Country background
Burundi has had its share of ethnic conflicts over the past four decades. From its independence from Belgium in 1962 up to the elections of 1993, Burundi was controlled by a series of military dictators, all from the Tutsi minority. These years saw extensive ethnic violence including major incidents in 1964 and the late 1980s, and the Burundian Hutu genocide in 1992. In 1993, Burundi held its first democratic elections, which were won by the Hutu-dominated Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU). FRODEBU leader Melchior Ndadaye became Burundi 's first Hutu President, but a few months later he was assassinated by a group of Tutsi army officers. The killing plunged Burundi into a vicious civil war.
In retaliation for Ndadaye's killing, Hutu extremists murdered thousands of Tutsi civilians in a genocidal campaign. The Tutsi-dominated army responded by massacring similar amounts of Hutus. Years of instability followed until 1996, when former president Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, took power in a coup. In August 2000, a peace-deal agreed to by all but two of Burundi 's political groups laid out a timetable for the restoration of democracy. After several more years of violence, a ceasefire was signed in 2003 between Buyoya's government and the largest Hutu rebel group, CNDD-FDD. Later that year, FRODEBU leader Domitien Ndayizeye replaced Buyoya as president. Yet the most extreme Hutu group, Palipehutu-FNL (commonly known as "FNL"), continued to refuse negotiations. In August 2004, the group massacred 152 Congolese Tutsi refugees at the Gatumba refugee camp in western Burundi . In response to the attack, the Burundian government issued arrest warrants for the FNL leaders Agathon Rwasa and Pasteur Habimana, and declared the group a terrorist organization.
In May 2005, a ceasefire was finally agreed between the FNL and the Burundian government, but fighting continued alongside renewed negotiations and fears of an FNL demand for a blanket amnesty in exchange for laying down their arms. A series of elections, held in mid-2005 were won by the former Hutu rebel National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD). On September 7, 2006, a second ceasefire agreement was signed.
The situation in this country is evolving rapidly towards a positive outcome of stabilization and institution-building. Leaders as well as the whole population are now engaged in the search for alternative approaches to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
Burundi / Strategy
As in its other campaigns, Radio Benevolencija plans to continue its broadcast and knowledge-embedding activities in Burundi for at least three years.