The Hutu and Tutsi have always hated each other, but most people would never have thought that either of them would turn to genocide.
Causes of the Burundi Genocide
Burundi gained its independence in 1962, and in May 1965 the first post-independence elections were held. In this election, the Hutu scored a great victory gaining 23 seats out of 33. Instead of appointing a Hutu prime minister, the king Ntare V, appointed one of his Tutsi friends prime minister. This angered many of the Hutus and caused many of them to attempt to illegally seize power. Frightened by this, Ntare V fled Burundi and eventually the Hutu failed to seize power. A few years later in April of 1972, Ntare V returned to Burundi. Though, not so long after his arrival, he was assassinated. This led to many political disputes, and finally the first out break between the Hutu and Tutsi occured.
Tutsi Army arresting Hutu suspects
The Hutu Rebellion
On April 27, 1972, a group of Hutu policeman rebelled against the Tutsi in the lakeside towns of Rumonge and Nyanza-Lac. This group of Hutu members proceeded to kill every Tutsi and any Hutu that refused to join the rebellion. The estimated amount of deaths for this incident ranged from 800-1200 people.
The Genocide
The Hutu rebellion on April 27, 1972 angered many people including the Tutsi president, Michel Micombero. He ordered the Tutsi army to proceed to slaughter all the Hutus. This genocide was clearly planned out and first started to target Hutu that were well educated and military trained. Later though, the Tutsi army moved on to larger civilian populations. Towards the end of May in 1972, the massacre finally ended. Educated Hutu were virtually wiped out. It is estimated that 100,000 to 300,000 Hutus were killed, not including the several hundred thousands Hutus that fled from the genocide to the countries Zaire, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The Hutu population in Burundi was almost completely gone.
Hutu child grieving for lost loved ones