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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.

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  Nibigira, Bernard

  Bernard Nibigira

  Bernard Nibigira, also known as Ntibankange, was a nickname that was given to him at his administration sector job for protection. He attended school until the 6th grade and dropped out, due to the lack of school fees and the political state of the country.

  Government workers, including teachers, were forcefully taken by soldiers in Toyota vehicles. Perpetrators initially targeted teachers and later expanded to other civilians. The interviewee's own family was affected, with several members, including teachers and a soldier, being taken away. Bernard’s brother, Tharcisse Mugabonutwiwe, was among those arrested and taken to a place called Mukenke. The family was not allowed to visit him, and eventually he never returned. Other family members, such as a teacher named André Baranyizigiye and a cousin named Badadi, were also killed. The interviewee's brother, who was a mason, was among those who did not survive as well.

  Family members who survived were labeled as traitors and treated unfairly by others in the community. The interviewee was even publicly humiliated by local authorities, where they made him undress in a communal office due to assuming the soccer jersey he had on was some sort of government uniform.

  He describes how those arrested were killed at night, either by stabbing or hitting with hammers. The bodies were buried in mass graves, with pits being dug by machinery in places like Karama and Vumbi.The perpetrators consisted of local authorities and soldiers who would round up people based on lists and transport them to communes where they were taken to be executed. The interviewee describes how the arrested individuals were transported and the bodies were disposed of.

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  Nibona, André

  André Nibona

  Oral history of André Nibona.

  In April of 1972, Andre Nibona was taken away to be killed but he said an administrator of the commune saved him and 70 other civilians. While their lives were spared, Nibona said they were forced to become servants for a Tutsi family and spent their days living in fear. Nibona explained that the survivors burned photos of all those killed to avoid “Gucusasa” – a Kirudni word for great sorrow.

  Nibona is still trying to get his land back. The people who stole it are now dead, but their children have his land now.

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  Nijenahagera, Sylvestre

  Sylvestre Nijenahegeira

  Oral history of Sylvestre Nijenahagera. After only four months of marriage, Sylvestre Nijenahagera said the 1972 Genocide of Burundi erupted and killings began to creep into his country. He evacuated Burundi in hopes of finding safety in Tanzania. He was sent back to Burundi because he said his name was written on a list of those who should be killed. He said due to a clerical error, he was marked as dead and this mistake saved his life. Nijenahagera escaped a brutal death by hiding on the roof of a church. He said without the help of the church, and a clerical error, he would not be alive today to share his story of survival.

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  Nijimbere, Judith

  Judith Nijimbere

  Judith Nijimbere was born in 1958 in Bururi commune and province. In Burarana village, it borders Muzima. Before the 1972 tragedy, her family was really doing well. They were surprised when that tragedy began, because they were living peacefully.

  In 1972, Judith had finished the seventh grade; she dropped out and she stayed home. She got married after three years, she didn't get a job in the government.

  When tragedy broke out, they fled from school, she was studying at Lycée of Bururi. So many lives were lost ; in her family, there were about three important relatives killed. Among them were two uncles who were arrested from a vigil place, they took them away, they were twelve men who were dumped in the pit of Muzenga. Those uncles who were taken away were the ones who provided means of living to Judith and her siblings, they did different kinds of business. After the 1972 tragedy Judith didn't return to school; she dropped out of school.

  There was a vigil place near their home, they rounded all twelve men. They found the pit at Muzenga full of dead bodies. One man informed them about it, he escaped from that pit because it was full and he stayed in hiding for three days on the river; he died very late.

  Those who killed them were even mentioned. There was a man from the gendarme who came from far away in Vyanda commune, then he went there after being called by others [native of village] to arrest them and to bring them there. After killing people, they plundered cows and other things. Among perpetrators, there was Makakaza, he was a soldier and he came from Vyanda.

