The John Family’s Struggles

The John Family’s Struggles

In 1972 the small, central African nation of Burundi experienced a civil war that left behind deep, bitter divisions amongst the Burundian population. The government urged all citizens to forgive each other for the 1972 killings and held democratic presidential elections in 1993. Melchior Ndadaye, leader of the Hutu dominated Front for Democracy (FRODEBU), won the election, becoming the nation’s first Hutu President. Unfortunately, members of the Tutsi-dominated army assassinated Ndadaye, leading to a cycle of deadly reprisals. Joselyne’s father, Ntahizaniye, was asked to give himself and his sons to the civil war effort, but he refused and thus the family was forced to flee to Tanzania where they lived in the Lukole refugee camp for eight years.

As a result of continuous instability at the Lukole camp, and faced with the unknown dangers of being repatriated to Burundi, they fled once more in 2001, this time to the Dzaleka refugee camp in Malawi. The family has been living at Dzaleka ever since, unable to return to Burundi. They live in terrible fear of forced repatriation to a country where their lives are endangered by both sides of the conflict for a number of reasons.

• Because of his conscientious objection to partaking in killing innocent people, Ntahizaniye would be considered an “unproductive citizen” and a traitor by the Hutu armed forces still active in Burundi.

• Although the John family fully supports the peace process, they remain marked as targets because of their time spent at Lukole. This is because Burundian refugees from the 1972 conflict “residing in Tanzania outside the refugee camps formed a radical opposition party that opposes the peace agreement, and it is widely assumed in Burundi that the refugees in the camps share that opposition”.[1]

• In spite of a peace agreement signed between the government and the Forces Nationales de Libération (FNL) in September 2006, armed conflicts continue to proliferate in Burundi.[2]

• The family’s property in Burundi has been illegally appropriated, leaving them with nothing to return to. Land is a complicated issue for potential return­ees. In densely populated and agrarian Burundi, access to farmland is competitive and controversial, especially for those who have been displaced.[3] Many areas cleared by the civil war are also fraught with landmines that have yet to be cleared, making them extremely dangerous places to resettle.

• Several of Ntahizaniye and Helen’s children were born in refugee camps, leaving them without a citizenship of any kind, further complicating their potential repatriation.

• Lastly, there are very serious shortages in Burundian state resources and social services like health care, education and food supplies to support returning refugees.[4]