Background Briefing

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“A Swarm of Bees”: Pillage, Looting, and Occupation of Property

Most of the mobile units of government soldiers and FDD combatants arrived in Bujumbura rural without supplies and engaged in “stocking up en route” [le ravitaillement sur itinéraire]43 “It is like a swarm of bees that have invaded us,” said one woman of the FDD combatants.44

On February 23 and 24, government soldiers looted 128 households on the hill of Ruhabiro, near Gasarara, carrying off chickens, beans, oil, soap, cooking pots, blankets, hoes, and gerry cans. They also looted 200 households on the hill Buzige Musumba and 136 households on the hill Buzige Mugubve.45 In some cases, soldiers simply destroyed property, apparently to punish and humiliate the civilian population: they turned over pots full of food, broke jugs of beer, or dug up bananas that were being ripened to make beer.46 “They’d rather poke a hole in a pot than leave it whole,” said one woman. “They pull up the manioc growing in the fields and even stamp on the young shoots so that they will not grow.”47 Residents of Kabezi reported that soldiers who looted on their hill on March 20 went so far as to defecate in their cooking pots.48

In some cases, such as at Nyabibondo in Nyabiraba commune in early February, the soldiers looted immediately after humanitarian assistance had been distributed, when local people would have the largest possible amount of supplies on hand. At Kinyami and Mayemba, Nyabibondo, Nyabiraba, they fired in the air to make civilians flee so that they could loot the goods that they left behind in flight. In still other cases, soldiers followed the civilians to the homes of others where they had sought safety.49 One woman displaced at Mugere lamented, “We always have a little bundle of things ready in case we have to flee. After coming back from their attack [against the FNL] the soldiers came to find us where we had fled. They searched everything, took our money, the clothes we had brought along, everything that we had taken in flight. I lost everything. In my little packet, there were clothes, plates, a cooking pot.”50

Residents of Bujumbura rural also reported looting by the FDD. According to one woman, “On Sunday we had put on our best clothes to go to mass. The FDD stopped us on the way and made us undress. They spared no one. They stole everything. We were left without even a cloth or a pair of pants. Even those who offered them money were forced to undress. We felt humiliated.”51

As in the past government soldiers required civilians to provide them with unpaid and forced labor, including cutting and transporting firewood, fetching water, transporting goods from one post to another. At Buhama in Mutambu, government soldiers surrounded a church where a service was being held and required twelve men to come provide transport for their goods.52 In areas occupied by the FDD, they now require the same services from nearby residents. At Mbara Gasara, FDD require people to furnish firewood and at Rushubi they require unpaid contributions of food two or three times a week.53 “Even someone who has nothing tries to find something to give,” said one person, “because if you refuse you are taken for a collaborator with the FNL.”54

The FNL also force the population to donate food and other goods and to attend political meetings. They mete out punishments like beatings and fines to those who do not comply with their directives.55 A JPH youth group collect goods and provide other services to the FNL, such as transporting the wounded and keeping track of attendance at FNL political meetings. According to one witness, young people in areas dominated by the FNL are generally obliged to join the JPH, whether they want to or not. “If parents refuse [to have their children participate] they are threatened with death.”56 The FNL refuse to tolerate any expression of dissent from their policy of continuing the war. “We’re afraid to tell our ideas about [ending the war] to the FNL,” said one old man. “They don’t seem ready to accept that right now. If anyone talks that way to the FNL, then we will find heads on the road.”57           



[43] Human Rights Watch interview, Ruyaga, February 26, 2004.

[44] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, February 26, 2004.

[45] Human Rights Watch interviews, Buhonga, March 11 and Bujumbura, March 18, 2004.

[46] Human Rights Watch interviews, Bujumbura, November 27 and December 5, 2003; March 22, 2004.

[47] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, March 22, 2004.

[48] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, March 22, 2004. The unit responsible was said to be the Bakongwe (see below in Chain of command and impunity).

[49] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, February 18, 2004.

[50] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, March 18, 2004.

[51] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, February 18, 2004.

[52] Human Rights Watch interview, Mutambu, March 12, 2004.

[53] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, March 17, 2004.

[54] Human Rights Watch interview, Rushubi, March 19, 2004.

[55] Human Rights Watch interviews, Bujumbura, November 27, 2003 and March 2, 2004.

[56] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, March 4, 2004.

[57] Human Rights Watch interview, Bujumbura, November 27, 2003.


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