Livestock, Land and Political Power: The 1993 Killings in Burundi

Abstract

This article examines the characteristics of the victims of the October 1993 massacres in Burundi. Using information on parents of the respondents of a 2002 demographic household survey, the author finds that the probability of a parent being killed during the events is significantly affected by age, sex and wealth, in the sense that older, wealthier and male persons were more likely to be killed. Using the median level of education of a parent's offspring to proxy the parental investment in human capital, the author finds that people who invested more in the human capital of their children ran a higher risk of being killed. The analysis also shows important spatial disparities in the killings. In trying to explain these locational effects, the author focus on two key hypotheses set forth with respect to the October 1993 events in Burundi: the land crisis and the questionable role played by the Front Démocratique du Burundi (FRODEBU), the dominant political actor at that time. The author finds that communal land pressure significantly increases the probability of being killed and that communal popular support for FRODEBU increases, in a non-linear fashion, the risk of being affected by the killings. The results are interpreted in light of the prevailing political economy of 1993 Burundi.