Armed violence against women in Burundi

While Burundi continues its slow advance towards stability and elections as the country’s civil war winds down, Burundians themselves are experiencing little in the way of a peace dividend. In the aftermath of a decade-long war, rural and urban residents are confronted with high levels of insecurity and violence. The proliferation of small arms is now the greatest threat to civilian security in Burundi; a civilian disarmament programme is under way, but has had little impact. An estimated 80% of households in the capital, Bujumbura, and in the larger provinces possess small arms. For the female population, the consequences are particularly dire.

In late 2004, I led a two-month assessment for UNDP of arms-related violence against women in Burundi. What had the flood of guns, grenades and other light weapons done to female livelihoods, family structures, women’s physical security and reproductive health? Are women predominantly passive victims, or do they play an active role in the violence by smuggling arms, hiding criminals or otherwise abetting armed groups? The assessment took place in eight of Burundi’s 16 provinces, selected on the basis of security, as well as the degree to which arms proliferation had occurred during the war.

The scale of the problem

During the conflict, both government and rebel leaders distributed automatic weapons to civil servants, teachers and other professionals across the country, ostensibly to reinforce civilian self-defence. No official records of these distributions appear to exist. Women we interviewed with connections to the political class told us that these weapons could only be reclaimed when a credible political solution had been found, one that fostered ethnic reconciliation between Hutu and Tutsi. Although politicians and military officials we interviewed in Bujumbura claimed to recognise the need for civilian disarmament, many Burundians regard arms as necessary to protect their homes, and for self-defence. There is widespread distrust of the political situation, and tensions from the civil war persist.

Many of the women we spoke to were opposed to civilian disarmament because they felt that arms were essential to domestic security: an insurance policy for the family. As women we interviewed in Cankuzo put it, ‘all the reasons why Burundians keep arms are still there’. The director of a local radio station, whose programming is devoted to reconciliation between ethnic groups, characterised the general feeling: ‘These days’, she said, ‘it’s not that I have a gun to fight in the war, I have a gun to defend myself against theft and banditry’. Unknown assailants had tossed grenades into her home two months earlier.

One of the reasons why the government’s disarmament programme has had little effect is that it offers no incentives to encourage people to hand in their arms. Gun ownership is highly lucrative, as guns are rented or sold to thieves. We were told that, after an armed attack with rented weapons, stolen goods and cash are then shared between the assailant and the gun owner, or the owner is paid a one-off rental fee ($50 a day is the current rate).

Armed assault in Burundi has created a vicious cycle of gun-related violence. People subjected to armed attack find themselves without recourse to effective legal action, and armed revenge seems the only option. Rape survivors, for instance, may send their brothers to avenge the family reputation by inflicting further violence. In the absence of legal enforcement, perpetrators and avengers operate in a ‘no risk’ environment. This climate of impunity also obstructs the return of displaced people to their homes. In one IDP camp, in Rutana, women said that they were afraid to return home because the people who had killed their families in 1993 remained unpunished. Within the camp itself, firearms and grenades were said to be common; the women we interviewed told us that their sons had created their own civil defence unit, and were using handmade rifles (known as mugobore) to protect camp residents at night.

Armed violence and rape

Of the grave consequences for women of arms and armed violence in Burundi today, sexual violence receives the most attention from donors and humanitarian agencies. Quantifying the scale of rape in Burundi, armed or unarmed, is difficult. In every province we visited, trauma practitioners and rape counsellors emphasised that the number of armed rapes that went unregistered and untreated far surpassed the number that were reported. This has obvious implications for the monitoring and spread of HIV/AIDS, though testing facilities are limited in rural Burundi, making infection rates unknowable.

The majority of women we met claimed that armed robbery was often accompanied by sexual assault. If women or girls are present when farms and homes are attacked and robbed, they are raped. Women we spoke to in Ruyigi reported that armed rape using homemade weapons was frequent in hillside communities. Aggressors are not soldiers or ex-rebels, but known local residents. In a typical scenario, a woman is approached by a man brandishing a mugobore; the demand for sex is tacit, the armed threat evident. The victim yields – ‘better to be raped than shot’ – and then remains silent for fear of reprisal.

While the act of rape itself is not exactly taboo, discussing it openly is. As if to add insult to injury, it is the victim, not the rapist, who bears the onus of blame. Interviewees told us that the prospect of social rejection was more dreadful than the rape itself, as it lasts a lifetime. When found out, rape survivors are castigated, banished or abandoned by their husbands and families. When undesired pregnancies result, offspring are rejected and often abandoned by the mother. Fear of rape-related stigma and banishment can lead women to self-abort. This entails medical complications, including maternal mortality.

