Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 111Third, serious competition for political and the concomitant economic
power, through democratisation processes and expected or actual reforms
incites ruling elite to protect their position through violence. This is what
happened in 1993, when the ruling Tutsi-Hima Bururi lobby were faced by
the, for them, existential challenge of an eleaed Hutu-led government. It is
generally acknowledged that President Ndadaye was assassinated because he
and his elected government tried to reform the system, both politically and
economically, and thereby challenged the entrenched interests running it.69
Violence and ongoing war were considered preferable to losing influence.
This dynamic is also present in the current attempts at a peace process.
Numerous failed military coup attempts against President Buyoya, who is
seen as a moderate because of his willingness to negotiate with Hutu rebels.
are indicators that some Tutsi elite, and particularly those in the military, are
unwilling to relinquish or share political power.
While these three mechanisms explain the direct violence of the ruling Tutsi
elite against Hutus and moderate Tutsis, predation also provides the funda-
mental basis for grievance and rebellion among the victims of the exploitative
system. The episodes of violence of Hutus against civilian Tutsis, and the ongo-
ing rebel offensive against the government army reflect this dynamic.
The reason that the violence resulting from predation does not manifest
itself in the form of a class war of elite versus oppressed is the ethnic ele-
ment. Actual conflicts over scarce resources, which would pit poor, rural
Tutsi together with their poor, rural Hutu neighbours against the urban elite,
are superseded by a perceived mortal conflict between ethnic groups. This
perception is used by those in power in times of instability in order to
mobilise support and justify their privileged positi~n.~ in addition to this
instrumental use of ethnicity, however, ethnically based fear and hatred has
developed into a potent independent source of conflict during the course of
the cycles of violence.
EthnicityWe have noted that ethnic divisions existed in precolonial Bumndi, but were
not inherently a conflictual division. During colonialism, however, ethnic
identity was directly connected to competition for control over the state. Since
independence it has been simultaneously denied as a relevant factor by
Burundi's elite in public political discourse, and also used as the fundamental
factor of political structuring. Ethnicity was and still is the most important fac-
tor in determining an individual's life chances, in education, profession, and
too often in life or death itself. The effect has been threefold. First there is a
deep and existential fear and mistrust of the other group, reaching the level of
continual fear of genocide on both sides. An action of one group against indi-
viduals of the other can immediately be interpreted as an attack against the