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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, Desiré

  Desiré Nshimirimana

  Desiré Nshimirimana was born in Nyagatovu village, Vumbi commune and Kirundo province in 1965. He studied until the sixth grade in elementary school. His father, Kamana Raphael, was the headmaster of the elementary school; his mother, Gahigi Goderiva, was an elementary school teacher.

  In 1972, when his father was coming from work in the afternoon, they saw a truck coming; It came right when he was going to eat lunch. When he got to the table, the servant brought food to him. He didn't eat it, they suddenly saw a truck coming, and soldiers entered the house. They lifted him up and tied him up. After they tied him up, they threw him in the truck. After they threw him in the truck, they came back later to search things in the house. He had papers in a cupboard, he had safes where he could keep medicine and money, they scattered everything and left it open. His family didn't know what they took away, but they robbed medicine and money. His family members thought that he would come back but the only thing that made them suspicious is that they just laid him down and put a tire on him, and sat on him in front of his family. They transported him and later his family heard that they brought him to Vumbi. They waited for him to come back for a long time and they lost hope. After losing hope, his children grew up and learned that he was killed because they charged them( his father and other victims) of stealing the government's treasury, they heard it as rumors.

  They later harmed his family member, the same people who took him away, including the local authorities of the commune, including the administrator named Gahima and another local Authority of Nyagatovu called Ivo Barampama raped their mother after the death of their father because their father was a Hutu and their mother was a Tutsi woman. Then they both married her and those children, orphans, remarked that their mother conspired to kill their father.

  After that, Desire and his siblings started having a lot of problems, they plundered their properties, there were properties that their father had bought, the authorities of the time, Ivo and the administrator of Vumbi commune sold the property that he had bought on Nyamyumba hill. When they filed a lawsuit, they told them that it was not possible because the property was sold by those Authorities together with their mother, they then gave up and they lived badly in extreme poverty and traumatism. There was a time they arrested Desire in the following years; they accused him of being involved in political affairs of political parties. After they imprisoned him. It was in ...86, they locked him up and it was seen that he was accused of his ethnic belongings because at that time it frequently occurred. He couldn’t talk to the administrator who was ruling there, he was also a Tutsi, he saw that he was falsely accused, and he released him. When Desire arrived at home, he saw that the consequences were bad and their life was very bad.

  When they arrested their father, they didn't bring food to him because their Grandmother and Grandfather warned them that if they went there, they would be killed like their father. Ivo Barampama was the one who raped their mother, he was the Authority, he was the head of their village. At the beginning the administrator Gahima used to spend nights with her but after he left and the head of the village replaced him. He was also the one who sold their property.

  When his father was alive, he helped sick people and took them to the doctor. He also had other boys who lived in their house, like Sekerabandya Reveriyano, whom he had been supporting. After he died, they dropped out of school. Reveriyano was their neighbor and he was in the eighth grade.

  When Kamana was still alive, his family was really comfortable, they didn't lack anything: clothes, drink, food etc. After he died, they all lived a bad life. Her brother Ndayisenga Jean Pierre who was a student failed in 6th grade, their grandmother took her to Muyinga to help him in school life but he didn’t succeed. Their mother had financial means because he was a government employee, but she didn't want to help them because she engaged in loving men, those men came to sleep with her and she minimized her children’s school education. Desire and his siblings could even go to sleep on an empty stomach, though she was paid money. Their Grandmother tried to support them, she offered them school materials, school fees and clothes. Desire also recounts how they went with the former governor of their province Nankwahomba Melchior, he was his classmate; they went to sit for the test and they saw that they passed it but because there were ethnic divisions, they told them that they failed. They attributed their grades to other tutsis.

  For the 1972 killings, it was truly strange, perpetrators targeted a given ethnic group. The wish of Desire is that ethnicities should be abolished completely. Those who still have that ethnic spirit, the tendency to do harm to their fellows should stop because these things are worthless, many of the people who committed them are dead. Things like shed blood don't make a person live longer, they only cause enmity against people.

