LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Burundi: Congolese Tutsi
built 630 days ago
In the 16th century, Burundi was a kingdom characterized by a hierarchical political authority and tributary economic exchange. A king (mwani) headed a princely aristocracy (ganwa) that owned most of the land and required a tribute, or tax, from local farmers and herders. In the mid-18th century, this Tutsi royalty consolidated authority over land, production, and distribution with the development of the ubugabire--a patron-client relationship in which the populace received royal protection in exchange for tribute and land tenure.
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Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi who became Burundi's head of state after a coup in 1987. Outcry after a Hutu uprising the following year was again brutally suppressed led to reforms designed to lessen ethnic divisions. Buyoya appointed a majority of Hutus to the cabinet, including the prime minister, and encouraged enlistment of Hutus in the military. Many Hutus had fled Burundi in 1988 and settled in Tanzania, but by mid-1989 most of them had returned.
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Relations between the Hutu and the Tutsi peoples in Rwanda and Burundi have long been plagued by extreme ethnic violence marked by large-scale massacres at the hands of both groups. In both Rwanda and Burundi, the Hutu make up about 80–85 percent of the population and the Tutsi form a minority of about 10–15 percent.
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Since its independence from Belgium in 1962, Burundi has been ruled by the second largest ethnic group, the Tutsi. However, the overwhelming winner of the 2005 elections was the former Hutu-dominated rebel group, the Conseil National pour la Défense de la Démocratie - Forces pour la Défense de la Démocratie (CNDD-FDD). Hutus form the largest ethnic community in the country.
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T[O]day, with the recent rebel success in Zaire, Tutsis and their ethnic cousins and allies hold effective power in Rwanda, Uganda, and Zaire, as well as in Burundi. Will this bring peace to the region? Perhaps, but at best it will be a peace based on minority rule and oppression. More likely, the Hutus will continue their struggle, and violent instability will remain endemic in the region.
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The closure of RPA was condemned in Burundi, where the radio station, founded in 2001 to promote reconciliation between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups, has a wide following. The US-based "Committee to Protect Journalists" led international condemnation of the ban, which Burundi's "Collectif des Professionels des Médias de la Diaspora Burundaise" described as an "abuse of power", setting up an online petition in protest.
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Congolese Tutsi