BURUNDI: Meeting to honour unsung heroes, heroines opens

BUJUMBURA, 16 Apr 2004 (IRIN) - A three-day meeting convened by the international NGO Search for Common Ground (SCG) opened on Friday in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura, to honour the nation's unsung heroes and heroines: ordinary Burundians who risked their lives to save others over the course of the country's decade-long civil war.

The meeting is expected to celebrate the courage of at least 100 Burundians who risked their lives and those of their families to save people from ethnic communities different from their own.

SCG said these heroes and heroines comprised ordinary people from different provinces, and of different religions and occupations. They include farmers, priests and nuns, who all shared their extraordinary courage during difficult times.

Nyandwi Francois, who saved at least 30 Hutus in 1972, is one of these heroes. So is Anastasie Naburiri, who saved several Tutsi families from death in 1988 at Ntega in the northern province of Kirundo.

Floride Gahimbare, who saved 17 Tutsis in 1993 at Rutegama in the central province of Muramvya, is another heroine. She still cries when she recalls her ordeal, but does not regret her deeds. "My brother was killed by a Tutsi while we were accompanying those we had saved to a military position, and my sisters despise me for that, accusing me of responsibility for his death," she said.

Looking at the killings that have taken place in the Great Lakes region, "one would think residents are all killers with no respect of human values. This is totally false, as many people risked their lives to say no to violence," Lena Slachmuijlder, the director of Studio Ijambo, the co-conveners of the summit, said. "Such people can well be found in different ethnic groups in the region: Tutsi, Hutu, Hema, Lendu," she said. "That is why such heroes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda are also attending the meeting."

The meeting aims to portray another face of the region, and especially to inspire the heroes and heroines to persevere in striving to achieve peace and reconciliation.

The minister in charge of mobilisation for peace and reconciliation, Antoine Butoyi, who attended the meeting's inaugural ceremony, said the existence of such heroes and heroines in countries torn by recurrent ethnic violence was an indication that people could overcome their ethnic differences and fight poverty, their common enemy.

The meeting is the first of its kind in Burundi. The heroes and heroines were identified through a radio programme, "Inkingi y' ubuntu", produced by Studio Ijambo, during which the heroes and heroines, those they saved, and their neighbours gave testimonies of their courage and humanity.

During three-day event, the heroes and heroines will share their experiences in the company of representatives of different associations working for peace and reconciliation in Burundi.

[ENDS]