STATEMENT BY AC GENOCIDE CANADA

THE BURUNDI GOVERNMENT PROHIBITS AC GÉNOCIDE CIRIMOSO FROM HOLDING THE 29th COMMEMORATION OF THE OCTOBER 21, 1993 GENOCIDAL MURDER OF 150 TUTSI STUDENTS AT LYCEE KIBIMBA.

STATEMENT BY AC GENOCIDE CANADA

 AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA learned with sadness that the Government of Burundi has prohibited AC Génocide CIRIMOSO from holding at Kwibubu the 29^th commemoration of the genocidal massacre of 150 Tutsi students who, on October 21^st, 1993; were forcibly and selectively gathered, rounded up at Lycée Kibimba and burnt alive.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA recalls that the perpetrators of this crime are the leaders of the then ruling FRODEBU party, biologically and ideologically the forefathers of today’s ruling CNDD-FDD genocidist and terrorist organization, which is renowned for, among other things, its affiliation with other genocidal militias that flourished in the Great Lakes Region, starting from the 1990’s.

 AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA notes sadly that this year’s prohibition comes with an act of utmost sadism inasmuch as the Interior Minister has told the leaders of the AC Genocide CIRIMOSO that instead of the commemoration at Kibimba, they should go lay a wreath on the tomb of Melchior Ndadaye, the leader of the very organization responsible for the very genocidal massacre that we commemorate every October 21^st.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA points out that in addition to torturing morally the survivors and members of the victims’ families whose are arbitrarily deprived of their rights to carry out their duty of memory, these discriminatory measures which single out the AC GENOCIDE CIRIMOSO association violate Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides for individuals rights to peaceful gathering and to not being forced into the activities of another organization

 AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA underscores the double standard that the organizations defending the rights of the Tutsi-genocide victims have always undergone at the hands of the Interior Ministry ever since the ill-advised advent of the regime led by the genocidist and terrorist CNDD-FDD organization in 2005.

On the one hand, the regime compelled them to purge from their appellation any reference to sites that are synonymous with the Tutsi genocide. For example, the Interior Ministry forbade the Kibimba survivors to have “Kibimba” in their appellation and forced them to be registered as ARG instead. As well, the survivors of the massacres that targeted the Tutsi at Buta Junior Seminary on April 30^th, 1997, were made to adopt the appellation “Lumière du Monde” instead of their intended ASOREBUTA or “Association des Rescapés de Buta.”

On the other hand, the incumbent regime unconditionally allowed Zirikana UB, a Hutu-friendly association, to keep in their appellation the UB acronym, clearly referring to the University of Burundi, a site which the proponents of the said organization connects to the death of Hutu students only while ignoring totally the Tutsi students who were killed in that institution by militiamen loyal to today’s ruling CNDD-FDD. Not only does the CNDD-FDD regime turn a blind eye to that occultation of the Tutsi memory but it also provides media coverage for commemoration events held by the said organization, in addition to sending in its representatives.

 

FOR ALL THOSE REASONS:

 AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA strongly condemns this ban, which is clearly part of the Tutsi-genocide denying process that has been going on in Burundi since the advent of the regime led by the CNDD-FDD genocidist and terrorist organization, a project that is currently entrusted with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA recalls therefore that under such conditions, the Tutsi-genocide victims cannot expect any form of justice from that so-called TRC, whose real mission since set-up to present, has been found to be geared to falsifying Burundi history through mitigation and distortion of the crimes against the Tutsi.

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA encourages the victims of the Tutsi genocide not to be intimidated by the incumbent regime, whose newly-found tactics to delay the prosecution of the mass murderers and other criminals in office, is to distract the stakeholders by taking more and more measures that violates human rights.

 AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA urges all organizations working in the human rights domain in Burundi to take notice of this renewed attack against the memory of the Tutsi-genocide victims and to act accordingly.

 Done at Toronto, on October 20^th, 2022.

 Dr. Emmanuel Nkurunziza

Secretary,

AC GÉNOCIDE CANADA