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  Mateso, Alexis

  Alexis Mateso

  Mateso’s father was ambushed and killed in Bujumubura. He was traveling to pick up his monthly paycheck and never returned home. Instead of seeing his father’s safe return, Mateso was greeted by his dad’s best friend, who held his father’s jacket. At that moment, Mateso said he knew his father was gone. Before this tragedy struck, Mateso said he had fond memories of his father gently waking him up before he left for work each morning and warmly greeting him in the evenings. Mateso hopes Burundians can come together to address their past and positively change things for a better future. Mateso said God has helped him have a forgiving spirit, and he is ready to live in harmony.

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  Mazina, Makariyo

  Mazina Makariyo

  Makariyo Mazina and his siblings lost their father, and everything he had was looted. His late father was the head of the village called councilors. He was also a merchant. After the soldiers and the perpetrators arrested him and packed in the truck, one of the perpetrators grabbed Makariyo’s hands, tied him with ropes of banana trees and dumped him into the truck. He lied above other victims who were moaning and screaming in pain. When they reached the road, the soldiers took him and threw him in the thorn bushes. He was picked up by a neighbor who heard him crying. He was 14 years old when they arrested him. Makariyo, his siblings and his uncle fled to Rwanda. Their cattle, sheep, bicycle, house and property were plundered. After Makariyo returned home, they imprisoned him for a long time from ...75 to ...76 until a new president, Bagaza, took power. After they released him, the head of the village of the time, counselor, sent the JRRs to persecute him. To get back there, he paid thirty thousand francs and a pot of alcohol to the [head of the village]. Later, Karuyonga, Bitegigihanga and Nyomogo returned to persecute him, they were together with JRRs.

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  Mbonibogoye, Emmanuel

  Emmanuel Mbonibogoye

  Emmanuel explains in his testimony how the violence was largely targeted at the Hutu population in 1972, and he also describes the systematic arrests, torture, and executions. When Emmanuel's mother returned from Kayanza after witnessing the brutal treatment of local people, she warned the family, prompting fears for their safety. The interviewee’s father was arrested by local authorities, accused of harboring weapons and being involved in the violence. Despite being innocent, he was tortured and eventually executed, like many other Hutus fate during the genocide. His father was taken from his home, beaten, and accused of possessing a gun to kill Tutsis. The family witnessed the brutality of the arrests and executions, with many people being forcibly detained and taken to prisons where they were killed.

  Emmanuel describes the physical and emotional impact of witnessing his father’s death and the subsequent violence. This included health problems, such as heart issues, which started after these traumatic events. He describes how the family’s property was looted, and they were left in poverty. The family had to endure harsh conditions and work under forced labor for a year.

  Despite the tragedy, the interviewee reflects on how his family survived and continued to uphold the legacy of their father. He took on his father’s profession, which provided some stability. Emmanuel’s narrative highlights the long-term impact of the violence on his life and family, as well as the broader historical context of ethnic conflicts in Burundi.

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  Mboninyeretse, Dominique

  Dominique Mboninyeretse

  Dominique Mboninyeretse hid behind a tree-lined mountain and watched tractors unload dead bodies into a hole outside Gitega. Mboninyeretse said he witnessed this pattern for days until he finally saw live prisoners get off one of the tractors. The militia forced the prisoners to sit on top of the piles of dead bodies to wait for their turn to be executed. Mboninyeretse said the soldiers lined prisoners up in groups of ten, tied them together by whatever existing limbs they had left after being tortured, and then shot them to death. Nearly five decades after the killings, Mboninyeretse led the Truth and Reconciliation Committee exactly where he saw his family and neighbors get slaughtered. He helped exhume their bodies and has planted trees to memorialize those lost in the 1972 Genocide of Burundi. Each tree he planted symbolizes the resiliency and strength of the Burundian people.

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  Mbuzukongira, Jerome

  Jerome Mbuzukongira

  Mbuzukongira Jerome was working at Bujumbura in the ministry of planning and statistics in 1972. His father, a small businessman, helps him to pay school fees to continue primary school and secondary school. When the tragedy broke out, he was in a bar in Bujumbura, he saw a man wandering. He was hunting Hutus. When he came near Jerome, he said: “We see a hutu; come, come”. He arrested him, beat him and imprisoned him. He was beaten until his neck became crippled. He has been disabled up to now. Jerome was identified through the nose shape: Hutu plate nose, Tutsi long nose. According to Jerome, young people have to go to school in order to learn the truth behind ethnicity.

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  Melchior, Niyokwizera

  Niyokwizera Melchior

  When the tragedy began in Rumonge, Niyokwizera Melchior was at school. People who fled from Rumonge said that people were killing each other, Mulele rebels were killing people. So many people died there, especially those who went to attend the celebrations, some were killed there. So the killings extended for the Hutu people who fled from Rumonge to Songa, some Tutsis came to round them up saying that they were Mulele, they killed them. They again extended the killings to the Hutu teachers including the headmaster Nizigama Gervais. They targeted teachers, intellectuals, any Hutu who had money or who had valuable property. On Friday, they arrested his father and many other Hutu people. The perpetrators were two soldiers, they came together with local perpetrators namely Zona and Mukogoto. They took them to Songa commune (former Manyoni zone of the time). To arrest them, they told them to appear quickly to the authorities of Manyoni zone to answer different questions. Others were rounded up from the patrols. It was clear that they organized patrols so that they could easily arrest whom they wanted, said Niyokwizera Melchior. No mourning period for the deceased; it was like a dead dog. The perpetrators had two main objectives: To kill and to plunder all victims belongings. The head of Manyoni zone looted many clothes from Hutus stores. He has been wearing them for many years. Melchor also lost his godfather Gabriel Bagwagure in a 1968 tragedy. He then dropped out of school because Tutsis students kept torturing Hutu classmates Orphans of 1972.

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  Merida, Sabiyumva

  Sabiyumva Merida

  Sabiyumva Merida was born around 1950 or 1952, in Mugamba, at Kiryama but they moved to live in Burambi, after she got married at Muhuzu in Rumonge. When the 1972 tragedy started, they didn't know why it started, because they were living peacefully in hutus and tutsis. But there came other people called Mayimayi from other provinces. So, when those people came, they went to the people of Merida’s neighbors and harassed them, urging them to help them in killing.

  Merida lost her father and her two sisters in that war. Perpetrators went to their home to look for them, and when they went to look for her father, he was not there, he had gone to see his sister who was there in Rumonge, so they killed him when he was going to see her. They also wanted to kill Merida and others, but fortunately their neighbors tried to protect them. Their neighbors warned them to run away. As they ran away, they heard that her little sister was killed and the child who was with her. So Merida ran away. Even their neighbors were obliged to run away because if they didn't accept the order perpetrators gave them, they attempted to kill them. It was the order to kill others. They targeted the ethnic group. At that time, they were persecuting tutsis. Of course even the hutu who didn't accept to practice that evil was harmed.

  Merida ran away to the countryside because her mother had already gone upcountry because she got ill and her father had taken her upcountry, when she ran, she was following her mother at Mugamba where her father was born.

  Her sisters killed had tried to run away but they were caught. One of her sisters bore a child with her, it was not possible for her to pass through the valleys as Merida did. Merida had things like clothes and money her father had given her which were in a wooden box, when she saw that they approached her, she threw down the box, she passed through the forests, so she was saved but others were killed. On other sides people after knowing what was happening, they wanted revenge.

  During that time they looted many things of the victims: livestock, crops, clothes, money, they even burned the houses. They looted all things, they harvested crops.

  Merida advises Burundians to change and come from wicked ways and go forward, they should only look for means to live, and stop wickedness. They should not follow wicked people because those sorrowful things were done by wicked people, avid of materials and not patriots. People should stop evil things, they should only look for life, they should love each other in order to prosper. If people don't love each other, they can't develop, but if they love each other, help one another, they will develop and build their country, it will be peaceful and prosperous.

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  Miburo, Sylvie

  Sylvie Miburo

  Sylvie Miburo was born in 1940 in Murore village, Busoni commune, Kirundo province. When the 1972 tragedy broke out she had three or four children, her husband was killed in that tragedy. She described the bad circumstances they went through during that period. They saw people coming, they rounded up hutus, they packed them in trucks and took them away. They thought they would come back, they waited but they never returned back. Perpetrators (Tutsis) accused them of collecting money to kill tutsis. That was jealousy and pretext to kill them because they saw that they were succeeding in their works of farming and so on.

  They arrested her husband on the day of community work, when people met together to work for a certain person, on that same day they took many people of the same circumscription. When they arrived at Rusarasi, they took a teacher named Bidodwa Lazarre, they also took Bikere, his co-worker in Gatare, they took Bizuru in Makombe, they took Bidadi who was a teacher, Ntanyurwa’s son. On that day they rounded up six people in that neighbourhood. They packed them in military trucks, and sat on them when transporting them away to kill them.

  Some local leaders were involved in that massacre, she gave the example of Nzogera, the administrator during that period, but also there were some other people mostly involved in that massacre as Biteyigihanga and Nzirikana.

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  Mpabonimana, Anne Marie

  Anne Marie Mpabonimana

  In 1972, after Anne Marie had finished school, her family experienced a distressing event, where they were visited by police officers and gendarmes who arrived at their home in a van. The police, including two municipal officers and an administrator, arrived at the interviewee's home and arrested Anne Marie's father and uncle, Prudence Mahobwe. They were handcuffed, tied up, and locked away in a van. This was a shocking and confusing experience for Anne Marie and her family, who were not familiar with the political context or the ethnic tensions going on at the time. Her family, including her pregnant mother and grandfather, were left in a state of fear and helplessness. They observed the police searching their home and taking money and other valuables. Despite their distress, this situation made them feel powerless to intervene or protest.

  Following the arrests, Anne Marie’s family made efforts to find out what had happened. The next day, they searched for the arrested individuals but found no trace of them. Rumors soon circulated that the situation was dire, and it became evident that the arrests were part of a broader and severe wave of violence. The family was informed that the likelihood of their relatives being alive was minimal, contributing to their distress and despair. After this tragic event, Anne Marie began to understand the ethnic conflict involving Hutus and Tutsis during this period. She heard that Hutus were being targeted and that the violence was widespread, affecting various regions. This marked a turning point in her awareness of the political and ethnic tensions in the country.

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  Mugemangabo, Angelo

  Angelo Mugemangabo

  Angelo Mugemangabo lost his brother and his relative in the 1972 tragedy. All of them belong to the Tutsi ethnic group but they were killed by Tutsis. Ruberankiko Salvator, a soldier who worked in Bujumbura was killed because the perpetrators said no Hutu lived in Kirundo. Nkundabanyanka Emmanuel was a gendarme who worked in Kirundo. Ndabaneze Laurent, a former army brigade commander, took him away because he supplied food to a Hutu man who was in Kirundo prison. Angelo Mugemangango, whether he was at home or at school, saw soldiers coming to round up Hutus like teachers or other kinds of people and took them away. But he thereafter learnt that they were massacred for they were ‘Abamenja’ traitors.

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  Mupfasoni, Elisabeth

  Elisabeth Mupfasoni

  Elisabeth Mupfasoni grew up with seven siblings. She remembers living in a peaceful community where all Burundians cared for one another, and the ethnic divide did not exist. Mupfasoni explained that she was a newlywed when the violence of the 1972 Genocide of Burundi erupted. She and her husband fled and lived with relatives for 2 months to avoid the attacks.

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  Muvunandinda, Ferdinand

  Ferdinand Muvunandinda

  Ferdinand talks about the 1972 tragedy. He describes the tragic events that happened in Burundi in 1972 and 1973. He lost his father, Dominique Bizuru in 1972. He was taken away by Bukuru, the policeman and also brother of Bimpenda. The perpetrator arrested him together with another man called Karemera. After that, a mob of men, called JRR, led by the communal administrator, Nzirikana and Bitezigihanga looted the house and his father’s store. They robbed bicycles, clothes and the sewing machines which were in the store at the marketplace, over there at the crossroads. He lost other relatives notably Bikere, his grandfather's brother and Rubamba from Rutabo.

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  Mvyumvuhore, Abraham

  Abraham Mvyumvuhore

  When the 1972 tragedy broke out, Abraham Mvyumvuhore was at home. He and his family saw people fleeing from Rumonge passing by their home location. The authorities set up patrol sites as protection measures. There were three patrols in their sub village. The patrol near Abraham’s family was close to the Tutsi communities. People have been patrolling for many days but they didn’t see the enemy coming in. However, Tutsis started to round up Hutus men at the patrol site and herded them to Songa zone located at Manyoni. They then arrested his father Nzojibwami, his uncles Mpitabakana, Ntabarizo and Bigaza. Bigaza was arrested in Bujumbura. He also lost Majanya. In that period, Hutus did not know what was happening, only the perpetrators knew the trick. He told the victims that they were going to sign to Kotsi and they thought that they were going to be interrogated in court but they didn’t come back. Their children were called “children of traitors”. They targeted families they found valuable belongings to be looted, or any others who had financial means. The perpetrator who arrested the father of Mvyumvuhore is Ntiterura, the municipal police, Mukogoto Barinzigo and Fumberi the administrator. After the murder, Fumberi, the administrator of the time, plundered the cows of the Mvyumvuhore family and took them to his home.

