GITEGA July 9th (ABP) – The Senate President, Mr. Emmanuel Sinzohagera, received in audience on Wednesday July 7, in Gitega (central Burundi), the Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Mr. Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, along with two commissioners of that commission.
They exchanged on the state of development of the activities of the TRC and on the role of national institutions, such as the Senate, in supporting the activities of the TRC, said Mr. Ndayicariye during an interview with the hurry.
Regarding the achievements already carried out by the TRC, Mr. Ndayicariye indicated that this Commission has just completed the work of exhuming the bones of the mass graves of the murdered persons and listening to the witnesses of the 1972 crisis.
Those works succeeded similar activities that the TRC had previously carried out in Gitega, Karusi, Bururi, Rumonge and Makamba provinces.
The TRC Chairman said that the conclusion drawn is that in those different provinces, the spontaneity of witnesses on the intelligence of mass graves and other testimonies is not at the same rate. He thus invited the national institutions, in this case the Senate, to sensitize the population so that they understand the importance of the information that the TRC seeks on these events. “It is a truth which will help the Burundians to build the pillars of reconciliation”, underlined Mr. Ndayicariye, who announced that the TRC will soon continue those activities of exhumation of the human bones of the tragic events of 1972 which have bereaved families and listen to witnesses in the province of Bujumbura City Council.
The TRC Chairman then announced that this Commission also plans to organize a national investigation to identify people who were murdered and / or disappeared during the various crises that marked Burundi. He added that the TRC will need the increase in financial means, given that the investigators will be nationals of all the provinces, all the communes and all the villages where the investigation will take place.
He therefore called on national institutions to support the activities of the TRC. Likewise, he asked for the involvement of Burundians, in their social and political diversity, in this work of truth and reconciliation. He expressed his thanks to the Senate which organized the five conferences on the events of 1972.