Ikiza
The Ikiza, or the Ubwicanyi, was a series of mass killings—often characterised as a genocide—which were committed in Burundi in 1972 by the Tutsi-dominated army and government, primarily against educated and elite Hutus who lived in the country. Conservative estimates place the death toll of the event between 100,000 and 150,000 killed, while some estimates of the death toll go as high as 300,000.
Background
Ethnic tensions in Burundi
In the 20th century Burundi had three main indigenous ethnic groups: Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The area was colonised by the German Empire in the late 1800s and administered as a portion of German East Africa. In Burundi and neighboring Rwanda to the north, the Germans maintained indirect rule, leaving local social structures intact. Under this system, the Tutsi minority generally enjoyed its historically high status as aristocrats, whereas the Hutus occupied the bottom of the social structure. Princely and monarchal rulers belonged to a unique ethnic group, Ganwa, though over time the political salience of this distinction declined and the category was subsumed by the Tutsi grouping. During World War I, Belgian troops from the Belgian Congo occupied Burundi and Rwanda. In 1919, under the auspices of the nascent League of Nations, Belgium was given the responsibility of administering "Ruanda-Urundi" as a mandated territory. Though obligated to promote social progress in the territory, the Belgians did not alter the local power structures. Following World War II, the United Nations was formed and Ruanda-Urundi became a trust territory under Belgian administration, which required the Belgians to politically educate the locals and prepare them for independence.The inhabitants of Urundi were allowed to participate in politics beginning in 1959. Limited self-government was established in 1961. The Union pour le Progrès national won in a landslide in national elections and its leader, Louis Rwagasore, became prime minister. Though a son of Burundian King Mwambutsa IV, he ran on a platform of equal opportunity, generating hope of peaceful race relations. He was assassinated a month after taking office. Ethnic polarization, initially of little concern to the ruling class, rapidly rose among Urundi's political elite after the murder. Urundi was granted independence as the Kingdom of Burundi in July 1962, while Rwanda became an independent republic.
Mwambutsa angered Burundi's politicians by repeatedly intervening in their affairs to try and reform the country's fractious governments. The violence against Tutsis in the Rwandan Revolution of 1962–1963 heightened domestic ethnic anxieties. From this point on, every Tutsi-dominated regime in Burundi was keen to prevent a similar revolution in their own country. By 1965, assassinations, subversive plots, and an attempted coup had generated the murder of numerous Hutu members of Parliament and sparked ethnic violence in rural areas. The following year Mwambutsa was ousted in a coup in favor of his son Ntare V. Ntare was soon thereafter deposed in another coup led by a young Tutsi officer in the Burundian military, Michel Micombero. Micombero abolished the monarchy and was installed as President of Burundi; under his rule power was increasingly concentrated in the hands of Tutsis, particularly a coterie from Bururi Province dubbed the Groupe de Bururi, while Hutu participation in government was steadily reduced. Rumours of a Hutu coup plot in 1969 led the government to execute dozens of Hutu public figures. By the early 1970s, Burundi had a population of roughly five million, of which approximately 85 percent were Hutu, 14 percent were Tutsi, and one percent were Twa.
During the same period tensions rose between the Tutsi subgroups—the Tutsi-Banyaruguru and the Tutsi-Hima. The Tutsi-Banyaruguru were historically connected to the monarchy, whereas Micombero and many of his Bururi associates were Tutsi-Hima. His government accused several prominent Banyaruguru in July 1971 of plotting to restore Ntare to the throne. On January 14, 1972, a military tribunal sentenced nine Banyaruguru to death and another seven to life in prison for conspiracy. The Tutsi division greatly weakened the legitimacy of Micombero's Hima-dominated government.
Return of Ntare V
On 30 March 1972 Ntare flew into Gitega, Burundi via helicopter from Uganda after years in exile. He was immediately detained and kept under house arrest in his former palace in the city. The reasons for Ntare's return to Burundi remain disputed. Some commentators alleged that he had negotiated an arrangement with Micombero whereby he could return to his home country to live as a normal citizen but was ultimately betrayed by the president. Others suggested that Ugandan President Idi Amin had delivered Ntare into Micombero's custody as a "gift". Writer Marc Manirakiza stated that Amin's government had coordinated with Micombero to hijack Ntare's aircraft while it was en route to the Ugandan locale of Kabare. The Ugandan government denied any conspiracy, stating that Micombero had guaranteed it that Ntare would be safe in Burundi. Some European diplomats believed Micombero had legitimately agreed to let Ntare return unmolested "in a moment of mental aberration" only to quickly regret his decision and "over-react" by arresting him. Burundian Minister of Foreign Affairs Artémon Simbananiye oversaw the discussions with the Ugandan authorities that led to Ntare's repatriation.Soon after Ntare's arrest, Burundian official media declared that he had been detained for plotting a coup to restore his throne with the use of white mercenaries. The state radio broadcaster, Voix de la Révolution, declared, "Let us re-double our vigilance, the enemies of our liberation have not yet been disarmed." While the original broadcast attributed the failure of Ntare's supposed plot to his lack of "agents" within Burundi, a correction issued the following day alleged that such agents were inside the country.