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  Mwemerabugabo, Léonidas

  Léonidas Mwemerabugabo

  At the age of 15, Léonidas witnessed his father being taken away by authorities. The father, who was a catechist teacher, was arrested and never seen again. Léonidas’s family was informed about his fate through a radio broadcast that reported all the demonstrators and those arrested had been defeated by the authorities of Burundi in 1972.

  After his father's disappearance, life was filled with hardship for the widow and nine children left behind. The children faced persecution and bullying at school from classmates who were from a different ethnic group (Tutsi) and acted on the influence of their parents' beliefs. The interviewee and his siblings eventually had to drop out of school due to the abuse and discrimination they faced, being labeled as children of traitors.

  Despite these difficulties, their mother never remarried and took on the responsibility of caring for the family alone. Before their father's arrest, the family had a comfortable life with livestock and a well-maintained household. Although, after becoming widowed, their mother struggled to support nine children without the father's income or support.

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  Ndaripfane, Perajiyo

  Perajiyo Ndaripfane

  Perajiyo recounts the tragic time in Burundi in 1972, where people were rounded up and arrested by soldiers. The interviewee was at home with her husband when soldiers arrived in trucks and took him away, explaining very little about a planned plot. There was no information available concerning the husband's grave or location, despite the interviewees attempts to learn more about his demise.

  During the roundup, Perajiyo nearly escaped being arrested while at the Kabuye market. Friends alerted her and assisted in hiding her so the soldiers, who were also pillaging her house, wouldn't find her. They discovered her step-wife had been taken into custody upon their return, but soon spotted her in a local bar.

  The only person Perajiyo lost in the disaster was her husband, who was a businessman. When he was arrested, they had two kids. After that, they experienced loneliness and a lack of help; nobody came to see them or provide support. Nevertheless, they continued, deciding to endure the suffering in silence.

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  Ndarugirire, Adèle

  Adèle Ndarugirire

  Adèle Ndarugirire narrates how the massacres in 1972 occurred, describing how people by the names of Rwabaye and Maritino captured individuals from Cendajuru. The interviewee recalls that while she was cooking, her loved one was taken into custody. The Elders known as "Nyumbakumi '' were the ones who made the arrests. When asked if she knew the names of these Elders, the interviewee lists Gosito and John, among others, but says that most of them are already deceased. Adèle explains a situation where a disagreement over alcohol at a bar led to her husband's incarceration. Three people arrived and said they needed to take him with them. Adèle’s husband had previously sold alcohol, and there had been a falling out after the seller of the booze accused the husband of not making his payments. Adera’s spouse believed that he was falsely accused of claiming that Tutsis were eradicating the Hutu people during the dispute.

  The spouse was then taken to jail by the authorities, which included a man known as Mpagaceri, a councilor leader. Family members reassured him, but he never came home.

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  Ndayisaba, Audace

  Audace Ndayisaba

  In 1972, Audace Ndayisaba was studying at the Teacher training school of Rutovu. He was in 7th grade. On April 29th, they heard rumors saying that the Mulele invaded the country. During a meeting in Rumonge, men armed with machetes started to kill the attendants. Hearing the bad news, Tutsis and Hutus started to discriminate against each other. Hutu students were taken away to be killed. Audace Ndayisaba escaped and passed through the bush. However, his father was taken away. He was killed together with neighbors. To arrest them, they were told to wear UPRONA's dress and go to a UPRONA meeting. They went and arrived at Gisagazuba and began to shout UPRONA Oyee, and they rounded up all Hutus who were in that place. They targeted Hutus whom they knew were smart or had something important to do in life. Audace Ndayisaba didn’t go back to school because he got support from his father.

