Burundi: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recognizes a genocide of the Hutus in 1972 and 1973

The Burundian parliament.

(Drawing).

AFP - ONESPHORE NIBIGIRA

Text by: RFI Follow

3 min

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which presented its progress report on Monday, December 20 to the Burundi Parliament meeting in congress, qualified one of the worst episodes of interethnic massacres in this country which began at the end of April 1972 as " 

 ”.

The Hutus are in power today.

A qualification which was endorsed by acclamation by both chambers of the Burundian parliament. 

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Created in 2014, the much contested CVR of Burundi had the heavy task of investigating the crimes committed in this country since the Berlin Conference of 1885 to the end of the civil war in 2008. But the CVR focused its investigation on this dark period.

The report presented to Parliament in Congress is rather voluminous.

More than 5,000 pages which summarize years of investigation focused exclusively on what Burundians until now called "

".

A date that corresponds to one of the worst episodes of interethnic massacres in this country.

Pierre-Claver Ndayicariye President of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

900 witnesses interviewed

According to its president Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, the Burundi CVR has, during all this time, heard about 900 witnesses including those presumed to be responsible for these massacres, it exhumed the remains of nearly 20,000 victims in some 200 mass graves, or even studied thousands of documents relating to this period.

According to this Commission, it emerges from this investigation that "

" had been "

" upstream by the power of President Michel Micombero, from the Tutsi minority.

Pierre Claver Ndayicariye therefore "

" a declaration which "

", commented the President of the Assembly. national, Gélase Daniel Nbabirabe.

"The work is not finished"

Next steps, in particular the identification of all the victims of this period which passes by a census on each hill of the country as well as the organization of public hearings.

"

", acknowledge our sources, who explain that the Burundian authorities had demanded this proclamation from the CVR before the 50th anniversary of these massacres next April.

1/5 @ UPRONA__1961 has taken note of the progress report presented to the Parliament of #Burundi on 20/11/2021 by the @CVR_Burundi on the massacres of the Bahutu in 1972 and 1973. He rejects en bloc the unjust accusations leveled against him as one of the sponsors of these killings.

- UPRONA PARTY (@ UPRONA__1961) December 20, 2021

Controversy

After the official qualification by the Burundi CVR of the inter-ethnic massacres of 1972 as "

", the Uprona party, then party-state and which was incriminated by the CVR, denied in a statement. tweet any involvement in these crimes.

For his part, one of the main figures of Burundian civil society in exile denounced a decision taken by a Commission constituted almost exclusively by members of the only party in power, the former Hutu rebellion of the Cndd-FFD, and which has investigated since its creation in 2014 only on the only massacres of 72. However, its mandate provides that it investigates the crimes committed since the Berlin conference in 1885 at the end of the civil war in 2008, explains Vital Nshimiramana:

We do not dispute the crimes committed, but we challenge the methodology

Civil society organizations in exile contest

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