UN Commission on Human Rights 57th Session, 10 April 2001: Item 14(c): Specific groups and individuals: Mass exoduses and displaced persons

17 April 2001

Minority Rights Group International wishes to return the Commission’s attention to the plight of the people of Burundi, who have faced conflict during most of their history since independence in 1962. However, as a new publication by MRG shows, although the civil war in Burundi has generally been interpreted as ‘ethnic’ – pitting Tutsi against Hutu and vice versa – it is in fact politically driven, manipulated by elites seeking to capture or maintain power. One of the outcomes of the violence is the mass, often forcible, displacement of civilians.

Ethnicity in Burundi has certainly proved to be a strong mobilizing force, with the numerical minority – the Tutsi – currently controlling much of the state, including the army. Meanwhile, the numerical majority – the Hutu – are politically and economically marginalised. Both Hutu and Tutsi now regard the other with fear and are convinced the other is intent on genocide. But there is a further cleavage in Burundian society between rural and urban. While over 90 percent of the population lives in the countryside, where one finds the majority of the victims of violence, government policies and budgetary allocations have shown strong urban bias.

The situation of the third ethnic group that occupies Burundi – the Twa – has so far been largely ignored. The Twa, an indigenous people, have been caught up in a war in which they have suffered disproportionately.

Since the signing of the Arusha peace accord last August, the violence has actually increased and has resulted in further large-scale displacement of Burundians, either fleeing the state or displaced within its borders. Those internally displaced come from all ethnic groups: in addition to those displaced in the countryside and living in makeshift camps, many Tutsi have lived in designated camps protected by the army since 1993, while many Hutu have been forced to live in ‘regroupment’ camps since 1996. The controversial regroupment policy has forcibly contained civilians in so-called ‘protection sites’ under the watchful gaze of the army, but it is widely recognised that this policy is in fact an anti-insurgency measure by the government, aimed at cutting off rebel forces from their potential support base.

The regroupment camps have been described by Nelson Mandela as ‘concentration camps’ and by the United Nations as ‘not fit for any human being to live in’. Although most of the camps in the province of Bujumbura Rural were closed by the end of July 2000, and their closure was stipulated in the Arusha agreement, the practice of regroupment has nevertheless continued, resulting in further human rights violations against the rural population.

The situation of women in some refugee and regroupment camps is unimaginable. A recent survey of 339 women in Kanembwa refugee camp in Tanzania found that 27 per cent had experienced at least one incident of rape during the conflict. The discrimination experienced by Burundian women across all spheres of society reached an extreme in the regroupment camps, where women and girls were frequently subjected to rape and other forms of sexual abuse by both government soldiers and rebels.

While Minority Rights Group International welcomes the latest round of talks in Arusha aimed at achieving a peaceful solution to conflict in Burundi, we would urge all parties to participate fully in the talks. As our report shows, the fact that groups other than Hutu and Tutsi – regional groups, clans, peasants, women, Twa – have objective interests which transcend the Hutu-Tutsi divide could be an asset for Burundi.

In conclusion, Minority Rights Group International recommends:

The permanent closure of all regroupment camps and the supported voluntary return of Burundians who have fled the country and those who are internally displaced.

The continued support of the international community for the peace process, both by way of diplomatic and financial backing, in the context of wider peace-building efforts in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

The inclusion in the peace process of the views and interests of all sectors of society including those of the most marginalised groups and those disadvantaged for reasons besides those of ethnicity.