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  Nimpagaritse, Immaculée Marie Makurata

  Immaculée Marie Makurata Nimpagaritse

  Marie Immaculée Nimpagaritse, survivor of 1972 killings, describes the tragedy she went through at that time. She first lost her father, Pierre Ngendabanka and after she was arrested, jailed and got a chance to escape. She finally fled to Congo and moved to Rwanda. Her father was transported away in a military truck from his work at Nyabiraba, together with Nyabiraba priest Thomas Samandari. And after, they took away her Uncle named Stephano Bahuwukomeye, the Director Lucien Ndabemeye and another teacher named Salvator Ruvumbagu, and another one Joseph.

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  Nimpaye, Ronjino

  Ronjino Nimpaye

  When the crisis began, Longin was at Songa. At the beginning they said that they were the strange people from Rumonge. Very short with big noses with marks on their bodies walking with machetes. They were called May Mulele. The authorities told people to go to fight against them. After that, they were together, Hutus and Tutsi, in a good relationship. On April 29th their father Hutu and Tutsi all neighbors said let’s go fight against those Mai mulele. They began to do the patrols. On the following day they said let’s check people who have marks on their bodies. Then the Tutsi began taking away Hutus. Those who were arrested were taken to the zone where they were tied up, beaten, imprisoned, and later killed. The dead bodies were then dumped in pits dug near the zone office. The mass graves were recently exhumed, the family members of Longin showed them the location of those mass graves. To arrest them, the perpetrators told the victims to go to the chief of the zone to be interrogated and come back but they did not come back. Their Families waited for them to come back in vain, they had disappeared.

  They killed the father of Ronjino after they called him to the zone. When he arrived at the zone, the zone chief, Barinzigo Yohani, hit him in the neck with a machete, they beat him, stripped him of his clothes and put him in jail. Later, they saw his clothes worn by a police officer named Makobero Patrice. Ronjino does not know where they buried his father because a truck came from Matana commune packed the dead bodies and transported them away. They do not know where they dumped them.

  The next day they came home to loot the victims' belongings, namely pots and pans, rice, beans, clothes that he had not taken to the market because that was what he was selling. A neighbor named Gasiyano came with other soldiers to loot the house. In the evening after they were robbed, they told them that they were going to burn their house and because they were Mai mulele, that day they spent the night in the forest. They also took away the machine they had at home and what his father sold in the Manyoni business center, at the market. In 1993 there was also a civil war and some people who had killed his father came back to loot again what they had in the house. Even the machine Ronjino bought later was taken away again. They also killed his brother who was at Bujumbura; he was killed together with another person called Ntitanguranwa Marcel. They killed them from Pagdas[a tourist place in Bujumbura downtown] because Ntitanguranwa was studied in Russia. They also lost many of their Hutu neighbors; they were killed in the same tragedy. And those they lost did not bury or organize a mourning period.

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  Nimubona, Phocus

  Phocus Nimubona

  Phocus Nimubona said he was able to survive the 1972 Genocide of Burundi by dressing up as a female child to escape being executed alongside the other male members of the community. Nimubona said he fled to Tanzania and lived there from 1972 to 1985. Nimubona said because he and his family fled during the violent attacks, their neighbor took his family’s property. However, Nimubona explained that even though his neighbor was Tutsi and he and his family were Hutu it made no difference. He said because he and his family lived in harmony with the Tutsi’s before the 1972 Genocide, they received part of their land back upon their return. While Nimubona expressed relief that he and other family members and friends were able to survive the 1972 attacks, he did go on to lose many loved ones during the next violent eruption of 1993.

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  Nindamutsa, Gertrude

  Gertrude Nindamutsa

  Gertrude narrates her experiences during the tragic events of 1972 and life afterwards in Burundi. At the age of 18, Gertrude got married and soon after had a child. On the same day as her child's birth, turmoil erupted in the community, leading to extensive fear and people fleeing their homes. Despite the mayhem, the speaker's husband returned shortly before being taken away and never seen again. This marked the beginning of profound distress for the interviewee, who was left alone with a newborn during their postpartum recovery.