Meanwhile, the Burundian government debated Ntare's fate. Some ministers favored that he would be kept in custody in Gitega, while others wanted him executed. Particularly, the Groupe de Bururi members thought his death was a necessity, while those who disagreed feared severe ramifications from killing the former king. On 23 April a school administrator in Bururi was informed that most Hutu teachers in Nyanza-Lac had fled to Tanzania. He relayed the message to the Burundian government which, fearing trouble, scheduled a meeting of provincial officials in the city of Rumonge for 29 April. At noon on 29 April Micombero dissolved his government and dismissed several other top officials, including Executive Secretary of UPRONA André Yande. Some Burundians were excited by this news, thinking it signaled Micombero's decision to do away with the Groupe. The administration was left to operate at the direction of the directors general of the government ministries.
Events
Hutu uprising
Between 20:00 and 21:00 on 29 April, Hutu militants began a series of attacks in Bujumbura and across the southern provinces of Rumonge, Nyanza-Lac and Bururi. In each location, the rebels coalesced around a group of individuals that wore a "uniform" of black shirts, tattoos, red headbands or white enamel pots splashed with red paint. They operated in bands of about 10–30 individuals and were armed with automatic weapons, machetes, and spears. The militants were joined by Zairean exiles, commonly dubbed "Mulelists". Burundi was home to thousands of Zairean exiles who were culturally distinct from other members of Burundian society but had grievances against the Groupe de Bururi and were receptive to the incitement against Micombero's regime. The Mulelist label recalled the name of Pierre Mulele, who had led a rebellion in central Zaire from 1964 to 1965. In reality, the Zairean rebels who fought alongside the Hutu militants were mostly the former followers of Gaston Soumialot, who had led a similar rebellion in eastern Zaire during the same time period. The rebels targeted Tutsis and committed numerous atrocities, as well as burning homes and slaughtering cattle. Despite these ethnic killings, researcher Nigel Watt argued that the insurgents initially hoped to gain the support of Tutsi monarchists who were upset over Ntare's arrest.In Bururi, the rebels murdered all military and civilian authorities. Upon capturing armories in Rumonge and Nyanza-Lac, the militants killed every Tutsi person they encountered and a number of Hutus who refused to join them. The meeting of provincial officials in Rumonge was still ongoing when the attacks began. The rebels killed 12 officials, but Yande and Albert Shibura, who had been leading the conference, managed to shoot their way out of the meeting hall and escape to Bujumbura. Hutu and Tutsi peasants in the town of Vyanda jointly attempted to resist the militants. Missionaries estimated that the rebels murdered 800–1,200 Tutsis and Hutus between 29 April and 5 May, with most victims being Tutsis. Academic René Lemarchand cited 1,000–2,000 Tutsi deaths as a "plausible estimate". After taking control in the south, the rebels regrouped in Vyanda and declared the creation of the "République de Martyazo". Within their territory the rebels hoisted a red and green flag and subjected captured Tutsis to "people's tribunals".
Late in the evening on 29 April, the Voix de la Révolution broadcast a declaration of a state of emergency. In Bujumbura, the rebels targeted the radio station but lost the element of surprise and quickly resorted to uncoordinated attacks against Tutsis. Army officers swiftly mobilized their troops and neutralised the rebels in the city within 24 hours. That night Ntare was executed at Gitega by government troops. Historians Jean-Pierre Chrétien and Jean-François Dupaquier, after evaluating several witness testimonies, concluded that Ntare was shot and stabbed to death by a group of about a dozen soldiers led by Captain Ntabiraho on the orders of Micombero at about 23:15. On 30 April, Micombero quickly restored the public prosecutors Cyrille Nzohabonayo and Bernard Kayibigi to their offices to aid in suppressing the insurgency. State media also announced the installation of military governors to replace civilians in every province, revealed Ntare's death, and claimed that monarchists had assaulted his palace in Gitega in an attempt to free him and that he "was killed during the attack".
The same day, Micombero appealed to the government of Zaire for assistance in suppressing the rebellion. President Mobutu Sese Seko responded by dispatching a company of Zairian paratroopers to Bujumbura, where they occupied the airport and guarded strategic locations around the city. He also loaned Micombero a few jets to conduct aerial reconnaissance. This guaranteed Micombero's control of the capital and freed up Burundian troops to fight the insurgency in the south. The Zairian forces were withdrawn a week later. Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere shipped 24 tons of ammunition to the Burundian army to assist in its campaign. Once the extent of the reprisal killings became known, Mobutu and Nyerere refused Micombero further materiel assistance. The French government supplied the Burundian regime with arms, and several French pilots flew on its behalf in counterattacks against the rebels. Uganda and Libya also supplied the Burundian government with technical assistance to suppress the rebellion.
The Burundian government launched its first counter-attacks using soldiers from Bujumbura and military camps in Bururi. On 1 May government troops from Bujumbura secured Rumonge, and the following day troops from Gitega occupied Nyanza-Lac. According to witnesses, all of the rebels captured by the Burundian Army were summarily executed and buried in mass graves. All persons seeking shelter in the bush or bearing scarification were deemed "rebels" by the government and hunted down. This provoked an exodus of thousands of refugees towards Zaire and Tanzania, particularly those who had resided on the coast of Lake Tanganyika. One Burundian helicopter dropped leaflets stating that order would soon be restored, while another strafed columns of fleeing civilians. Between 30 April and 5 May the army focused on recapturing the Lake Tanganyika coastline. On 10 May the government announced that it had complete military control over southern Burundi, though some conflict persisted.