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  Ndayishimiye, Jeneroza

  Jeneroza Ndayishimiye

  Generose Ndayishimiye was born under Mwambutsa ruling, a king of Burundi from 1915 to 1966. She was born at karambi village in Songa commune, Bururi Province. She lives in Mwungo subvillage, Rumeza village, Songa commune in Bururi province. In the 1972 tragedy, she had five children. She lost her husband and many others including Simoni Ntampera, Rwasa and Nderagakura. She was pregnant when they took away her husband. They told him to go to the patrol, explaining that Mulele invaded Burundi. He was taken with two other Hutu people. The following day they got information that he was already killed. All those who were being killed at that time were nicknamed “Abamenja” traitors. The perpetrators toured different homes of widows and orphans to check if there was anybody who was weeping. So Jeneroza Ndayishimiye didn’t weep, mourn or bury her husband., She didn’t even see the body. Some Tutsis neighbors came to ask Generose for money so that they could release her husband. They lied to her that he was still alive in prison. They used that money to drink beer for the celebration of the traitor's death. Jeneroza was also persecuted, she was even taken to prison, they accused her of supporting wrong doers; by chance she was not killed, she was released. Since her husband was a chef at Rumeza School, Cooking food for pupils, she went to look for the money her husband had worked for, Generose and others were sent to Bururi chief town to get it there but they met many problems, one tutsi named Ndikumana, who worked at Bururi took the cheque from her and attempted to kill her, he looted that money. Her life became very difficult to raise six children.

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  Ndihokubwayo, Espérance

  Espérance Ndihokubwayo

  Esperance Ndihokubwayo said , “I saw horrible things, people were being killed before me, being rounded up before me, being loaded into trucks and transported to the judicial court before me. I was living nearby, they killed them before me and each night I heard people howling and agonizing. I couldn't sleep, I felt so sad. we saw the cars transporting[dead bodies], there were things like pits that they prepared to dump them into, they then piled them full and then covered them with ashes.”

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  Ndihokubwayo, Espérance

  Espérance Ndihokubwayo

  Espérance Ndihokubwayo lived near the parquet of Ngozi, she saw soldiers killing people. Some of them spent the whole night wailing and screaming in pain. Her elder brother was also taken away in the same war of...72. They came and arrested people, picked them from their house. When the truck arrived at the Ngozi prison, she saw the soldiers killing them. The next day, she saw the same truck transporting dead bodies in the pits that they prepared to dump them into. "People were caught and taken away and killed because they were Hutu," she added. Then that tragedy happened to her loved one who was working as a military officer’s service. She also missed Sabimbona, her own child, Mukeshimana, Ana Mariya Ndoricimpa, Niyonsaba, her own children and her brother. Her children were taken away by natural death later but her brother and her spouse were killed in the war. There were so many people killed that she couldn’t list. They plundered the land parcel that her loved one had bought in the Manyoni business center. She lived afterwards in extreme poverty.

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  Ndikumana, Daforoza

  Daforoza Ndikumana

  Daforoza Ndikumana was born under the rule of Rwagasore, a son of a king killed in 1961. Daforoza was born in Manyoni zone, in Kato near Ruvumvu, in Songa commune, Bururi province but she was interviewed when she lived in Rumonge province. She didn’t get school education because parents who would support her in school education perished in the 1972 war, she was still very young. She was born in a very large family; she had five paternal uncles, and her father. In 1972, they called their fathers to go to patrol, they arrested them there but they released them after some days.

  When returning back home her father hid himself in the pit used to ripen bananas. They came to arrest him for the second time so they embarked him and others in the dumb truck, they packed them one over another in supine, they transported them to Bururi and they dumped them into pits. They never saw them again. During that period they killed a lot of people, among them were people who were at Rumonge to earn money; they put them in bags and dumped them into the river. Perpetrators came with spears, they told them that they went to the patrol to guard against the traitors and said that they were coming from Rumonge. While walking on the street, people saw them stuck in trucks, transported away, they never returned back until now.

  Daforoza’s family was left in desolation, they were mistreated and helpless. After killing her father, they plundered all things that would help her mother to raise them as orphans: all thirty cows they had, goats, chickens. Her siblings had started school but they couldn’t continue because life became very hard. They lived in misery even though they had a good life before her father’s death. They couldn’t say anything, their families were massacred once in 1972. They were obliged to work for minimum wage in order to survive. Tutsis gave them a little bit of money, so they grew up with difficulty and they got married.

  In their neighborhood, there was also a great depression, they couldn’t complain to one another, they were taking away their neighbors’ relatives, husbands, and boys of fifteen or twelve years old, not even a single boy was left in their province.

