“1972, the mayi mulele, rebels or collaborators of the power of Bujumbura?” –

2023-04-28 13:24:44

”1972: the Mayi Mulele, rebels or collaborators of the government of Bujumbura? ”

The Mayi Mulele were presented by the power of Bujumbura as being the triggers of the massive killings committed throughout the country in 1972-1973, according to Pierre Claver Ndayicariye president of the CVR. But questions arise about these Mayi Mulele rebels:

Who were they, what relations did they have with the power of the time
It was the commissioner of the CVR Aloys Batungwanayo, who made a communication to give answers to all these questions about the Mayi Mulele.

According to Aloys Batungwanayo, the mayi mulele do not exist, they are rather fighters of the Simba movement created by Pierre Mulele, former Minister of Education, under the regime of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Mayi was their motto, Mulele is Pierre’s name.

Simba’s fighters, in the case of Burundi, according to Commissioner Aloys Batungwanayo, are mercenaries who were hired by the Micombero regime to trigger the massacres, first against the Batutsi, so that Micombero could do battle with the danger that was for him, represented by the intellectual Bahutu and the Batutsi Banyaruguru, that is to say the Batutsi who were not Bahima.

So they are, he adds, mercenaries who were invited, fed, paid and housed by the Micombero regime.

Micombero concocts a plan to eliminate the bahutu and eliminate the batutsi banyaruguru, and to trigger this plan, he then uses mercenaries, who are Simba’s fighters, who were named Mayi Mulele.

Still according to Aloys Batungwanayo, when he spoke of Mayi Mulele, he meant the bahutu quite simply because, still according to the commissioner of the CVR, Micombero organized night patrols all over the country, with a clear message: ”you organize the round, you put up barriers, to counter the advance of the mayi mulele” and the people who were arrested were only bahutu.

Commissioner Aloys Batungwanayo affirms that the CVR has proof that Batutsi were sacrificed in particular at Rumonge, in Bujumbura, so that the plan to eliminate the Bahutu could be accomplished. Commander Nduwingoma Samuel, commander of the Bururi camp wanted to intervene in Rumonge, on April 30, 1972, arrived at the level of Mutambara, he received the order to turn back when he was going to intervene to save the Batutsi.

The Republican Guard which intervened in Rumonge, waited three days, while Yanda Executive Secretary of the Uprona party and Minister of the Party of Information as well as Shibura Albert Minister of the Interior and Justice, had been witnesses of the massacres the evening of April 29, 1972.

The massacres against the Bamanuka began in Rumonge on the evening of April 29, 1972 and ended on May 2, 1972. The Mayi mulele mercenaries had said that they were on a mission which was to end on May 2. They then left for Zaire by canoe on the evening of May 2, 1972. For Aloys Batungwanayo, the Republican Guard intervened on May 3, 1972, to have a pretext to eliminate those he wanted to eliminate, specified the speaker of the day .

Asked whether there was blind repression, as more than one say, speaking of the massive killings of 1972, Aloys Batungwanayo replied with a question: can a regime, a power repress a population? Repression is said when there has been a well-determined group which has organized an insurrection.

What had the bahutu organized to repress them throughout the country? What had the batutsi banyaruguru organized so that they were repressed throughout the country? Aloys Batungwanayo still wonders.
For him, the word repression goes into what is called denial of what happened.

Commissioner Aloys Batungwanayo clarified that all the TRC currently shows is the current stage of research and that it is ready to consider those who say the opposite or give other versions of the facts on the condition of giving proofs.

The presentation was followed by discussions and testimonies, where most of the speakers recognized that only the truth will save the Burundians, that the ultimate goal to be achieved is an effective reconciliation of the Burundians. The participants called on Burundians to recognize themselves first as Burundians because ethnicity is worthless.