  At school, they didn't know exactly what it was. If a Hutu passed a national test in school, they could find some contradictions; they then took the grades of the Hutu and attributed it to a Tutsi; so he passed the test though you would see he was not intelligent.

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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, Jereturuda

  Jereturuda Nindamutsa

  Jereturuda was 18 years old when she got married. After a year, she gave birth on Saturday April 29th, 1972 the same day the tragedy began. On that day people began to spread rumors that they heard muleles at Ndago hill and they began to run away. Jereturuda stayed in the house with a newborn baby in postpartum recovery. The next Thursday the perpetrators came home to arrest her husband. It was the last time to see her husband, she didn’t mourn. Her parents in law comforted her and took care of her child. She raised her child for four years after she went to marry again. But she lost her second husband again in the tragedy. Unknown perpetrators took away her second husband because even after …72 they kept on rounding up Hutus one by one. In …72, they also killed her brother-in-law called Sylvere. To arrest him, they told him to go to the Manyoni zone to be interrogated. He went and did not come back. In that time, Hutus stayed together but they had a bad relationship with Tutsis. He lived a bad life and later on, she remarried a third time, she had other children. She was still sad at the time of the interview.

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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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  Niyuhire, Béatrice

  Béatrice Niyuhire

  In 1972 when the crisis began Beatrice lived at Isabu in Gisozi. At school, they started to see the Tutsi children standing in groups but they didn’t understand. They heard them saying the mulele rebels were at Rumonge after they said that Mulele arrived at Mugamba. They saw at school that the children of Tutsis began to scold them. Then there occurred a time when they said that the patrols had to take place to block the mulele so as not to reach the countryside. Tutsis who lived in Isabu were telephoned and asked if they had not begun, they were asking them if they hadn’t begun to kill hutus. Beatrice’s father told them that they would be killed any time, there was one person from Bujumbura who told them that if they had somewhere to flee to, they should flee because not Mulele were not targeted but hutus. On Sunday they began to take away people, they went to knock on the door of the home when they opened, they embarked them into the truck, they arrested men. So they took Beatrice’s father, they imprisoned him, when his family members went to see him after two weeks, they were told that he went to Muramvya to lie there, then they never saw him, he was killed. Beatrice also missed her brother in law. At that time Beatrice studied in seventh grade but she dropped out after studying two terms. Perpetrators who took away her father also took him with other eight men, and they were transported by the administrator named Ntarwarara Antoine. When they arrested them they told them that they went to justify themselves and that they would return back but they didn’t come back. There were other people who were sent by the administrator Ntarwarara to arrest hutus, like policemen. They killed them with bamboos and spears and they said that they were killing traitors. After killing them, they went to loot their things. They looted their clothes, all cows, and cows were taken by the administrator of Kayokwe commune. They looted their cupboards, chairs, and harvested their fields. Beatrice missed her uncles and her uncle’s sons, they missed seven members in their family. She also missed her brother in law. Her mother continuously fled to other countries, Rwanda, Congo,Tanzania, she suffered too much. Her life became very difficult since she missed her husband.

  Beatrice ends by advising perpetrators that it is not good to hurt human beings like you, plundered items are not beneficial. According to her, Burundians should forgive one another in order to live peacefully. Youth should act and think about their future and not grow up following unimportant things they were told by their ancestors. What is good is to be committed to development.

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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”