Small arms are not the sole enabler of sexual violence in Burundi. An equally important cause, according to trauma counsellors we interviewed in Ruyigi, Gitega, Makamba and Kayanza, is cultural: the diminished status accorded to women in Burundian society. ‘In Burundian culture,’ one counsellor explained, ‘maintaining appearances is more important than confronting realities.’ Where gender inequality is the norm in times of peace, periods of violence and social upheaval serve to exacerbate gender discrimination. All women interviewed emphasised that rape had long existed in Burundi and predated the war, but that only in the last five years had the scale of the problem begun to receive public attention. This was due to concerted efforts by local and international NGOs, women’s associations and youth groups to educate and sensitise the population, accompanied by the advent of confidential medical and psychosocial services for rape survivors.

Widowhood and prostitution

Another devastating consequence of armed violence is the high number of widowed mothers in Burundi. Widows suffer particular discrimination under Burundian law, as they cannot inherit property from their dead husbands. With no inheritance rights, widows lose all belongings and property to their late husband’s family. Poverty and desperation are the direct result of widowhood. Under the weight of shame and destitution, widows flee with their children and turn to prostitution for survival. This descent is accelerated when the threat of armed attack and rape keeps rural women from working in their fields. Youth groups in Makamba confirmed that widows were regularly chased from their land. Meanwhile, the slide into prostitution for economic survival in turn confirms society’s preconception of widows as promiscuous. The daughters of widowed women tend to drop out of school or do not attend at all. They marry prematurely, often as a second or third wife, because there is too much poverty at home.

Widows in Kayogoro camp, Makamba province, justified prostitution and ‘concubinage’ because it improved their security. Better security is one aim of prostitution, because the lack of any bond with local men can leave a woman susceptible to sexual assault. Prostitution is seen as safer than remaining alone, exposed and vulnerable to abuse and violence by unknown delinquents, armed gangs and bandits. One widow, the youngest of the group, spoke candidly about her ‘vagabondage sexuel’, or sexual vagrancy. She explained that there had been no other way to survive after losing her husband and children to the war. The woman fled to Kayanza town and took a rented room paid for by a friend. At that time, prostitution was the only way to make ends meet. She is now a member of a women’s association that supports street children in Kayanza.

The humanitarian response

Listening to beneficiaries is essential to successful humanitarian programming, particularly when implementing community-led projects. When asked about breaking the causal connection between arms proliferation and violence against women, many women stated that ‘Burundian culture’ would first have to change. What does this mean for humanitarian agencies?

While both men and women acknowledge the negative impact of arms proliferation on civilian well-being, livelihoods and the social fabric, there remains an important gender gap in perceptions of arms possession. According to many women, ongoing insecurity and armed violence reinforce the male perception that arms are essential to personal safety and domestic self-protection. Women described feeling hostage to this logic: despite a fear of arms in the household, for instance, women do not dare denounce them. None of this excludes humanitarian agencies from helping Burundians find viable solutions to this problem.

Across the country, women acknowledged that, in the last five years, humanitarian actors had contributed enormously to addressing the nexus of small arms and sexual and gender-based violence. International NGOs have formed partnerships with local groups to create an inter-agency referral system, enabling victims to benefit from medical, legal and psychosocial assistance. Documentation and advocacy work has raised the profile of the problem, and has encouraged many more women to seek medical assistance and pursue justice than was the case five years ago. However, despite these important advances the root causes of armed and sexual violence remain unaddressed. Arms proliferation, banditry and rape are symptomatic of a deeper malaise, widely recognised by Burundians.

Even if national reconciliation is achieved, ending arms-related violence against women is impossible without addressing poverty. Arms and armed violence are the expression and enabler of extreme poverty, because they create and perpetuate a climate of constant insecurity. This insecurity is the greatest obstacle to development. As demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration and the political peace process continue, humanitarian actors must consider their contribution to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Burundi, particularly its rural economy and education sector. Programming is needed that is attuned not only to Burundians’ physical survival, but also, equally essential, to their economic survival. Education for girls and the poor is also a prerequisite to creating alternatives to arms, armed violence, sexual violence and prostitution.

Dr Edward B. Rackley(rackleyed@yahoo.com) is a specialist in international relief operations, particularly in Africa. The UNDP report is entitled Burundi: The Impact of Small Arms and Armed Violence on Women. It is available at: www.smallarmsnet.org/issues/regions/burundiwomensalw.pdf.

References and further reading

Human Rights Watch, To Protect the People: The Government-sponsored Self-defense Program in Burundi, December 2001, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/burundi/burundi1201.pdf.

Groupe de recherché et d’information sur la paix et la sécurité, ‘La persistance du trafic d’armes de Tanzanie vers la RDC et le Burundi’, April 2005, www.grip.org.

Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), The Impact of Guns on Women’s Lives, 2005, http://controlarms.org/downloads/index.htm.

Vanessa Farr et al., Gender Perspectives on Small Arms and Light Weapons: Regional and International Concerns, Bonn International Centre for Conversion, BICC brief 24, July 2002, http://www.bicc.de/publications/briefs/brief24/content.php.

Vanessa Farr, The Importance of a Gender Perspective to Successful Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Processes, UNIDIR, Disarmament Forum, Issue 4, 2003, http://www.unidir.org/pdf/Gender/5%20Farr.pdf.