Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 971987-1993) were headed by men from the same village in Bururi. Micombero
and Buyoya are also related. As will be noted later, even most of the current
rebel leaders are from Bururi province. This network of personal connections
within the elite has affected the peace process.
The cycle of violence in 1972 was started by a Hutu rebellion in the south,
supported by some Hutus in the army as well as Hutu militias in Tanzania
and the then Zaire. The rebellion was seemingly sparked by the attempt of
the king to return to Burundi from exile. He was then arrested and assassi-
nated by the military government. Between 2 000 and 3 000 Tutsi civilians
were killed during the rebellion.
In reaction to this massacre, the army and government security services
struck against Hutus, not only in the south but all around the country. Once
again, virtually all educated and influential Hutus in business, the civil senr-
ice, the army, religion, education and any other field, were targeted.
Conservative estimates say that 80 000 to 100 000 people were killed, while
other estimates range between 150 000 and 200 000. Three hundred thousand
Burundians, mainly Hutu, were prompted to flee to neighbouring countries.
The United Nations has called this killing a "genocidal repression13'
As in 1965, but more so, the killing or expulsion of almost all Hutu with
four years or more of high school education meant the end of Hutu partici-
pation in the public life of Burundi for a generation. Between 1972 and the
late 1980% Reyntjens calls the involvement of Hutu in powerful positions
purely cosmetic co-~ptation.~~
Similarly to 1965, the government and army killed with impunity. As
Catherine Barnes points out: "The fact that the government was able to com-
plete what the UN Genocide Convention refers to as 'genocide in pan' with-
out any sanction, domestic or international, had significant implications ior
the future development of both politics and Hutu-Tutsi relations in Burundi
and the region as a whole."39
A further effect of the pogroms was that from 1972 onward there were
large numbers of Burundi Hutu in refugee camps in Tanzania, Rwanda and
the DRC. These refugees and the camps would play an important pan in later
Burundian conflicts as well as in other conflicts in the region.This period includes a time of relative tranquillity after the 1972 massacres,
another round of violence in 1988, followed by five years of wide-reaching
political reform, culminating in the adoption of a new constitution in 1992,
and multiparty elections and the election of a Hutu president in 1993. The
significance of this period is that international pressure, coupfed with an eco-
nomically weakened government, brought about political reform. The
tragedy of this period is that the reforms, which brought great hope for a