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  Ngabo, Léonce

  Léonce Ngabo

  During the 1972 tragedy, Léonce Ngabo was a senior student in teacher training school, Don Bosco high school located in Ngozi. On April 29^th, rumors were spread, coup d’Etat attempt perpetrated by King NtareV. After a while another rumor said the Hutus attempted to kill the Tutsi. Some of their teachers who were Hutus disappeared in the first days of May. Some were arrested from the school, others from the house they lived in. After a few days, they came to take the first Hutu students, mainly in the 2^nd degree, the two or three ending classes. But they did not know exactly what was happening. In the evening at night, they were hearing a big noise of bumps and they didn’t know what was happening. On the eighteenth of May, he was in the classroom, studying mathematics. So there came the principal of their school, he was a priest, white Salesian priest. He came into their class with a list and he started to call some names. He called nine students and among them Ngabo Léonce heard his name. He told them that they were being taken to the justice court of Ngozi to give testimonies about the first group of students arrested before. They were packed in the vehicle “peugeot” but he saw that the peugeot went, crossed the justice court and went far up to the prison of Ngozi. When they arrived at the prison of Ngozi, one voice of the policeman shouted “Hey guys, come out, everyone and hands up” When he came out he got a serious slap. They were put into the prison and the policemen as well as the guardians forced them to line up and to take off everything they had. One of them When Ngabo wanted to take off his shoes, his shirt and his watch, another voice shouted: “ Who is Léonce Ngabo?” He said, “I’m here”. “Ok, quit the line and come in”. He quit the line and they took him to a small office to be interrogated, he still saw what was happening to the eight other classmates. He saw through the window his companions naked, lying down and the policemen and the guardians were beating them with the big sticks resembled to those used in kitchen to prepare the lunch. After getting known that he belongs to a Tutsi ethnic group, they definitely released him and they told him not to say anything. He was the only one to escape the tragedy. His fellow classmates perished. Since then every 18th, me, every year, he celebrates his new life.

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  Ngaboyibwami, Jean Baptiste

  Jean Baptiste Ngaboyibwami

  Jean Baptiste attended school at Murore but had to stop attending in second grade due to the crisis, which prevented him from continuing his education. During the crisis, there were a series of violent incidents where people perceived as wealthy or educated were a target. Victims would often be deported, placed in sacks, murdered in collective ditches and local chiefs seized the property of the deceased.

  Jean Baptiste and his family had to flee to Rwanda to escape the violence, taking refuge with the Red Cross. His father, Karemera Nestor, and several neighbors, including a teacher named Badadi, were among those murdered. His family faced severe unrest and loss, with Jean Baptiste's father and other victims being forcibly taken away and never returning back home. Jean also witnessed his teacher being arrested and deported who goes by the name, Badadi, and described the fear and chaos among the children.

  After the crisis, Jean Baptiste’s elder brother fled the country and did not return until after the election of Ndadaye. Jean Baptiste and his mother eventually returned to their homeland after spending about a year and a half in refugee camps.

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  Ngendambizi, François

  François Ngendambizi

  When the tragedy broke out, François Ngendambizi was in 9th grade of secondary school at CND Gitega, a school owned by white priests. The latter protected their students but later on, the perpetrators came and took away some students and teachers. Outside the school, killings were happening in different locations. At home, it was the same tragedy, they were arresting Hutu people including his brother Jean. To arrest them, the perpetrators said: “Come to the Manyoni zone to be interrogated about what is happening in the country”. Anybody who went did not come back. After that event, the headmaster of CND school became unable to protect students and decided to send them home so that they can’t perish in his eyes. On the way home, Francois was arrested in Gitandu and got a chance to escape. When Francois arrived at home, life was not easy; he decided to flee and went to Tanzania. His elder brother who died was the one who paid his school fees, which made him drop out of his school. The Tutsi neighbors chased out François’s family and forced them to run away. Those perpetrators plundered the land. The family of François went to reside at another hill but the Tutsi still came and drank the alcoholic beer there which the father made; they drank it without paying.

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  Ngendanayo, Fidèle

  Fidèle Ngendanayo

  Fidele Ngendanayo lost his father in 1972. He was killed together with his uncle. Another uncle was arrested from Kiremba school. When the tragedy began, Fidele Ngendanayo was at home village. People began to say that the war broke out, the rebels “mulele” are killing people. The local Authority organized patrols. All men had to attend night patrols. The perpetrators came to arrest some Hutus from the patrols. One day the father of Fidele Ngendanayo went, as usual, to patrol. The perpetrators came and arrested him together with other hutus who were there. They took them to the Muzenga zone and killed them. His father died with his elder and little brothers. Meanwhile, he was a businessman, he had a big shop at Munini then when he died they came and looted everything. Nearby, the students of teacher training school of Kiremba were arrested, packed in trucks and transported to be killed. The little brother of his father, Elias Nyawakira, was one of those victims. He was about to finish secondary school at Kiremba. From that period, Hutu and Tutsi were not on good terms. Fidele was studying at Kiremba and the Tutsi from Kiremba often came to track them at Siguvyaye River until they fled from there and went to study at Muyange.