  Later on, Gertrude remarried but shockingly lost her second husband in 1973 during the continuing unrest. The interviewee became a widow twice due to the violence that swept through her region. Throughout these hardships, Gertrude depended on the support of her in-laws to help raise her children. In her testimony she also touches upon the origins of the tragedy, accredited to tensions among Hutu residents in the Imbo region who were allegedly planning to buy an airplane. This plan did not succeed, leading to violence that targeted both Tutsis and Hutus indiscriminately, with countless massacres reported.

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  Nindorera, Aruberi

  Aruberi Nindorera

  Aruberi began elementary school in the early 1980s and completed his national exams around 1989-1990. He attended primary school in Nyagatovu, moved to Marangara in Ngozi province, and then went to secondary school at Collège Buye in Burengo. He pursued a career in teaching and worked for the government, initially as a teacher, then in municipal roles, and returned to teaching. He currently teaches in Vumbi.

  The interviewee was very young during the 1972 massacres, but he shared insights based on his mothers witness to the tragedies. His father, who was Tutsi but had a Hutu mother, was targeted due to his perceived association with Hutus and his size, which was uncommon for Tutsis.

  His father, working in Kirundo, was accused of helping "traitors" and was killed. The family lived in a refugee camp, then moved to Nyagatovu.

  The interviewee recounted that during the 1972 killings, Tutsis, including some who were mistakenly identified as Hutus or suspected of supporting "traitors," were also targeted.

  Specific individuals who faced these tragedies, included his father and other Tutsis who were killed or disappeared under similar circumstances. Nindorera described his father's killer as Ndabaneze Laurent, who was a lieutenant in Kirundo, and reportedly involved in the violence and later killed in Vumbi.

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  Niyiragira, Venant

  Venant Niyiragira

  Venant Niyiragira was a fifth grader when the 1972 Genocide of Burundi began. He vividly remembers returning home from school and hearing that his father had been killed. Niyiragira said a close friend of the family witnessed a truck filled with soldiers force his father into the vehicle. The same friend told Niyiragira it might be safer for him to wear a dress as males were prevalently targeted by the militia. Niyiragira said at this time, soldiers were using hammers to smash their victim’s skulls in half before dumping their bodies, dead or alive, into mass graves. He and his siblings fled to the Congo to escape the violence. They slept outside for days until the Congolese took pity on them and welcomed them into a refugee camp. Niyiragira said he could never return to school again because he had too much hate in his heart.

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  Niyongabo, Elois

  Elois Niyongabo

  Niyongabo said he was forced to drop out of the fifth grade because that is when the 1972 Genocide of Burundi commenced. He recalled teachers telling him and his fellow classmates that they were taking a day off school and class would resume next week. In reality, Niyongabo said the school was canceled so the community could attend a meeting to prepare for the genocide against the Hutu. A chief commander that the community could not identify as Hutu secretly attended the meeting and warned the locals that there would be killings. Niyongabo lost his father and other relatives during the genocide. He said that his Tutsi neighbors took over their home and were never able to utter a word to the people who stole his father’s life and his family’s home.

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  Niyongabo, Protais

  Protais Niyongabo

  Niyongabo went to church on Sunday, April 29th, 1972 just as he did every Sunday with his family. As he and his family of 9 exited Sunday service, they could hear helicopters in the next commune. Niyongabo explained that people in his community were not accustomed to hearing helicopters so close to their homes and everyone became very intrigued as to what was happening. Niyongabo went home only to hear screams from the parishioners exiting the second mass session. Then, the following day, a group of people ran toward him and his father, screaming at them to run for their lives. They looked up to see that the ruling party’s house in their community was on fire. Niyongabo said the violence and house burning continued to engulf his community.

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  Niyonzima, Therence

  Therence Niyonzima

  Therence Niyonzima witnessed his father die after he took a spear to his side.

