STATEMENT ON THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MASS MURDERS THAT OCCURRED IN BURUNDI’S HISTORY

ASSOCIATION BURUNDAISE DE LUTTE CONTRE LE GÉNOCIDE
AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA
 
STATEMENT ON THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS MASS MURDERS THAT OCCURRED IN BURUNDI’S HISTORY
 
AC GÉNOCIDE Canada has been following closely the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) ever since its inauguration by the CNDD-FDD regime in December 2014.

AC GÉNOCIDE Canada recalls that the current TRC was set up by a Government led by CNDD-FDD, the very organization that had signed cooperation agreement with the Interahamwe militia and the former Rwandan army with a view to pursue genocide against the Tutsi in the Great Lakes region, starting from Burundi and continuing in Rwanda (UN Report 1998/777, paragraphs 46-70) ; that this cooperation agreement, which was never repealed by any of the signatories, is still binding for the CNDD-FDD whose cooperation with the above-mentioned genocidal organizations has been ascertained by scores of other UN reports.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA recalls further that the current TRC has been characterized by a series of irregularities starting from the technical preparatory committee that lay ground for the commission proper to the appointments of the sitting commissioners:
- many members of the TRC preparatory committees had been identified by a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry as being the masterminds and executioners of the genocide against the Tutsi in October 1993 (UN Report S/1996/682, paragraphs 250, 318, 328, and 364);
- on two different occasions, two of the current TRC commissioners have publicly sided with the perpetrators of the 1988 mass murders that intended to annihilate the ethnic Tutsi in the two communes of Ntega and Marangara;
- some TRC commissioners were assigned false ethnicity in order to reduce to the lowest possible level the representation of the Tutsi.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA has noticed that on occasion of its exhumation activities, the TRC always declares that the mass graves date back to 1972 and that the exhumed remains are those of the victims of the repression, whereas it is public knowledge that the mass murders of that year were intended to eliminate the Tutsi.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA notes that the TRC activities are a copycat of those by the partisan organizations that were created by the CNDD-FDD regime with whom they signed a convention that assigns them missions that overlap the TRC’s.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA has noted particularly the intensification of exhumations in the last quarter of the year 2019 as well as in this beginning of 2020.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA notes the coincidence between the acceleration of the exhumations and the launch of the electoral period, which indicates that in addition to distorting history, these operations are part of a coordinated plan intended to lend a hand the reelection campaign for the CNDD-FDD which appointed the current TRC commissioners.

FOR ALL THOSE REASONS:

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA, while still acknowledging that the different tragedies that befell Burundi throughout history have affected citizens from all of the country’s ethnicities:
- is deeply concerned by the current TRC’s statements on the occasion of the recent exhumations in the Province Karusi between January 29 and 31, 2020; following which it was affirmed that all the mass graves that were visited date back to 1972; whereas it is public knowledge that this province was the most affected during the 1993 Tutsi genocide, to such a point that in some of its communes, there are no Tutsi survivors;
- warns the current TRC against the potential revisionism that is entailed in its affirmations on the ethnic origins of the victims, as well as against tendency to always minimize the genocide against Tutsis despite the fact that it has already been investigated by a UN-appointed international commission
- invites all Burundians to take notice of the potential distortion of history to which the current TRC is leading because of its blatantly partisan and discriminatory modus operandi.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA formally announces that from now on, the organization is not bound by the current TRC’s conclusions.
 
Done at Toronto, on February 4th, 2020.
 
Emmanuel Nkurunziza
Secretary, AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA.