Abstract
Armed violence and genocide are among the on-going problems that are still facing contemporary Africa and the world. In the aftermath of the outrages, devastation and appalling carnage of the Second World War, member states of the United Nations (UN) undertook radical steps, inter alia, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights". Subsequently, the International Bill of Human Rights was proclaimed in order to lay down international human rights norms and standards of conduct and to prevent the recurrence of mass killings. Although Burundi is a State Party to the UN and African Union and is a signatory to a number of international and regional human rights treaties, the post-colonial history of Burundi is an epic tale of indescribable human suffering and misery as a result of systematic mass killings. At least every family or household in Burundi has been negatively affected by the mass killings of the 1960s, 1972, 1988 and 1990s, which have created a significant number of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).This article traces the root causes of Burundi's systemic armed violence and argues that despite several UN Security Council Resolutions and peace agreements aimed at national reconciliation and reconstruction, mass killings and other heinous crimes remain unaddressed. The article recommends that a comprehensive transitional justice model is required in post-conflict Burundi in order to bring about national reconciliation, healing and reconstruction.
Highlights
Human insecurity due to armed violence in the African continent is among the main obstacles preventing the attainment of sustainable economic development
This article considers selected examples of the armed violence and emphasises that memories of the mass killings or "genocide"94 are still fresh among Burundians survivors' minds
A politician from CNND-FDD ruling party reported that: I recall the genocide incidents since 1972; there was massacre of civilians in the southern parts of Burundi because of the Hutu extermination plan which was to be executed by Tutsis in April 1972
Summary
Human insecurity due to armed violence in the African continent is among the main obstacles preventing the attainment of sustainable economic development. The article highlights the issues of selective morality and double standards in that, while the international community responded with the necessary resolve in the Rwandese genocide of 1994,13 the sordid case of Burundi in the post-colonial era remains a major challenge to the conscience of the international community It argues that the post-conflict government in Burundi has failed to achieve national healing and reconciliation, to. This coinage of human misery are extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions without trial, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, the ill-treatment of minorities such as Burundians belonging to the Twa ethnic grouping and people with Albinism, returnees from exile who are categorized as "foreigners" and gender-based violence.. This coinage of human misery are extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions without trial, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, the ill-treatment of minorities such as Burundians belonging to the Twa ethnic grouping and people with Albinism, returnees from exile who are categorized as "foreigners" and gender-based violence. These and other related challenges will be elucidated hereunder
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