  After he watched his father die in agony, he said he carries his father’s wound and death with him in his heart every single day. He has never recovered from this heartbreak nor has he ever been able to recover his land or livestock taken by the militia. Niyonzima also lost his uncle in the genocide but explained that mourning their deaths would be strictly forbidden and punishable by death. Niyonzima was forced to live with the person who stabbed and murdered his father right in front of him. He had to pretend it did not happen to survive. Now, Niyonzima encourages Burundian youth to learn the truth about the painful past and to not be arrogant or vengeful.

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  Niyungeko, Paul

  Paul Niyungeko

  Paul Niyungeko was born in 1964, in Kinama district in Buyengero commune; it is at the border area between Buyengero commune and Songa commune which is commonly called Songa Manyoni. He started primary school at Mudende, in the 1972 tragedy, he moved to study at Rumonge, after that year he returned back to Mudende school where he studied until the sixth grade. He was oriented to the school he really longed for, Teacher training School of Rutovu, called “Ecole Normale de Rutovu” where he studied from seventh to 14th grade with a D7 diploma.

  In... 72 many students dropped out of schools including Paul’s siblings, some parents said, "These atrocities have taken so many people; if we send all our children to school we might lose all of them as we have lost other friends and relatives." What Paul remembers is that in 1972 what brought fear and panic was a rumor saying that there were people who were burning the party’s permanences, the Uprona party, and then some permanences which were near their locality were burned.

  The other thing he remembers is that it was reported that there was an administrator called Bourgmestre Kimaka who was killed in Rumonge near the market; then it was said that there were people who invaded named “Mayi Mulele”. They said that the invaders came with machetes, that even the guns could not shoot them while they were saying, “Amazi masa Mayi Mulele” As it was said, “These kinds of people were the ones who invaded”, but what they realized, they did not see anyone who was called Mayi Mulele. They heard it as a rumor, but what Paul witnessed, there were people who were arrested, bound and he heard that others were taken to the location called Gitandu. There were also reports that some of them were taken to Manyoni in the current commune of Songa, those who arrested them did not take them back, and no one returned. There were their neighbors who were arrested.

  He remembers a story that hurts him all the time, there was his neighbor, Mujegetera, who was arrested and they put him in something called a barn (A barn was a loft weaved in the palm branches and then, which is as long as one can sleep in as he sleeps on a boat or in a dock), they tied his hands and feet, the man had a mustache and then they brought a fire starter and burned his beard and then they took him away. When the situation was worse they escaped and fled into the bush, sometimes they hid themselves especially in the fields of beans and cassava. He remembers how they could see a plane hovering over them, when their parents saw it over them, they could see that they were crying out for help with great fear, they raised three fingers, Three of Uprona.

  During that period there were many victims: students who were in boarding schools, the parents were worried that theirs would not come and that there are many who have been massacred at school, they did not come back and did not return anymore. Among those pupils were Pontien, Pierre, and others. Students at different schools in the country were killed, others were said to be kidnapped by soldiers, and others arrested on the way home.

  Paul’s father, who was a catechist once went on God’s mission, when he returned, a gunman stopped him, when he was preparing to shoot him, others who were with the shooter knew him as a perfect person, so they exclaimed to forbid him to kill, but he risked being killed. At the school where he studied, Mudende elementary school; almost all the teachers except one teacher who taught them in the second grade, all of them were killed. They realized that in... 72, a number of government employees, almost all of them; salespersons and traders, were killed by perpetrators. A number of the remnants of the carriages of the wealthy merchants, were widespread in the markets, especially in a marketplace called Manyoni. It was horrible and there were some barriers called vigils, to keep vigil, that is, adults, the heads of families were forced to go to barriers saying, “They are going to keep vigils”. At that time, some people went but they did not come back. They did not come back. When Paul’s father went to Burambi, he spent a month and half, but he returned by the time his family got worried. When he arrived, he told them that many people who went there were killed.

  Another sad story is that the JRR, the youth affiliated to the ruling party, Uprona; the JRRs were the ones who were in charge of arresting people, they were in charge of tying them[victims] and also taking them to the zones and to the communes, those who were taken away did not return. President Micombero was advised by Bishop Bernard Bududira to declare a truce by saying that peace had been restored; but even in 1973, the war had not yet ended.

