David Gough
Western security officials in the Burundian capital Bujumbura said this week that the Burundian army has begun rearming and reorganising tribal Tutsi militias in the face of increasing Hutu rebel activity.
They described the move as a “dangerous turn of events” in Burundi’s six-year civil war. The reorganising of the militias appears to have been provoked by last month’s rebel attack on the Kanyosha market, in which hundreds were killed.
“Since the attack on Kanyosha the authorities have been distributing weapons to the population,” said one security officer.
A representative for the Burundian president denied that the government was rearming the militias but said it was encouraging popular defence strategies because “we don’t have enough troops to control every suburb of the city”.
He admitted that “most of the families here [in the city] are armed”, saying that this was an inevitable consequence of the war in Burundi. “I don’t know where they’re getting the weapons from – I guess they must be buying them.”
When Hutu rebels launched a fresh spate of attacks on the city last weekend, which left more than 50 dead, Tutsi militias fought in support of the army to drive the rebels back into the hills.
Burundian Tutsis feel they are the victims of a genocidal campaign being carried out by Hutu rebels and that the Tutsi-led government is not doing enough to protect them. One Tutsi militiaman, a civil servant, told a Burundian journalist he had killed four of the rebels himself.
What particularly concerns Western diplomats and humanitarian workers in Bujumbura is that these same militiamen were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Hutus in the aftermath of the assassination of Hutu president Melchior Ndadaye in October 1993. Since Ndadaye’s murder Burundi has been embroiled in ethnic conflict between the Tutsi government and Hutu rebels fighting to overthrow it. The conflict has claimed as many as 200 000 lives.
Security has improved in many areas of the country since President Pierre Buyoya seized power in a bloodless coup in 1996 – a move which led to the imposition of regional economic sanctions – but Buyoya has been unable to crush the rebel movement and restore peace.
“Buyoya is being forced to walk an increasingly fine line to maintain himself in power. He seems committed to a middle- ground approach, but the Tutsi extremists in his inner circle are gaining the upper hand and Buyoya is being forced by the upsurge in rebel activity to toe their extremist line,” said a humanitarian official.
Certainly when Buyoya returned from South Africa this week where he had been discussing peace efforts with President Thabo Mbeki he was in no mood for compromise.
In a clear reference to the continuing peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania, which many members of his government are opposed to, he said: “Now is not the time for words. We need to multiply our actions to really punish those genocidal terrorists.”