Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 101
- The violence can truly be called a civil war, since Hutu rebel groups for
the first time reached a significant level of organisation to fight back and
to inflict significant casualties on the army. - Refugees from previous episodes of violence have played an important role
in supporting and forming the rebel movements. - The regional element of the conflict has become stronger than in previous
years, through the financing, training and arming of rebel groups by some
neighbouring countries, and even their direct involvement in the internal
war in the DRC. - An extreme humanitarian crisis exists in the counuy owing to internal dis-
placement, regroupment camps, and the fall in agricultural production. - International pressure has been brought to bear on the government to
come to the negotiating table with the rebels. Sanctions especially have
had a major effect, if not always as intended.
When President Ndadaye was assassinated the army and the Tutsi elite did not
immediately and overtly take the political lead in the country, but slowly
manoeuvred into that position by 1996. While the democratically elected sys-
tem formally remained in place, it was consistently undermined by UPRONA
and the army. FRODEBU attempted to restore order and institutional gover-
nance in Burundi after the October 1993 coup attempt and the subsequent
widespread violence. However, it was negotiating with partners who could
rekindle violence at will, and who did so. The killing of Ndadaye's replacement
Cyprien Ntaryamira (in a plane crash in April 1994, alongside Rwanda's pres-
ident Juvenaf Habyarimana) created a renewed power vacuum, and as the
genocide in neighbouring Rwanda unfolded, Hutu influence in Burundi weak-
ened. The power sharing agreement, Convention of Government, reached in
October 1994 as an attempt to bring peace - in which UPRONA regained sig-
nificant political power - undid both the 1992 constitution and the 1993 elec-
toral process. In fact, in what Reyntjens calls a "creeping coup", all the insti-
tutions which had been introduced in democratic reforms since 1990 were frit-
tered away, bringing the state to a standstill. Major Buyoya took this as justifi-
cation for a coup in 1996, and Burundi has been under military control since.j9
The daily insecurity and killings have continued in Burundi from 1993 to
this day, although the number of killings have decreased since Buyoya's rise to
power. For the first time, the army saw itself faced with an armed and organ-
ised rebel opponent, whereas before it had targeted mainly civilians. Three
movements emerged as leading the Hutu rebellion, each with its own armed
branch: the National Council for the Defence of Democracy (CNDD) and the
Force pour la Defence de la Democratie (FDD); the Parti pour la Liberation du
Peuple Hutu (Palipehutu) with the Front National de Liberation (FLN); and the
Front de Liberation Nationale (FROLINA). Since their formation there have