ctober
21st is not the tenth anniversary of one president or another,” says Father Claudio Marano, a Xaverian missionary in charge of the ‘Centre Jeunes Kamenge’ in the capital, Bujumbura. “It is the anniversary of the death of 300,000 people and of the eruption of the hatred and resentment that have been gripping the country for a decade.”
In the eyes of the world, 21 October 1993 marked the official start of the violent war in Burundi. For the two main ethnic groups in the country, the majority Hutu (85 per cent) and the minority Tutsi (14 per cent), the date has a different meaning. “The Hutus remember the murder of their first elected President, Melchior Ndadaye,” continues Father Marano.
“Instead, the Tutsis remember those who died in the ethnic violence that followed that murder. If people’s attitudes do not change, if Burundians do not learn to work together, regardless of their ethnic background, we will find ourselves celebrating the 20th anniversary of this conflict in ten years time.”
Father Marano knows the difficulties caused by cultural more than ethnic divisions in Burundi all too well. In 1991 the Xaverians in Bujumbura founded a center – which last year received the Alternative Nobel – which each day brings together young Hutus and Tutsis from four northern neighborhoods of the capital which, until a few years ago were rigorously divided according to ethnic origin. Now, thanks to the work of the center, young people from both ethnic groups are used to working, studying and playing side by side. “Only in this way can they get to know each other.
These young people have slowly overcome the barriers and the distance imposed by the society in which they grew up, and they have become friends. In this way they have come to realize that, whether Tutsi or Hutu, they share the same problems, they have the same dreams and the same hopes for a better life. And so they have understood that they are equal, and that to build a better future they need to remain united and work together,” concludes the religious.
Instead, an aid worker who asks to remain anonymous for safety reasons tells MISNA: “I arrived in Burundi when chaos was raging, and since then I have witnessed the destruction of this country”.
“Ten years of violence, misery and hunger. Ten years in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or have died of starvation. Ten years full of men, women and whole families forced to abandon their land and their homes, to leave everything because of the war and for fear of violence and reprisals by one or other of the factions.
Ten years of Burundians who have been forced to leave the country, fuelling a diaspora which has sought refuge in neighboring states or in other parts of the world. Ten years during which all the armed groups, without distinction, have grown in strength and number, while their country has sunk ever deeper into social, cultural and economic decline, and has been discarded by the international community. Ten terrible years…” says the MISNA source.
Ten years of violence, misery and hunger. Ten years in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or have died of starvation. Ten years full of men, women and whole families forced to abandon their land and their homes.
And yet for many, this tenth anniversary of the war in Burundi could also be the prelude to a different, peaceful future. The optimism is justified by a series of talks and negotiations which, in early October, resulted in a historic accord – the so-called ‘Global inter-Burundian Political-Military Accord’ – between the transitional government and FDD (Forces for the Defense of Democracy), the main rebel group in the country.
Peace should have arrived three years ago, when the two ethnic groups agreed to form a mixed government of national unity in Arusha (Tanzania) in March 2000. However, the war continued, and FDD and FNL (National Liberation Forces, former National Liberation Front), the second force active in the country, have been fighting continuously against the transitional government to obtain a more conspicuous representation of the Hutu ethnic group within the army command, which they claimed was the exclusive prerogative of the minority Tutsis.
In the meeting held in Pretoria (South Africa) on 8 October, FDD and the government finally agreed on the number of rebel representatives in parliament, in the police and in the armed forces. This agreement should be followed by a new series of talks over the next few days. “Our dream is for peace,” the aid worker tells MISNA. “However, for the time being it remains a dream. Many people believe these accords will work definitively within a short time. Personally, I fear the unknown element represented by the FNL, who don’t even want to hear the word ‘negotiations’.”
The same source says in Burundi there is still a lack of trust, that the people have been living in an atmosphere of perennial war for ten years and no one trusts anyone else any more. In fact, hopes for peace are accompanied by suggestions from some quarters that part of the FDD might join the FNL as they are unhappy with the agreement. “They have taken ten years to destroy this country, the little that is left is concentrated in the capital. But once peace has returned, it will take fewer years to rebuild. We hope to be able to get down to work as soon as possible,” concludes the source.
(From MISNA)