Bloodbath in Burundi

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 Tutsi massacre was in retaliation for a three-pronged Hutu attack on Tutsi strongholds near the Tanzanian border. An estimated 15,000 have already been killed, and nearly 20,000 more Hutus have joined 30,000 refugees who had already fled to the safety of Tanzania, from which they frequently mount raids. TIME Correspondent Lee Griggs visited the area of the fighting last week and sent this report:

The Tutsis seem to be creating a no man's land along the Tanzanian border to prevent further attacks. Although Burundi is one of Africa's most overcrowded countries, with a population of 325 persons per square mile, I saw almost no one during many miles of driving in the countryside. Every dwelling has been abandoned or burned down. Fields of coffee, cotton and beans stand overgrown. At Nyanza Lac, a once-bustling village of 3,000 people on Burundi's Lake Tanganyika, the only inhabitants are wild dogs.

Bloodstained panga knives and a slashed tribal drum lie in the middle of the dusty main street. A huge stork pecks for grubs in a gutted drygoods store, and weasels scurry in the debris. The main square is littered with broken rumba phonograph records--and an empty, bloodstained black shoe. From a pole at the town water pump flies the red-and-white flag of the Jeunesse Revolutlonnaire, the paramilitary youth groups who did most of the killing. The youth groups are run by the Tutsis' Party of Unity and National Progress (Uprona), which in effect rules the country. The job of the Jeunesse is to mop up after the soldiers, killing any Hutus the troops have missed in their savage campaign against the "rebels." Survivors have told stories of men, women and children being herded into straw huts and burned alive. Refugees arrived in Tanzania with their hands, ears, even their feet chopped off. This year the Tutsis are being more discreet, killing mainly at night. But a nun assigned to the area to treat leprosy said she has no work because "everyone has fled--or is dead." Farther down the road a Jeunesse waved his rifle and boasted: "It's very simple. They want to kill us, so we must kill them first."

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 for the moment--sharing the same hills and villages. But calm will prevail only as long as there is no effort to change the ages-old system of ubuhake (literally meaning servitude), under which the herd-keeping Tutsis lease their cattle to Hutu farmers for food and pledges of vassalage.

Burundi's handsome Tutsi President Colonel Michel Micombero, 33, who came to power seven years ago by ousting the decadent royal clan, denies any intent to exterminate the Hutus. He likes to point out that many of them belong to his Uprona Party, and claims that much of the killing has resulted from invasion attempts by Hutus living in exile in Tanzania. Seated in the summer house of his lakeside palace while two crested cranes paced back and forth in a nearby cage, Micombero explained: "Just as in the U.S. and most other countries, it is the political majority that rules rather than an ethnic majority." Throughout the entire interview he did not use the words Tutsi or Hutu once, apparently in an attempt to emphasize his determination to eradicate tribal distinctions. "It is true that many have died in Burundi," he said. "My own people started the terrible troubles of last year, but they were stirred by outsiders. This year there is internal peace, broken only by external attacks." With emotion Micombero added: "I am trying to consolidate the unity of my country, and would like to see our brothers outside our borders return and settle down to a guaranteed peace." To restrain excesses he has helicoptered to the South several times in recent weeks. But the bloodshed is bound to continue until his fellow Tutsis once more feel unchallenged in their dominant role in Burundi.

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