  Paul gave abundant and important advice: when it comes to ethnic issues in Burundi country, the first solution is one-on-one talks between parents and their kids, parents whether they are Hutus or Tutsis, one would advise them, especially to teach love to their children, to teach unity, to teach mutual assistance until they realize that ethnic relations are lesser than economic ties. If these one-on-one sessions fail at home, it won’t be efficient when they become adults.

  Secondly for young people, all the authorities who are in leadership to stay in power or to come into power, they often achieve that goal by using manipulation of ethnic identity. A person who knows nothing about ethnic groups and doesn’t have any benefit may be manipulated in such a way to the detriment of another person, a young person who is completely innocent.

  He added that people need to be taught how to distinguish between grass and yeast. The teacher of racial hatred had better first come to his senses and know that his hatred is vain.

  And then for adults as well as people who are involved in these crimes or who manipulated others, he advised them to first apologize to the victims. They have to feel guilty, reach out to their victims and apologize because anyone who dares to exterminate his neighbor's household, his Burundian relatives arguing that they do not share the same ethnic groups, and especially as ... in 72, tutsis massacred the Hutus. Those things are very bad, the perpetrators have to regret and apologize.

  He advises the administration authorities and the justice officials to stand up and closely monitor the perpetrators of the genocide and then uphold the rule of law.

  International communities are requested to give their support; those who are in power had better be in contact with the international communities and especially for missing families, there are widows, there are orphans, there are people who are really depressed whose hearts were broken, who have lost their belongings, there are also those who were traumatized. All of them need rehabilitation. They should make a special effort to compensate these families. To conclude, he reminds all Burundians that Burundi is their motherland even if a given ethnic group dies off the remaining group records a loss because they are interdependent. God's vengeance is the best and the rule of law can take revenge against them, not in the sense of doing evil but in the sense of suppressing misconduct. He advises anyone who could listen to him, “Never again” “Never again”

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  Nkunzumwami, Pimako

  Pimako Nkunzumwami

  Pimako explains how during the genocide in Burndi, violence seemed to have been orchestrated against Hutu intellectuals and wealthy individuals, including the interviewee's father. His father was arrested in 1971 and imprisoned under accusations related to political betrayal and theft. This arrest was linked to a larger campaign of violence against the Hutu people. The father was later taken away by a car, presumably for execution, which left the interviewee and his family in a state of uncertainty and fear.

  In 1973, fearing for his life, Pimako fled to Tanzania. After receiving reassurances that the situation had improved, he returned home. However, he found that the violence and loss had not ceased. He goes into detail in regards to the confiscation of his family's property, including land and livestock, by those in power who accused them of being "children of betrayers." This theft was part of the broader violence against Hutu individuals and their families. The interviewee speaks about the hardships of surviving the violence and the continued struggles to reclaim lost property and seek justice. Despite these challenges, he expresses gratitude for still being alive and the resilience to continue speaking about these experiences.

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  Nkurunziza, Yvette

  Yvette Nkurunziza

  Nkurunziza was an infant when her father was murdered during the 1972 Genocide of Burundi. Her father was a customs officer and a respected community member. Military officials arrested her father on his way to work, and he was never seen alive again. After his death, Nkurunziza explained her family’s living conditions worsened, and her mother sent them to live with their grandmother. Nkurunziza explained that because Tutsis killed her father, she was raised to hate Tutsis because all Tutsis were terrible people. However, Nkurunziza is proud to share that her daughter-in-law and grandchild are part of Tutsi, and there is no room for hate in their hearts. Now, she hopes the youth study the past so that this mass atrocity never happens again.

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  Nsekerabandya, Cécile

  Cécile Nsekerabandya

  Nsekerabandya Cecile was born in Buhonga about 1950. She did not get school education, she was married and they gave birth to eight children. In 1972, when the tragedy happened, she lived in Bwiza and she had given birth to the first child. At that time they started to hear armored military cars shooting and shooting; they asked what it was and they told them that the tragedy happened. They heard that they began to arrest intellectual people from their houses, they didn’t know where they took them to. Perpetrators were wearing military uniforms. They arrested people, took them away, killed them and threw them into pits.

  Her brother who had studied until the sixth grade was killed during that tragedy, they killed him in Carama near where he lived. Cecile and her family fled, like other people during that tragedy, they fled to where they were put in tents. Her husband was Jean Berchmans Bibonimana. He died because of illness some days after the tragedy.

  Cecile says that if they had known people who killed her brother, they would have forgiven them because what happened happened and there was no other alternative.

  Another thing Cecile proposes is that in Burundi, there should be a monument built for people killed in 1972. She also says that they tell the Burundian youth what happened, but even though they tell them those things, they should not be jealous because of that. Jealousy should be abolished and stopped in people’s hearts.

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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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  Nsengiyumva, Sylvestre

  Sylvestre Nsengiyumva

  Sylvestre lost his father, Mark Ndayizeye, in the 1972 tragedy. His grandfather also perished in that tragedy. He also lost his uncle father Martin Gakwavu and his little uncle Dominic Nkanage, they also killed other salesmen. People who were arrested in Kirundo province were killed in Vumbi. Ndabaneze is the one who carried the father’s Sylvestre in the jeep, after killing his father in …72. Ndabaneze and his driver took the car of his father, he died in Vumbi, his father died having three cars. After he died they robbed them of their possessions like cows and all the cars, a deposit of sorghum and beans, money. In …73 they said that mulele had cracked down and told people to go to cut grasses in Yanza after they killed the hutus who were in Yanza. Sylvestre Nsengiyumva was in 6th grade and his schoolmates began to persecute him accusing him of being a kid of a Traitor [Umumenja in Kirundi]. When they sat for the national exam, Sylvestre and his other Hutus classmates were not given a certificate allowing them to go to 7th grade. Their certificates were instead given to the Tutsi who didn’t pass the test. Sylvestre was traumatized when he went to school and dropped out of school, including his little brother and sister. In …65 the father of Sylvestre was imprisoned due to politics, the teacher named Migeregero also was imprisoned.

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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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  Nyabenda, Yozefina

  Yozefina Nyabenda

  This interview unfolds a personal experience of the tragic times in Burundi in 1972, during a period of intense ethnic violence. Yozefina describes seeing the abduction and likely execution of many people in her community. She recounts how innocent people were forcibly taken away, often at night, and never returned home. Yozefina and others were told to hide in forests to avoid being captured, and she describes a true sense of fear and helplessness in 1972.

  The interviewee describes the violence as seeming to be selective, targeting those who were considered to have wealth or status in the community. Yozefina’s husband was among those captured, and despite her attempts to seek more information, the whereabouts and fate of those taken were left unknown. The brutality expanded to looting and burning of homes, and those who had belongings or were perceived as wealthy were the main target.

  She also emphasizes the atmosphere of terror and the inability to seek help or answers due to the fear of further violence. Yozefina describes the trauma of losing loved ones without any clear knowledge of their fate.

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  Nyandwi, Nasitaziya

  Nasitaziya Nyandwi

  Nasitaziya Nyandwi alias Sindiwenumwe was born during the regime of prince Basagwe at Buyengero and prince Ndarishikije who lived in Taba in Bururi province. She was born in Horezo village, Songa commune, in Bururi province. She recounts how they witnessed people taking their husbands to go to patrol and thereafter, they didn’t return back, they got information that they were killed.

  People missed their relatives but they didn’t mourn, they didn’t bury them. Anastasie missed her husband in the 1972 tragedy, the tragedy started when she was in Runyinya in Musenyi, her husband left her with three children, she described how they lived harmoniously with her husband, and how she suffered after her husband’s death. Matabura and Ntibaneneje were together with tutsis who took away her husband. Tutsi people rounded up hutus, took them away and killed them. There were also some hutus who were associated with tutsis to kill other hutus, and together with tutsis they celebrated parties, danced because of Hutus’ death. They sang saying that they had put away their enemies from their necks, among those hutus, there were her father-in-law, and segikwega.

