read also:
Critics: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Burundi under fire
Key figures from Burundi Truth and Reconciliation Commission Annual Report
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