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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

  Zerida lost her brother Ngendakuriyo Elidad and other relatives in the 1972 tragedy. Elidad was working in Bujumbura. After he disappeared, the family was told later that Eliphaz, a coworker and native of the village, was behind the arrests. He knew him and he pointed out that he is a Hutu. The perpetrators came to arrest him. Zerida was a student in Karusi teacher training school. Hutu students were protected by the heads of the school; none of her classmates were taken away. But they watched through the windows pastors, teachers and other residents of Buhiga being arrested and loaded in trucks by soldiers. Her parents at home, afraid of being arrested, stayed in hiding. They had Tutsi neighbors who protected them, they often came in secret to tell them when and where to hide. Other brothers of Zerida fled the country, their children were distraught, and other siblings dropped out of school. Her elder sister's husband also died. Her brothers-in-law were also killed. The five siblings who were left then ran away, her brother's documents were taken away, his Vespa[motocycle] was also taken away. The perpetrators also looted her family's properties. Zerida and her family stayed in a great desolation.

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  Ntitangirageza, Therence

  Therence Ntitangirageza

  Thérance Ntitangirageza is a priest who was born in 1957, in Vugizo commune, Makamba province. When the 1972 tragedy happened, Thérance was at school in Buta seminary. As the school was ruled by priests they didn’t tell them openly what was happening in the country.When they came back at home for holidays, they found that people who were there, were not there anymore, so a lot of people had been killed. Many neighbors were killed, but not close members of Thérance’s family. At school they had seven teachers but only two of them were still alive. Seeing what had happened, people were flabbergasted, they noticed that hutu people were persecuted. The perpetrators and tutsis were protected by the leadership of that time. It was something which had been prepared and the government didn’t stop it. Hutu people were thunderstruck. Clever and rich people were killed, others escaped and went away in Tanzania and elsewhere.

  Before the tragedy, there was a normal relationship between hutus and tutsis, but after it the relationships between the two groups broke. It was really a situation of suspicion, fear and terror for the hutus and on the other side of tutsis there was arrogance and impunity; that was transmitted to young people who were coming from those schools without any idea of division. There was an open impunity and arrogance of the regime so the Tutsi students felt protected and friends of the regime and the others felt to be victims, so they had to keep quiet and were still afraid of doing any fence movement or something which could be the origin of something bad for them.

  According to Thérance, the future of Burundi country is a very big question because ethnic conflict is one of the problems which prevail. The worst thing done in that country is to emphasize so much on ethnic differences and conflict, forgetting that there are other realities and other problems which should be dealt with. According to him Burundians need leadership which really has to focus on the matters of well fair economic development in order to solve even other questions.

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  Ntunzibigaba, Sereniya

  Sereniya Ntunzibigaba

  Sereniya Ntunzibigaba was born in Murungugu subvillage, in Mabayi commune, Cibitoke province. She didn’t get school education, she had two siblings but one of them was killed in 1972. During that period, she missed a lot of people: her husband, her two nephews, her grandson and her sister in law.

  Her husband was a teacher, he taught at a catholic mission, he used to work and came back home for lunch. Sereniya was informed by her husband’s colleagues that her husband was taken away from job. They gave her the message he sent to her, that she should not go to look for the money he had saved at Fadara’s, and that he would return back by God’s sake, he sent to tell her to send him money and coat because he thought he would return back. He didn’t know that they took him to be killed. He was called Prosper Rwabaye. He left four children, three girls and one boy.

  There was a man who attempted to remarry her, but she refused and decided to remain a widow and raise her orphans. Her husband died on Wednesday whereas she had gone out from postpartum period on Monday. What shocked Sereniya was that her husband was killed without enjoying the son he had envied for a long period.

  When they took him, they said that it was the money they had stolen, his mother came and told sereniya; “ Give me the money so that I go to pay it, maybe he hid it on the house roof”. They sent the housekeeper, he went up to the roof and he didn’t find it. That was the lie, the rumors spread by people. He was the first one they arrested in that area with a certain doctor who was at Mpinga.

  There were some people who were stabbed and thrown into pits. Sereniya’s sister in law was killed with her child while bearing another on her back. Sereniya went to pick up the baby she was bearing. When sereniya’s family saw that, they decided to run away to hide themselves in forest, she went with her four children. Belongings of her husband perished after her husband’s death: cows, goats and pigs; perpetrators looted them. Sereniya made her elder daughter dropout of school in order to help her to raise other children as they lived in very bad conditions of poverty.

