[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 75 (Friday, May 24, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5652-S5653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMBASSADOR ROBERT KRUEGER

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, our former colleague in the Senate, 
Ambassador Robert Krueger, has been nominated to be Ambassador to 
Botswana after serving as Ambassador to Burundi. A report that he sent 
around to some friends about Burundi is worth reading for anyone 
interested in that troubled nation.
  I ask that Ambassador Krueger's report be printed in the Record.
  The report follows:

             Burundi: An Oklahoma City Massacre Every Hour

        (A Report by Ambassador Robert Krueger, April 24, 1996)

       Summary: The situation in Burundi is more threatening to 
     human life and democracy, with a greater chance for major 
     conflagration, than at any time in the last two years. A 
     European diplomat says that ``if the world gives up on 
     Burundi . . . perhaps a million may die'' there. (End 
     summary.)
       On the weekend of April 19, Americans mourned again and 
     reflected on the worst terrorist attack in our history: 168 
     people killed a year ago in Oklahoma City. Television cameras 
     covered the scene; dignitaries spoke on the occasion; and 
     citizens everywhere questioned how terror could strike so 
     unexpectedly, shattering lives in an instant and a sense of 
     security for years.
       But if we adjust proportionately for the difference in 
     populations, Burundi has an Oklahoma City-size massacre every 
     hour of the day. Burundi's population is only about one-
     forty-second (1/42) that of the USA. Hence, 4 people being 
     killed in Burundi are numerically equivalent to 168 killed in 
     the USA. Regrettably, a reasonable estimate is that 100 
     people are killed daily in Burundi; or, four every hour, 24 
     hours a day.
       Understandably, cameras in America focussed, on April 19, 
     1996, on Oklahoma City; or on Lebanon, where at least 75 were 
     killed. And world attention naturally follows the camera. 
     Yet, normally there are no international camera crews in 
     Burundi. But the filling continues.
       This cable is a reminder that in an obscure country in the 
     heart of Africa, the killing is proportionately vastly 
     heavier than what the cameras are covering; or, indeed, than 
     in almost any place else in the world. And as the protagonist 
     of Arthur Miller's play ``Death of a Salesman'' said, 
     ``Attention must be paid.''
       I recently sent a summary report (Secstate 80807) stating 
     that I had perceived a steady destruction of democracy and an 
     increase in mayhem during my almost two-year tenure as 
     ambassador to Burundi. And the situation now seems to me 
     worse than when the cable was first drafted several weeks 
     ago. Even though I have not been in Burundi for the past 7\1/
     2\ months, and I must rely on the reports of various 
     individuals whom I learned to trust when I was there, I am 
     regrettably but firmly convinced that the situation in 
     Burundi is at this moment more precarious, with a larger 
     possibility of massive bloodshed, than at any time since my 
     arrival in Burundi in June, 1994.
       In 1994, and often in 1995, visitors would regularly ask, 
     ``Will Burundi be another Rwanda?'' with, of course, all the 
     fears of historically large genocide which the question 
     carries. My response was ``I won't predict for more than two 
     months or so into the future; but, no, we will not have a 
     Rwanda-type disaster in that period.'' And that much proved 
     true.
       But today, I find that the president of the large political 
     party, Dr. Minani of Frodebu, has openly written in official 
     public documents, just two weeks ago, that the believes 
     Burundi is in a situation like that of Rwanda before April 6, 
     1994, the onset of the deluge. Other Burundi leaders and 
     foreign diplomats with whom I have spoken sound more ominous 
     tones than anything I had heard in Burundi during my time 
     there.

 ``The center will not hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.''--
                               W.B. Yeats

       While the international community and those who support 
     democratic institutions in Burundi have both hoped that 
     political centrists and moderates would gain greater control, 
     the country has instead become increasingly polarized. As the 
     poet Yeats said, writing of another revolution, ``The 
     center will not hold.'' Certainly it has not held in 
     Burundi, and the risk is increasing of mere anarchy being 
     loosed--if not upon the world--then at least upon Burundi 
     and other countries in Central Africa.
       The president and prime minister no longer travel together, 
     and are said to be openly at odds. The prime minister's 
     party, Uprona, has renewed its periodic call for the 
     president's resignation. Moreover, the divisions are not only 
     inter-party, but intra-party. Many Hutu members of parliament 
     are now more sympathetic with Nyangoma than with their 
     official leadership. And divisions among the Tutsi 
     community--in the army itself, within Uprona, within the 
     various minor parties--are forcing people more and more to 
     the extremes.


 prime minister tells the populace to defend itself against ``enemies''

       As is well known, the prime minister several weeks ago 
     called upon the population to defend itself against its 
     ``enemies.'' But, as Dr. Minani pointed out in a recent 
     Frodebu announcement, the Prime Minister did not define who 
     those enemies were. That determination was left to the minds 
     of the arming populace. Such calls to self-defense, it is 
     reliably reported, have been repeated in the prime minister's 
     visits to various locations in the countryside. Meanwhile, 
     the FDD and other guerrilla groups have enlarged their 
     attacks. And in face of an impotent civilian government 
     incapable of protecting them, the majority of the population 
     have sometimes given support to guerrillas even as they 
     spread terror.


