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6 - Couper tout ce qui dépasse

Truth and Violence

from Part III - 1968–1972: ‘Please Send Me a Car to Take Them Away’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2019

Aidan Russell
Affiliation:
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
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Summary

In 1972, a localised rebellion against the Tutsi-dominated state triggered a ‘selective’ genocide against the Hutu population. This chapter considers the actions and representations of the rebellion, then examines the phases of genocidal repression: massacres in the areas affected by the rebellion, the elimination of prominent politicians, and the decentralised arrest and disappearance of key individuals across the countryside. It explores the processes of legal triage that authorised the murder of civilians through the categorisation of suspicious classes of local intellectuals, teachers, priests and successful traders. It devotes special attention to the role of the youth league in the local repression, partly captured by the control of information and the bureaucratisation of violence. It then considers the different faces of truth in violence: total state denial, the use of frank truth as hopeless protest, the lingering possibilities of loyalty to official truth, and the construction of new truths in the aftermath. The chapter ends with the popular renditions of a postcolonial order, in the nature of violent authority and ethnic community, as being revealed through violence.

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Chapter
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Politics and Violence in Burundi
The Language of Truth in an Emerging State
, pp. 227 - 269
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Couper tout ce qui dépasse
  • Aidan Russell, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
  • Book: Politics and Violence in Burundi
  • Online publication: 03 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108581530.012
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  • Couper tout ce qui dépasse
  • Aidan Russell, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
  • Book: Politics and Violence in Burundi
  • Online publication: 03 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108581530.012
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Couper tout ce qui dépasse
  • Aidan Russell, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva
  • Book: Politics and Violence in Burundi
  • Online publication: 03 October 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108581530.012
Available formats
×