  Sereniya said that she gave up the matters of those killed but she said that whenever she sees her husband’s photo, tears flow from her eyes. She said that if she met perpetrators who made her a widow, she couldn’t forgive them but she gave up that matter.

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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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  Rudahemana, Oscar

  Oscar Rudahemana

  Oscar Rudahemana was born in 1956 in Gasura village, Vumbi commune, Kirundo province. He dropped out of school in sixth grade when he failed twice. He recounts that the 1972 tragedy was a very sorrowful period especially for a Hutu who had a job, whether a teacher or a doctor, or one who had any kind of work. At that time, they hunted him so that they would kill him from this world.

  That’s why Oscar and others became orphans, they suffered and they didn't know how to handle that situation. Nobody could even mourn for his parents. If someone dared to ask why those things[killings] were and how those things[war] broke out at that time, they then told him that he was a traitor. They found themselves in a situation where they couldn’t talk about it. They couldn’t talk about it at that time and it was very difficult and very sad.

  They rounded up Oscar’s father from his school, in Gasura where he was teaching and they killed him. His father( Oscar's grandfather) and other people had warned him to escape and run away because they saw that they were taking away many hutu people but he denied. Then he stayed there until the end of May, he was already confident, the period of truce was about to be announced, then they heard that they took him away from school. People said that “it’s over, they had taken him away”. Among the perpetrators who arrested him were administrator Gahima Etienne and his soldiers. They entered the classroom and then said, "Get out!" They immediately went out and they threw them into the car. They left and didn't come back. After that, they all looked around and found that hutu people who were smart, who had jobs perished. Oscar’s family got a very miserable life after their father’s death, even though they had a good life before, they couldn’t continue their studies, they suffered too much.

  Oscar wishes those bad things would not happen again until the end of the world, whatever the future may be, they would not reoccur, they should be uprooted.

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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.

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  Simbananiye, Cécile

  Cécile Simbananiye

  In 1972, Cecile Simbananiye lost her husband, his father-in-law and his brother-in -law. Working as a salesman in Bujumbura, her husband supported his family with everything they needed. Cécile was a farmer at Gikiranya village. In 1972, people came from Bujumbura and told Cécile that her husband was killed. She didn’t see him again and all of his belongings were looted. She saw him the last time before he departed to work in Bujumbura.When the tragedy began Cécile already had five births. Cécile didn’t know what was behind the death of her husband. Still questioning about that, she saw people arresting Hutus in her neighborhood. They came and took them away one by one saying ‘’go you will come back after’’ and they ( people) waited for them to come back in vain. They also took away his father-in-law and her brother-in -law who were at Bujumbura. They arrested only the Hutus but she didn’t realize why. After the tragedy, Cécile sent her two children to school. They passed the national test of sixth grade but their results were given to Tutsis who didn’t pass, so they were forced to drop out of school. One of her children said: “and now they again wronged me, the grades I had were given to someone else so I didn't go back there”. Cécile didn’t mourn the death of her husband. In that period, nobody was allowed even to cry.

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  Sinagaye, Simoni

  Simoni Sinagaye

  On April 30th, the second day of the 1972 tragedy, Simoni Sinagaye was at Kivumu elementary School. He saw students who fled from Mugara, Rumonge commune, being arrested and herded to the zone at Manyoni. Anyone who went there did not return. They afterwards started to arrest the local population. They targeted any Hutu who has income-generating activities, students, intellectuals, or any Hutu man who owns valuable things. His father, who was a merchant, was arrested in similar circumstances and did not come back. His job was to sell clothes, cows and fish. Simoni escaped thanks to a Tutsi neighbor who was a friend of his family. He warned him to run away. His elder brother was also killed in that tragedy, he was also a businessman. To arrest a big number, they mobilized all men to attend the vigils. They rounded up one by one, took them to the zone and nobody came back. Discrimination against Hutus continued even after 1972. Hutu students were not allowed to enter 7th grade. After passing the national test, the headmasters together with authorities took the grades of Hutu students and attributed them to Tutsis who failed. Hence, Hutu students dropped out of school by the time Tutsis moved to the 7th grade. The perpetrators looted afterward the victims’ belongings, especially stores, houses, lands, and any valuable equipment. The widows as well as the orphans stayed in misery.

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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.