Muriza seeks reconciliation between Hutu and Tutsi in Burundi; truth and Justice on the long-term?

Displaced people from Burundi's rival Hutu and Tutsi groups are being resettled side by side under a pilot project aimed at seeking reconciliation and binding up the wounds of decades of bloody ethnic violence in the small central African country of Burundi. UNHCR has created a village for 98 families from both ethnic groups, Muriza, where they could "rub shoulders in peace".

Reconciliation in Muriza
The first families have moved into new mud brick homes, while UNHCR has distributed half-acre plots to landless refugee returnees. "The new village is a potent example of how the scars of the past can be healed in Burundi and how reconciliation can be promoted. Hutus live next door to Tutsis, while former refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) share schools and hospitals with locals," UNHCR said in a news release.

"The returnees and the displaced were, very much from the beginning, willing to live together," said Tony Garcia Carranza, the head of UNHCR's office in Ruyigi, Burundi. "We do not see any friction between both groups - it is really a non-issue."

UNHCR thinks that Muriza could be a model for other villages - both providing homes and land for returning refugees and IDPs and helping to bring together Tutsis and Hutus. The refugee agency, in cooperation with the government and other partners, is examining the possibility of expanding the project.

Ethnic rivalry
Since independence in 1962, Burundi has been plagued by ethnic tensions between the dominant Tutsi minority and the Hutu majority. The ethnic violence reached its top in 1993. In March that year, the first Hutu head of state, Melchior Ndadaye was assassinated, setting the scene for years of Hutu-Tutsi violence in which an estimated 300,000 people were killed in genocidal massacres.

Many Rwandans have fled the violence. Hundreds of thousands of Burundian refugees have crossed to neighbouring Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and most of them in Tanzania. Since UNHCR started a voluntary repatriation operation in 2002, more than 450,000 refugees have returned to Burundi from Tanzania and other countries. Most IDPs have also gone home.

Truth and Justice
Since 2005, the international community is backing an experiment to address four decades of violence in Burundi by creating two distinct but interrelated institutions: a "special court" to bring justice and a "truth and reconciliation commission" to bring reconciliation.

In May last year, Burundi and the UN agreed to set up the truth commission and the tribunal. It was decided that both institutions are to look into violence that has taken place in Burundi since independence from Belgium in 1961. The country saw ethnic violence in 1965, 1972, 1988, 1991, and 1993 after which a civil war broke out that lasted 12 years. The violence in 1972 and 1993 saw many ethnic massacres which might constitute genocide under international law.

The truth commission and the tribunal are yet to be set up after national consultations between the government, the UN and civil society groups. Burundians still await their actual establishment. Until then, many other projects are in place to enhance peace, justice and reconciliation among Burundians, including Muriza village.

(UNHCR)