Bujumbura,
BURUNDI
What
seems like a lifetime ago, Barampama Maximilien shoveled dirt over rows of bodies
at gunpoint, sweating in fear that he would be next. This week the
skeletons—and his memories—emerged from Burundi’s red earth.
Burundian workers from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission dig to extract bodies from a mass grave in the Bukirasazi hill in Karusi Province, Burundi on January 27, 2020. |
The mass grave, which authorities exhumed on
Monday, was one of more than 4,000 they said this month they had identified—a stark
reminder of the east African country’s brutal history of ethnic conflict.
The pit that Maximilien helped dig contains more
than 300 bodies, locals say, and dates back to the aftermath of an attempted
coup in April 1972, when he was 21 and in nearby Gitega prison for petty theft.
Others were brought there and accused of aiding the
rebels. Many of the new arrivals were Hutus, Maximilien said.
Burundi has the same mix of population from that
ethnic group and the Tutsis as neighbouring Rwanda, where over a million Tutsis
were estimated to have died in a 1994 genocide. Both countries have
blood-soaked histories dating back to colonial days.
“Those who brought to Gitega prison’s compound were
badly beaten. Some had their hands or arms broken. The perpetrators were
accusing them of helping rebels,” he said.
Graves were sometimes dug by machine, and sometimes
he and other prisoners were forced to do it, he said. The military then took
suspected rebels there by truck.
“Those still alive were ordered to walk to the
grave, lie down and then six soldiers lined up and shot them dead,” he said,
imitating the sound of guns.
“Soldiers warned us against talking about it. I was
deeply afraid I could be the next to be killed, particularly when I noticed
some friends were missing.”
When one group of prisoners rioted and tried to
escape, soldiers fired into the jail until blood flowed form under the doors,
he said.
It is unclear whether the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission responsible for opening the graves will hold anyone to account for
the killings.
It is mandated to investigate abuses dating from
the 19th century, when Burundi was colonized by Germany, up to 2008.
That is three years after President Pierre
Nkurunziza took office. UN authorities have accused his security forces of
overseeing the torture, murder and gang rape of opponents.
Its chairman, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, said in a
speech that Burundians should “pray God so that what happened, never happens
again”.
He declined to comment on whether anyone would be
held accountable.
For one man, just opening the grave is action
enough. As the diggers’ shovels rose and fell, he craned forwards as if to
recognize the face of the elder brother he never knew among the dusty
skeletons.
“I am happy if I see the remains of my
brother...before I die,” he said, as another brother choked back tears and
ducked back into the crowd. “I know his bones are here.”
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