• 

  Nkeshimana, Germain Herman

  Germain Herman Nkeshimana

  Germain Herman Nkeshimana was born in 1959 in Taba village, Songa commune, Bururi province. He started elementary school in 1966 at Rumeza until the seventh grade. He studied the eighth and ninth grade at Giheta, he continued his studies from the tenth grade to the fourteenth grade at Kibimba where he graduated in pedagogy. He taught there at Kibimba for two years. He went to the University and there he studied in the faculty of psychology and Educational Sciences. After that, he taught at Pedagogic Lycée of Mweya in Gitega province. Apart from what he had studied when he was at his job he studied journalism and he got foundation certificate (.) journalism level1: Collection and information treatment, he studied Management of Public Finances, then he got diploma of a trainer of Public Finances Controllers. In 1972, when the tragedy came out, Germain Herman was studying in sixth and it was on 29th April when they heard on the radio that a crisis started in Burundi, that there were people who were called Mulele who killed others. And at that time, even schools stopped for a little moment and they saw that something changed. After school closed, children stayed home and fathers started to do night guards and their camp of guarding was there near Tagara school. They could see them lighting the fire the whole night in the aim of arresting Mulele people from Rumonge because they said that Mulele people attacked from Rumonge. After some days, their father said to them goodbye and they told them that they were going down to Rumonge; they said that there was an assembly in which they said that every adult boy and every man who had a spear or any other thing had to pick it so that they could go down to Rumonge at Mutambara to help support soldiers to fight against Mulele. Their fathers went; in families, there remained women and children. After a moment, their fathers came back from Rumonge. Herman remembers that when they arrived at Manyoni, there was an authority who held an assembly; they were still young children, and they went to stand by near the men who were listening the assembly; the authority said “Ladies and gentlemen, you know that the war started, but, now peace had implemented again in Rumonge, we won the enemy, but the enemy is between us”. Their fathers had already hiked from Rumonge. After the assembly, the first Hutu people were arrested at that time and they were brought to be imprisoned at Songa zone. After that, the following days, they used to say; “someone has been taken away, this has been taken away”. They saw trucks transporting people; after the Songa jail was full, there was a truck which had to come and take away all the people but they didn’t know where they transported them, they thought that they were bringing them to mass graves or elsewhere. Those trucks took those people a lot of days. People were crying when being taken away, lying in opposite ways and tied. Then, to know that they lost his father, when he arrived at Manyoni in a way from Rumeza primary school, he saw a hat down in the street and he saw that it seemed like his father’s hat, a hat that seemed it had been casted down in the shit it had been floated; then he became sorrowfully angry and fearful in his heart. Arriving at home, his mother told him that his father was taken away. When taking them away they used to beat them. The following day, her mother started to bring food to his father, because, when they were still there in the jail at Songa zone, they used to bring food to them. She brought to him food once, twice, third and after, she brought back the food. Her husband was no longer alive; after a long time, Nzeye told them he had seen his father dying there at Manyoni to the zone, that they bumped his head into a stone and they put him in the hole, then they knew that his father was in the Manyoni common grave. The JRR people were the ones to take away people one by one. There were people who used to come there and obliged them to give cows to authorities so as their father may be released (.) they gave about two cows to release him, but it didn’t work. Apart from his father who was killed in 1972 tragedy, they also lost other relatives and neighbors: his paternal uncle: Dismas Kangurunguru, her maternal two uncles among them was Gabriel Kaburagiye who was a teacher at Nyamugari at Bururi. All people who had died, they named them traitors, widows had been given a name of traitors’ women, orphans were called traitors’ children; that was traumatism and terrorism on the high level. Marc Nyungunganya who was Herman’s family member, he at that time was teaching in first primary school, he had been swindled by Tutsi teachers by telling him to go to get his salary in Bururi because it was at the end of April. When others went to get their salaries, they came back, but him; he didn’t come back. Other teachers like Gitengeri who was a primary school teacher, took him and he died, Sebatien Rizi, Pascal nicknamed Ruhigi and Jean Buhuragiza were lucky to flee in the priest’s homes, they were being pursued. They spent time there, but they looked for them from there because they came several times to the priest to ask for those people, and the priest settled them and they brought them to Bururi in jail with my Bishop Bududira standing by so that they may not kill them. The piece of advice Herman gives is from the Ecclesia teachings, “you see that a man is created by God, that means that no one has the right to kill him. Only God who knows his destiny. Even the national protocols prohibit killing each other; that’s why we have to respect God's commandments and the one of the country, to respect humankind's life, to respect man's dignity”.