GRIEF AND ANGER AT MASS BURAL OF MASSACRE VICTIMS

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

August 17, 2004 - (IRIN) At a mass burial in Burundi on Monday, thousands of people lamented the death of hundreds of Tutsis from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as Banyamulenge, who had fled fighting across the border in June. They were slaughtered on Friday in their refugee camp at Gatumba, west of the capital, Bujumbura, and close to the border with the DRC.

Banyamulenge are hated, said a woman who survived the massacre. The hatred has been growing since the time of Mobutu, she added, referring to the late Mobutu Sese Seko, the DRC's former dictator.

The victims were all buried in a large pit in which coffins were laid side by side in rows of four. Some were marked with question marks because the remains were too charred to be identified. Some coffins held the remains of more than one person.

Mourners included top officials from Burundi as well as DRC's vice-president, Azarias Ruberwa, and Rwanda's minister for local administration, Christophe Bazivamo. The UN secretary-general's special representative to Burundi, Carolyn McAskie, also attended, along with survivors of the massacre and thousands of Bujumbura residents.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at least 147 refugees, mostly women and children, died. Four more succumbed to injuries, including one who died on Monday, bringing the overall death toll to 151.

Another 101 have been receiving medical attention in hospitals in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura. Many suffered burns; some also sustained bullet and machete wounds.

The director of Prince-Louis Rwagasore medical clinic, which is treating 63 survivors, told reporters that medicines might run low. Some of the survivors at the clinic told IRIN that all their belongings had been destroyed when the attackers set fire to their shelters.

The camp at Gatumba had sheltered 860 Congolese before the attack according to UNHCR. Around 500 are now staying at a nearby school. Some 100 others have gone off on their own.

Speakers at the funeral expressed concern and anger over another genocide taking place in the Great Lakes region, 10 years after the genocide in Rwanda. Many feared that the massacre could undermine the peace process in Burundi and in the DRC.

Rwanda's minister called on the international community to disarm what he calls the "negative forces in the region". Bazivamo added, "Rwanda will not stand and watch [as] another genocide [takes place]."

An angry Ruberwa, the Congolese Tutsi vice-president, said that the international community should now "admit its inability to protect the minority".
"We were born like others but we grew up to see that the earth does not love us and wants to exterminate us. Those who committed this crime do not want us to return to Congo. But I promised we shall go back at all costs," said Ruberwa.

A Burundian rebel movement, the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) led by Agathon Rwasa, has claimed responsibility for the massacre. Rwasa's FNL, whose stronghold is in the province of Bujumbura Rural that surrounds the capital, is the only rebel group in Burundi not to have laid down its arms.

However, several regional leaders, Ruberwa included, blame the massacre on Rwandan Hutu rebels in the DRC known as Interahamwe and elements of the Mayi-Mayi, a former Congolese militia group.

Following the massacre, the UN Operation in Burundi, known by its French acronym ONUB, suspended talks with the FNL. ONUB spokeswoman Isabelle Abric said resuming the talks under the circumstances was out of question.

From: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=42713&SelectRegion=Great_Lakes&SelectCountry=BURUNDI