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  Nsekerbandya, Jeanine

  Jeanine Nsekerbandya

  During the 1972 Genocide of Burundi, Jeanine Nsekerbandya said perpetrators murdered her father because he was a police officer. The gruesome death of Nsekerbandya’s father traumatized her surviving mother so much that she was raised to hide whenever anyone knocked on the door or entered their home unannounced. Nsekerbandya said her mother received death threats long after her father was murdered. She was raised in constant fear of dying during a home invasion. Food was scarce, violence was prevalent, and money was nowhere to be found. Nsekerbandya said that in addition to taking all the family’s resources, perpetrators also stole her deceased father’s bicycle and would ride it around the community after his death.

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  Nshimirimana, Pascaline

  Pascaline Nshimirimana

  Pascaline Nshimirimana said she saw soldiers break through her front door demanding to know where her father and uncle were located. She watched in paralyzing fear as the soldiers took her father and uncle, forced them into a car, and drove away. Her family never saw them again. Pascaline said she and her four siblings retreated deep into the forest for safety. She explained that she and she hid in the forest for three days until their grandmother and a group of neighbors came searching for them. The children wanted to cry out for help, but Pascaline said they were too weak from hunger to speak loud enough to be heard. She said when the search group finally found them, siblings, the adults cradled the children, loaded them onto their backs, and carried them to their home. What should have been a moment of relief quickly turned to horror as Pascaline saw a military helicopter land outside her family’s home. The soldiers were looking for her other uncle, and once again, the children were forced to hide in fear. Unfortunately, the trauma did not cease after this incident. Pascaline observed perpetrators taking people from their homes, and she lived her life in constant distress as her country was under attack. Pascaline said her father and uncle worked for the local administration, and her aunt was a nurse. She believes that they were targeted because they were intellectuals. Pascaline said her grandmother struggled to support five children and worked incredibly hard to keep them fed.

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  Ntawumbabaye, Clotilde

  Clotilde Ntawumbabaye

  Ntawumbabaye said that in 1972, at age 14, she was in her family home in Gishora when she looked out her window and saw a machine digging up the surrounding land in her community. Horror consumed her as she watched a large truck unload dead body after dead body into the hole. The digging created a mass grave that would be utilized as a crude vessel for human remains. Day after day, the same machine would come to dig the land. Ntawumbabaye would watch truck after truck come to dump bodies into the grave. She later found out that her cousin was taken away, murdered, and tossed into one of the mass graves. She watched the perpetrators dig. Her uncle could not do anything about losing his child. Mourning was forbidden and punishable by death. Rather than seek justice and peace, Ntawumbabaye and her family were forced to walk past the mass graves every day as if they were not there.

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  Ntiranyibagira, Zerida

  Zerida Ntiranyibagira

  Nitranyibagira watched in fear from her elementary school window as Hutu pastors were loaded onto a truck by militia. Nitranyibagira said they suspected everyone that everyone loaded on to the truck was going to be killed and their bodies would dumped in Ruvubu. When Nitranyiba was traveling to Bururi, soldiers loaded her and her classmates onto a truck. Terrified, they were taken to Matna and they took refuge in an abandoned house in ruins. Every day, they lived in fear, praying they would not be the next to die. Nitranyibagira explained that the soldiers decided who’s lives would be spared if they found their victims’ faces attractive or not.

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  Nyabenda, Deogratias

  Deogratias Nyabenda

  Nyabenda said soldiers disguised in the same camouflage as the rebels weaved their way through tall grass, armed with machetes, and started to kill any male in sight. Nyabenda explained that the soldiers told everyone to gather at 4 pm because the Hutu and Tutsis had established a peace treaty. As all the male citizens arrived for the meeting, they began to get slaughtered one by one. By the time the rebels realized they were being ambushed, many of them were already dead. Soldiers continued to flood Vuzigo, and Nyabenda said it didn’t matter if the victims were Hutu or Tutsi- anyone present was at risk of being killed. Among those who perished were Nyabenda’s father and three uncles. After his father died, Nyabenda shared that his mother became too traumatized to care for him. He became an orphan and made his way to Rwanda. Now, more than five decades later, Nyabenda said he hopes the next generation of Burundians learn their country’s history to prevent mass atrocities from happening in the future.

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  Nyzimana, Asteria

  Asteria Nyzimana

  Asteria’s father and grandfather worked as medical assistants at a hospital in Muyinga. Her father was passionate about helping nurses care for others in their community. One day, Asteria’s grandfather came home with horrific, life-altering news.

  At the delicate age of five, Asteria listened in terror as her grandfather explained that the perpetrators tied up her father with rope, loaded him onto a truck, and took him away. Later, she learned that her father was tied up with rope, taken by force, tortured for days, and then his body was tossed in a hole. Unfortunately, her father’s death became the catalyst for even more suffering. Their home was looted, they were forced off their land, and the family lived in horrible living conditions while her mother tried to support six children. Asteria said she and her siblings were becoming thinner and thinner. Eventually, she lost her younger brother due to sickness and starvation. Asteria said they were able to bury her baby brother with dignity- which is not something they have even been able to do for her father.

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  Sindabizera, François Xavier

  François Xavier Sindabizera

  Sindabizera comes from a village named Murore. He had three siblings and two parents who passed away in 1970. His only brother was a teacher at his school and was captured during 72, due to the accusation of engaging in political affairs. He was arrested for 6 months. Older students would mock Sindabizera about his brother being captured and claimed he was taken to Vumbi to be tortured. This caused him and his family to lose hope that their brother was still alive. Sindabizera's neighborhood consisted of Rwandan Tutsi families, where a rumor spread that claimed they were the ones who were the capturers of Sindabizera’s brother. Some of his neighbors were chiefs, who worked at the municipality, who were said to be responsible for taking his brother.

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  Yohani, Ndirikunze

  Ndirikunze Yohani

  Ndirikunze Yohani describes the events of 1972, remembering how tensions escalated as Hutus gained education and started to hold positions in civil service and the military. This progress alarmed the Tutsi administration, leading to targeted roundups beginning with military personnel, then students and teachers. Even Hutu policemen were arrested. The process of the killings involved administrators summoning people and then handing them over to the military. Those who were sympathetic to the Hutus would give them a warning in advance, allowing some to escape. Many fled to neighboring countries like Uganda to escape the risks of being killed for their ethnic background. Those detained were loaded into trucks and transported to their deaths The interviewee's brother, Segasago Piyo, a teacher, was among those arrested from Kabanga and later killed, despite initial release from custody. Yohani was not living with his brother but learned about his death when their mother attempted to deliver food to him in detention. The tragedy's repercussions brought to a lot of personal developments. One brother dropped out of school out of fear, affecting the interviewee's remaining family members.

  When Bagaza came to power, there was a change for the better, leading to discriminatory practices coming to an end and educational reforms were put in place.