Gatumba Massacres : filing of several complaints for crimes against humanity and genocide

The Banyamulenge community living in Burundi and that of the diaspora commemorate on Tuesday the massacre of more than 160 Congolese that occurred on August 13, 2004 in Gatumba, about twenty kilometers from the commercial city of Bujumbura and not far from the Burundi-DRC border of Kavimvira. Several complaints for crimes against humanity and genocide have been filed. For French lawyer Dominique Inchauspé, this is a warning shot against all those who would like to continue this kind of activities. INFO SOS Médias Burundi
The complaints were filed in Burundi, Rwanda and at the military prosecutor’s office of South Kivu in eastern Congo as well as with the ICC (International Criminal Court). The choice of these countries is explained by lawyer Dominique Inchauspé, a lawyer from the Paris bar who represents the Foundation of Survivors of the Gatumba Massacres.
« There were three types of attackers who attacked the Gatumba camp : people from the National Front for the Liberation of Burundi, predominantly Hutu, people from the armed forces of the DR Congo who are said to be Mai-Mai militiamen incorporated into the army and then former Interahamwe from Rwanda who have taken refuge in Congo », explained the lawyer in an interview with SOS Médias Burundi.
« Each of these complaints targets one of the categories of attackers. And to the extent that Congo has joined the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction in cases in which nationals of the DR Congo may have committed acts of genocide or crimes against humanity, so we have also referred the matter to the International Criminal Court ».
First criminal proceedings initiated
When people are victims of extremely serious or even less serious offences, says lawyer Dominique Inchauspé, the first fundamental need is for justice to take into account this suffering with the start of investigations.
« Until then – and this was also one of my surprises – no criminal proceedings seemed to have been initiated in any of these three countries, particularly in Burundi, which is quite surprising. So the first objective has almost been achieved. It is to seize these courts and start investigations so that survivors and victims’ families know that their suffering and these terrible offences are being taken care of, » he continues.
For him, the second stage « we have two official political figures of Burundi who have not hidden that their movement, the FNL was at the origin of the Gatumba massacre. It is Mr. Agathon Rwasa and Mr. Pasteur Habimana but these people are still alive, still living in Burundi and one of them even ran in the presidential elections. So we have a completely correct and reasonable hope that justice can move in the direction of these two people ».
Crime against humanity and genocide
According to Dominique Inchauspé, Doctor of Law who has already published works on criminal law with the Presses Universitaires de France and fiction, the Gatumba massacres constitute a genocide and a crime against humanity legally. « The people of Gatumba were massacred because they were Banyamulenge and that’s it [….]. So for an ethnicity, it makes it a crime against humanity and a genocide… A group of genocidaires caught up with them there in Burundi where other genocidaires were waiting for them », he explains.
Relative inaction of the international community
Investigations of the UN and the international community in 2004 did not give rise at that time to a referral, even by the Security Council, to the International Criminal Court.
« It reminded me, all things considered, of the relative inaction of the international community while massacres were being carried out in Rwanda in the open on the media. It was shocking for a lawyer… », deplores Dominique Inchauspé.
Relative anonymity
According to the lawyer, the tragic Gatumba case has fallen into relative anonymity. With the filing of these complaints, he hopes that this terrible case will be brought out of the relative anonymity in which it was bathed.
« […] I will approach the prosecutors of these three countries, request hearings, do normal lawyer work, but all this will give the impetus to an exit from the anonymity of this case », rejoices French lawyer Dominique Inchauspé who represents the Foundation of the survivors of the Gatumba massacres.
Warning shot
Mr. Dominique Inchauspé speaks of a warning shot that also concerns the entire Great Lakes region of Africa.
« More generally, there needs to be more legal action for everything that is happening in the Great Lakes region, particularly regarding the Banyamulenge community which, even at this moment, is the subject of preparatory pre-genocidal acts still in the DR Congo. I think that the simple fact of publicizing the filing of complaints, of speaking about them freely as we are doing now, is a warning shot against all those who would like to continue this kind of conduct, » concludes the lawyer.
The complaints were filed during the first week of August 2024. Complainants received acknowledgements of receipt for each of the accusations.
The victims of Gatumba had fled the fighting in their country before being installed in the transit camp in the Gatumba zone in the district of Mutimbuzi in the province of Bujumbura (west) in 2004. Of the 166 persons killed, 154 were from the Banyamulenge community and 12 from the Babembe tribe.
In 2004, in the freshness of the massacres, Pasteur Habimana, who was spokesperson for the Hutu movement – National Liberation Front (FNL), had assumed that the attack was led by his movement before changing the version of events.
Espérance Nyasezerano was 12 years old at the time. She was shot in the thigh. This mother of one child who now lives in the United States is the head of the Gatumba Massacre Survivors Foundation. For Nyasezerano, « the masters who are behind this genocide are still walking freely in Burundi ».
« That is why we want the UN, Burundi and our country, the DRC, to follow up on this case and ensure that anyone who played a role in these killings is arrested and punished, » she says.