                         immolation and murder

       Consider some of the events of the last several weeks, 
     reported to me from several sources that have proven reliable 
     in the past.
       (A) In an act of ethnic purification, over Easter weekend, 
     22 Hutu domestic workers were immolated in Nyakabiga quarter 
     in Bujumbura by their Tutsi employers.
       (B) Reportedly, 50 Hutus, including community leaders, were 
     killed in the city of Gitega: all were members of Frodebu and 
     related Hutu minor parties. The head of the agriculture 
     department for that region and several teachers in secondary 
     schools were among those murdered. The provincial governor 
     has now fled, as have other Hutu political leaders from 
     Gitega, the second-largest city in Burundi. To judge from 
     recent government actions in other provinces, the civilian 
     governor's departure will offer an excuse to replace him with 
     yet another military governor.
       (C) Even the national radio, known to favor Tutsi 
     interests, and likely to underestimate the killing, has 
     acknowledged that at least 300 people were killed in Gitega 
     province between April 5-12.
       (D) Tutsi extremists have driven the Red Cross from the 
     city of Gitega so hat it will be unable to witness and 
     possibly report on the carnage.
       (E) The FDD attacked and killed a large number of Tutsi 
     students in an urban center (the name of which I failed to 
     record).
       (F) After an attack by the FDD against the army, at Bukeye, 
     on April 10 the army killed more than 30 Hutu civilians in 
     revenge.
       (G) An official in the security service has confirmed that 
     members of the military are recruiting Tutsi civil servants 
     and students, training them, and issuing them weapons for use 
     against their ``enemies'' in the countryside.
       (H) A university official has confirmed that a letter 
     circulating now on campus has been signed by over 100 Tutsi 
     students, urging their classmates to stop academic work and 
     take up arms with them against

[[Page S5653]]

     Nyangoma and his allies (i.e. Hutus) in the Bujumbura 
     quartiers of Mutanga Nord, Kinama, and the countryside.
       (I) Lt. Col. Nzeyimana Dieudonne, a high-ranking officer in 
     the gendarmerie, was assassinated on 20 April (reportedly by 
     Sans Echec) in Bujumbura.
       (J) The Hutu parliamentarian Gahungu Gerard, from the 
     Province of Cibitoke--a moderate with a Tutsi wife, was 
     killed by a gunman in Ngagara.
       (K) On 20 April, at least 7 (perhaps more) Hutus were 
     killed in the Bujumbura quartier of Nyakabiga, having been 
     kidnapped and brought there from other parts of the city.
       (L) Over 30 Hutus were massacred in the commune of Rutovo 
     by Tutsi militias, assisted by the army.
       (M) A secondary school (lycee) in Kayanza was attacked with 
     grenades; two students were killed, others injured.

        ``Perhaps a million will die. . .''--a European diplomat

       The above are a few illustrations of what is happening. 
     They form but a fraction of the total picture. I have 
     received reports of fighting during the past two weeks in 
     Bubanza, Gatumba, Ngozi, Mutare, Karuzi, Gitega, Rutama, 
     Bururi, and other locations. One reliable source said that at 
     least 75-80% of the country is currently shaken by violence. 
     A respected Western diplomat told me that every province 
     except Bujumbura was now subject to attack by guerilla 
     forces.
       Perhaps most poignantly, I was asked by a very experienced 
     European diplomat who once served in the USA and now serves 
     in Burundi, ``Please, I know the generosity of the American 
     people. Do what you can to see that the USA remains 
     concerned. I am afraid, (he continued) that most of the world 
     is about to give up on Burundi. But if the world gives up, 
     there is a risk that not just thousands, but perhaps a 
     million will die in a rage that no one can justify.''
       I am not suggesting that I expect a million people to die. 
     I do not. And I would be shocked if Burundi suffered carnage 
     on anything approaching that scale. Nor do I believe Burundi 
     has yet arrived at a situation similar to Rwanda on April 6, 
     1994.
       But when I observe that the president of the majority 
     political party and an experienced and balanced European 
     diplomat foresee such possibilities, it should give us pause. 
     Two years ago, very few people in Burundi used such severe 
     terms. These two would not have. Today, many others might do 
     so.
       If asked whether I am predicting the imminence of a major 
     civil war I would say: no. But with qualifications. During 
     the months I was present in Burundi, I said confidently that 
     no such event would occur within the next two months. I can 
     no longer confidently say that. I don't know if the 
     probability of such an event is 5%, 10%, 20% or higher. I do 
     know it is no longer an impossibility.
       Reports from every quarter describe the situation as more 
     precarious than in 1994 or 1995. The capacity of the Burundi 
     populace to absorb horrendous punishment and yet to persevere 
     is awesome, but not infinite. I don't know the trigger point 
     of national rage. And I have only the reports of others, not 
     of my own eyes. But all their eyes see the situation as 
     deteriorating more rapidly than before.
       An unclassified cable is not the place to explore 
     suggestions for possible ways to address all these problems. 
     Yet, as ambassador, I want without delay and without 
     reticence to offer a partial account of some of the events 
     and attitudes that now prevail in Burundi. They sound the 
     most threatening and dangerous toward peace, justice, 
     democracy and human life that I have heard during the period 
     that I have been privileged to serve as ambassador to 
     Burundi.

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