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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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  Nzobonariba, Philippe

  Philippe Nzobonariba

  Philippe Nzobonariba was born in Muramvya province, Mbuye commune, in Gasura village in 1955. During the tragedy of 1972, he was a student at the Jesuits high school which is called Holy Spirit or Lycée du Saint Esprit of Bujumbura. He was 17 years old and he was in tenth grade. At that school, many of them were foreigners, and their headmaster was called Father Seigneur, he was very important because when tragedy started, he decided to close the school. He forbid them to go out, no one could not enter into school and even those who were studying without living in campus at school, they tried to keep them in internal boarding school, in that way no military were able to take students away, except in beginning days when four students and one Burundian teacher were taken away to be killed. Afterwards it didn't continue, but the teachers who were just doing internships, who were from the University of Burundi, were taken and killed. The father Seigneur who was the headmaster responded quickly and just stopped killings; the situation became very hard when they went on the holiday. Some regions had been touched more than others for example Rumonge, Bururi, Makamba. When students went on holiday their parents were killed, others had fled to other countries; so instead of going to holidays, they went to Republic Democratic of Congo but some who managed to come back, they finished the year and they continued studying.

  In Philippe’s family, a direct cousin was killed and in the region, there were those who were killed especially teachers, they killed about seven, because they were looking for people who were educated and those who were becoming a bit rich especially traders, so they killed seven teachers and eight peasants.

  After they heard that Philippe’s cousin was killed, in his family, they were afraid. They thought Philippe was also killed and the killings happened in the months of May, June. In July when the students went on holiday, they just saw him and they were very surprised. When the other year started, they tried to prevent him from going back to school in September but finally they let him. When they went back to school those who went out of the school were killed by the military.

  Philippe could not forget what happened in 1965, he was ten years old, he saw some of his teachers being taken away. He was in fourth grade and they said that there had been killings in area called Busangana in Bukeye commune, they saw people arresting other people took them away to kill them. Four of their teachers were taken and killed and there was also another elected member of the parliament who was killed: Benyuje Emile and others: The directors of school, the headmasters of the schools, those who were in the parish. It is in that period that his father in law was taken to Muramvya and killed; he was the judge in the court of Mwaro, his name is Gihwinyirira Raphael. His teachers killed were Nsezere Etienne, Zambiriti, Sabwigi, he was the headmaster of the school, and two others, all they killed in their area were six. The house of the member of the parliament Benyuje was also plundered; it was near Kiriri, and even now their children are following the case in the court.

  According to Philippe, in Burundi, a memorial should be built to remember people killed in those tragedies, and that in each province, this is how it is done even in other areas too. He wishes the best for Burundi where someone either the rich or the poor live peacefully and work without being accused or died because of his ethnic group.

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  Renovat, Ngendakuriyo

  Ngendakuriyo Renovat

  Ngendakuriyo Renovat was born in 1958, in Taba village, Rukoma sub village, Songa commune and Bururi province. He studied at Rumeza from the first grade of elementary school until the sixth. In the sixth grade they sat for a national test called “Concours National”. One year he failed and repeated the class, at the end of April, ...72, the war broke out. It became hard for him, he didn’t continue studies. He tried to go back to school but he didn’t find anyone whom they shared the same ethnic group with, they terrorized him, he felt sad and dropped out of school.

  When the tragedy broke out, Renovat went together with his age mate to greet his sister who had given birth and to see her new born child, then people stopped them on the road and told them, “Don’t go, there are murderous people who attacked”. It was on April 29th, 1972, they said that war broke out in Rumonge, and they said that the invaders were called Mulele. So they didn't know it that day.

