Word: tutsis
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Burundi is a land of luxuriant beauty and berserk violence, torn apart by one of those tribal conflicts that are so elusive to an outsider's understanding. Determined to uphold a centuries-old feudal hegemony over 3,000,000 Hutu tribesmen, the well-armed Tutsi overlords, who number no more than 600,000, unleashed a violent pogrom last year. At least 80,000-and perhaps as many as 250,000-Hutus were killed. In May this year the slaughter revived in the southeastern part of the landlocked hill country (area: 10,747 sq. mi., smaller than Belgium). The latest...
Hutu Hunt. At Mabanda, where this year's fighting started, a band of spear-carrying Tutsi irregulars were clustered in a bar, drinking bottles of beer to get in the mood for the night's Hutu hunt. "We will kill as many as we have to," boasted one old man, "as many as it takes to make our families safe here...
Bujumbura, the seedy capital (pop. 75,000), where spacious villas dot rolling green hills overlooking the vast blue expanse of Lake Tanganyika, has become virtually a Tutsi town. The few Hutus left are keeping a low profile. "The Hutus will never stop grasping for power, and the Tutsis will fight to the last man to keep it." a Belgian businessman told me. "I honestly cannot see any end to the killing. I only thank God that they are leaving the whites out of it." Elsewhere, the Tutsis and Hutus seem to be living together without trouble-at least...
...Hutu tribesmen, who account for 85% of the country's 4,000,000 people, continues. In a sense, it is double genocide: the approximately 2,000 Hutu rebels who briefly proclaimed an independent republic a month ago had set out to murder their overlords of the Tutsi tribe. The Tutsi-dominated army quickly put down the revolt (TIME, May 22). Ever since, it has been attempting to destroy the Hutu to such an extent that they may never rise again. "The Tutsi fear has always been the same-to smash the Hutu or die," explains a foreign missionary...
Though the government of President Michel Micombero claims that the majority of the country's victims have been Tutsi, most foreign observers in Bujumbura believe the Tutsi dead number no more than 5,000 out of a total now estimated at perhaps 80,000. With their devastating pogrom, the Tutsi overlords have unquestionably bought themselves a few more years in power, but at a terrible price...