“Let us be heard”: Burundi’s refugees tell stories of ethnic targeting
Posted on February 3, 2016 by Samantha Lakin
Burundi’s crisis began as a political dispute, but testimony from
refugees suggests that some parties to the conflict may be exploiting
Hutu-Tutsi divides.
Burundian refugees gather round as artists and dancers visit Mahama
Refugee Camp on Christmas Day 2015. Credit: Djamal Ntagara, Uburanga
Art Centre, Kigali, Rwanda.
Burundian refugees gather round as artists and dancers visit Mahama
Refugee Camp on Christmas Day 2015. Credit: Djamal Ntagara, Uburanga
Art Centre, Kigali.
Near the small town of Gashora in Rwanda, about 20km north of the
border with Burundi, hundreds of children and their mothers sit
outside tents (or “hangers”) branded with the UNHCR logo. Young boys
play football in worn clothing as they pass the time, while
malnourished babies lie in a row awaiting treatment from a special
medical tent.
Since April 2015, at least 240,000 people have fled Burundi as it has
descended into a violent political crisis. A large proportion of these
refugees have journeyed north into neighbouring Rwanda, and tens of
thousands have ended up here at Gashora Reception Centre before being
transferred for more permanent stay at Mahama Refugee Camp. Many have
been separated from their loved ones back in Burundi, who may or may
not still be alive, and each has his or her own unique story of loss,
suffering, and violence.
According to official records, the camp received around 17,000 people
in April and another 19,000 over the subsequent fourth months before
numbers dropped to hundreds per month. Approximately 60% of these are
under 18.
However, the total number of refugees to this area is likely to be
significantly higher. Burundians are only taken to Gashora if they
indicate at the border office that they are fleeing for political
reasons. But with many are afraid to admit being refugees, large
numbers say they are crossing into Rwanda for economic motivations or
to visit family. Many of these try to assimilate in the nearby town of
Nyanza.
Testimony from the camps
The ongoing crisis in Burundi began last April when President Pierre
Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term in office – in violation of
the constitution and Arusha Accords according to critics – and then
won the disputed election in July.
Since then, hundreds have been killed or assassinated on the streets
of Bujumbura, while opposition militia have clashed on occasion with
government troops. Furthermore, last month, nine mass graves were
reportedly discovered around the capital. According to UN human rights
chief, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, these sites are believed to hold the
bodies of the dozens of Burundians killed in a deadly reprisal attack
by security forces on 11 December.
With independent radio stations and media restricted, reliable
information in Burundi is difficult to come by. However, as the crisis
persists, one question on many people’s lips is to what extent the
clashes relate to historical divides between Burundi’s majority Hutu
and minority Tutsi populations. There are growing reports that the
government is targeting Tutsis, while the recently discovered mass
graves are believed to hold mostly Tutsi victims.
Burundi’s turmoil certainly began as a political dispute, but there
are fears that ethnicity has since been instrumentalised by actors in
the conflict for their own gain. The testimonies of some refugees –
whose voices tend to have been neglected in the debate around Burundi
thus far – seem to support these concerns.
Jean Bosco has been in the refugee camp with his wife and four
children since April. He says that he fled Burundi after being
targeted by groups associated with the ruling CNDD-FDD for being a
Tutsi.
“The CNDD-FDD youth [known as the Imbonerakure] started to threaten me
and my family, saying: we killed armed Tutsis, soon it’s going be your
turn,” Bosco tells African Arguments. “One morning, the policemen and
Imbonerakure came and ordered that all Tutsi houses had to be
checked…They said that we Tutsi want to overthrow the power.”
Desire, a former judge, says he fled Burundi over a dispute that had
taken on an ethnic dimension too. He had to pass a judgment on a land
dispute that happened to be between some Tutsis and Hutus and says the
government pressured him to rule in favour of one side over the other.
“The Minister of Justice called me and told me to give the land to the
Hutu family,” he recalls. Desire did not want to directly defy this
order and so slowed down the case “to protect myself from the wrath of
the CNDD-FDD party and spare time to find a solution”.
However, Desire could not delay for too long and amidst growing
warnings from confidants, eventually took flight and headed north.
“The day I fled, a squadron of the secret police was sent to capture
and torture me, but friends of mine told me before they reached [his
home town of] Kirundo,” he says.
The story of Esperance, whose husband was part of the Burundian army,
echoes some of these dynamics too.
“Before the [failed May 2015] coup, my husband was asked by officers
close to Nkurunziza to execute assassinations of political opposition
party members,” she says. “My husband was told that since he was a
Hutu, he had to stand for Nkurunziza. He refused, and the SNR
[national intelligence service] started to chase him.
“For weeks, my husband was tracked by the intelligence. Fearing for
his life as some of his colleagues had been killed or lost, he decided
to flee from the army.”
Esperance has not heard from her husband since this time and believes
he was picked up by intelligence agents as he tried to escape the
country. She escaped to Rwanda in November.
Let us be heard
Thus far, international and regional efforts to resolve the ongoing
crisis in Burundi have made little progress. The African Union said in
December it would deploy 5,000 peacekeepers to maintain order, but
with Nkurunziza’s government vowing to treat the force as an invasion,
the AU recently backed down. Meanwhile, although peace talks also
officially began in December, led by Uganda’s President Yoweri
Museveni, they stalled over disagreements regarding who should be at
the negotiating table.
Opposing sides diverge over which groups ought to be represented as
legitimate parties to any agreement. However, when negotiations do
resume, it seems clear that the testimony of some of Burundi’s
hundreds of thousands refugees – those such as Desire, Jean Bosco and
Esperance – will need to be included.
These voices have rarely been heard as the crisis has worn on, but the
experiences of those directly affected by the violence without
engaging in it themselves will be critical to both understanding and
resolving the situation.
“We refugees are the real ones who are suffering,” says Jean Bosco.
“Let us be heard.”
Samantha Lakin is a PhD student at The Strassler Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies, Clark University, USA. Her research focuses on
local perspectives toward memorialisation of mass atrocities and
genocide in Rwanda and East Africa. Follow her on twitter at
@S_Lakin1.
For more on this subject, see:
Burundi: What can actually be done?
In the shadow of genocides past: can Burundi be pulled back from the brink?
Are international actors steering the right course in Burundi?
Burundi must avoid repeating the mistakes of Arusha
What lies at the core of Burundi’s crisis?
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One thought on ““Let us be heard”: Burundi’s refugees tell stories of
ethnic targeting”
sonia ferreira says:
February 5, 2016 at 1:59 pm
As a common reader I would like to give you my thoughts though
naïve they may seem. Shouldn’t the UN help to create educational
programmes to educate the people about the History of ethnic divide?
Perhaps if the average African deeply understands the roots of the
divide (mainly colonial) with all the historical facts but in an easy
way to understand this could bring union instead of divide and also
acceptance of the very rich African diversity. It is a long term
solution but that could run parallel to all the negotiations and other
programmes running in the country. The educational programmes could be
done using independent radio stations not only to debunk ethnic
discourse but to educate using the history of the roots of the
problem. If this can’t be done in Burundi right now perhaps the
educational ethnic programmes should start in peaceful countries
showing to everyone the real roots of ethnic divide in Africa. The
cause of the problem should be tackled!
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