Burundi: The Gatumba Massacre
War Crimes and Political Agendas
Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, September 2004
Summary
Recommendations
To the
government of Burundi
To the
government of the Democratic Republic of Congo
To the FNL
and other armed movements in Burundi and the DRC
To the United
Nations Security Council
To United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
To donor
governments and governments in the region
The Context
Inside
Burundi
Inside the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gatumba
Refugee Camp
The Site
Camp
Population
Attempts to
Move the Congolese Refugees
The Attack
The Protected
Burundians
Attack on the
Military Camp and the Police Camp
The
Perpetrators
FNL
responsibility for the attack
Languages
Numbers
Other Perpetrators
The “official
version”
The pamphlet
and evidence of prior planning
Controlling
Testimonies
The
elaborated “official version”
The Other
Version
The United
Nations
Justice
Prosecution
of FNL Leaders
The Risk of
More War
International
Within Congo and Burundi
“Genocide”
and fears of a “Tutsi empire”
“There were songs, alleluias, the same as those that
we sing in our churches. That’s why some still trusted them. Then the shots,
the fire. That afternoon I had played soccer with friends. [Now] some of them
are dead.”
- Gatumba survivor, aged 14