  On the following day, Monday morning, they saw many people fleeing from Rumonge, saying that what was happening in Rumonge was horrible. Since that time they began arresting people and killing them. They tied their hands behind their backs and told them; “Go to justify what you did” they accused them of political issues. They went, but they did not return back. Among the people who arrested the victims were Mayogoro Joseph, Ntanguvu Bernard and another one called Ntahiraja Nestor. Rucintango Gérard arrested people on the other side of Ndago village. He herded them and passed through where Renovat and others were grazing the cows. He said to them, "Look, my children, come and see the Mulele people they have recently talked about." They saw him beating them, Renovat and his peers managed to go to beat them as he did, because they called them traitors. They were children, they found out later, only after they killed his father and came back to take away their relatives. They took away their neighbors and took away people they knew. That was the time they found out that those people were not the mulele. They realized that Hutus were targeted.

  His father Sababu Oscar, was a merchant, he merchandised items. He collected firewood from their locality and transported them to Bujumbura. He worked together with his uncle called Rwasa Bonaventure. He also had a store in Manyoni in Songa commune.

  In their neighboring, many persons were arrested and killed: his father Sababu Oscar; Rwasa’s uncle, Rwasa Bonaventure; Rwasa’s son who was going to get married, Nimbona Onephore; Renovat’s uncle Ntigahera Leopold; Renovat’s two cousins, Misigaro Mathias and Njenguye Patrice; Mbanyi Marc; Kirashiku; Bagora and others.

  His father went down to Bujumbura and he was together with his uncle, who had a marriage ceremony for his son. He went to buy marriage ceremony items and when they got there the tragedy broke out. They didn't come back. Theirs waited for them in vain, for a month, two, three months, and then they realized that they were killed. When they arrested them, they accused them of being in complicity with the invaders, of knowing it in advance, and having supported them. Everyone who wore a watch, at that time no cell phone existed, everyone who wore a watch or had a radio at home did not survive at that time. They selected especially those whom they saw as having things.

  The tragedy of...72 shocked them. Renovat and his mother were left alone in the house, they stayed there and were scared, they became poor, they considered those people who took them away as monsters. They thought that they would also come to take them away. They got peace later after a long time. Heartbroken, they were afraid of those people because they were their neighbors.

  Perpetrators also looted all their things after taking away their relatives. After all, the people who belonged to the Hutu ethnic group were not yet Hutus, they were called "traitors", so they had no right to complain about their things. In the neighborhood, they lived in desolation. In Renovat’s family they looted the cows, parcels which were at Rumonge, stores and so on.

  Renovat’s wish is that they would give up ethnics divisions, they would change the name of Hutu and Tutsi, and only call them Burundians.

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  Sikariyo, Ahikura

  Ahikura Sikariyo

  Ahikura Sikariyo was born in 1958 in Cendajuru village, Vumbi commune in Kirundo province. He dropped out of school in 1972 when the tragedy came out; he was in fifth grade. At that time tutsis rounded up any hutu who was intelligent, school educated or wise; they didn’t take simple person or stupid they took important person. During the tragedy, he lost three relatives: his uncle Ntavyo Martin who raised them after their father’s death, his brother Longin Nahimana who taught at Muyange in Gashoho, he was killed when he had not got even his first salary; her sister Merida Singirankabo who was studying at Muramvya. There are also neighbors killed like Oscar’s father, Rwabaye who was closest friend of Ntavyo; and others.

  He told us about some of the people who were involved in that massacre, like Mpagaceri. He was counselor and local leader, after killing his uncle Martin Ntavyo and looting his possessions, he came back to propose marriage to that widow, so he returned back some of things they had looted like cows and other tools but not all; that marriage got a week's duration. His sister Merida Singirankabo who was at school when the tragedy started didn’t return back. She disappeared there, they didn’t know how she was killed. Gahima was the administrator who was involved in that killing. He drove the car and with a policeman, Miburo, they embarked Hutus in his car and took them away.

  To take away those Hutus, they used false accusations that they had got money to exterminate tutsis, they also said that they wanted to fight against Mulele, people who were said to have invaded Burundi country, after that they changed and began to call Hutus Mulele, so they killed them continuously. The interviewee said how they survived in very bad conditions, they were desperate, orphans, they dropped out of schools, whereas they had a good life before that tragedy. He said that only Hutus were targeted and that he never saw any Tutsi taken away.