The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1965. The Dark Heart Of Africa

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30653, 20 January 1965, Page 14

The Press WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1965. The Dark Heart Of Africa

Even in a continent as large as Africa, the twin States of Rwanda and Burundi (together not much larger than Canterbury) have provided since their independence in 1962 such horrifying events that they cannot be overlooked, although they are small. Nor have they been overlooked by great Powers. The murder of the Prime Minister of Burundi, hitherto the more stable of the two, is a further evidence of the grim narrative of the dark heart of Africa. Rwanda and Burundi, coffee and cotton lands enclosed by Uganda, Tanganyika, and the Congo, were once part of German East Africa and, until 1961, formed a Belgian-administered United Nations trust territory. Under United Nations pressure, Belgium withdrew; since then, except for the International Red Cross, there has been little outside concern over the strain between the two new States or the dreadful race slaughter in Rwanda. Nor has the United Nations answered Burundi’s appeals for its support against alleged territorial violations by Rwanda. When Rwanda was given a provisional Government in 1960, tens of thousands of the Watutsi tribe, formerly feudal overlords over the majority Bahutu, fled into neighbouring countries. In December, 1963, a small army of Watutsi, backed by “ unidentified agitators ” (as the United Nations report said), recrossed the border. Bloody retaliation extended indiscriminately to resident Watutsi. The slaughter was reported variously at 8000 to 20,000 men, women, and children. Mr Ngendandumwe, the assassinated Burundi Prime Minister, alleged that the mass murders were encouraged by the Rwanda authorities as part of their campaign against the opposition political party. Burundi is also one of the largest centres of Chinese political agitation in Africa, exceeded only by Dar-es-Salaam, the capital of Tanganyika and Tanzania. China’s appearance in Africa is accompanied by little practical aid. From Burundi has come some of the inspiration for the tribal rebellions in the Congo and it is the headquarters of Colonel Kan Mai, a Chinese guerrilla specialist. The Burundi Prime Minister must have had many bitter enemies and rivals. It is the unhappy fate of these countries that while other nations remain through force of circumstances or through disinterest on the sidelines, or interfere dangerously, old tribal and new political enmities are expressed in ugly violence.