BUJUMBURA, December 16th (ABP) – On the occasion of 60 years of commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Bishop Gihimbare Gabriel, who was a chaplain priest of the national army, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) organized, on Friday, December 13, 2024, a thematic conference on “The hidden truth about the assassination of Bishop Gabriel Gihimbare in 1964”.
In his speech, the chairman of the CVR, Pierre Claver Ndayicariye, said that on September 29, 1964, he was appointed by the Vatican as auxiliary bishop of Gitega. He was to be the first Muhutu bishop in Burundi, with the right to succeed the Belgian archbishop, Antoine Hubert Grauls on the episcopal seat of Gitega.
According to Ndayicariye, he was killed at the military bivouac of Murehe kw’Iyanza in Busoni district, Kirundo province, on December 13, 1964. Taking into account the circumstances in which Monsignor Gabriel Gihimbare was killed; one can reasonably believe that the responsibility for the crime of ethnic-political assassination goes to Corporal Bavumiragira who shot Bishop Gihimbare on December 13, 1964 considered as an infringement of the right to life.
The CVR holds that this was a politically motivated assassination, according to the provisions of the 1940 criminal code in force. Commander Paul Rusiga is administratively at fault for not having sent Corporal Bavumiragira before the War Council. He should in turn have been subjected to the sanction provided for by the military code, before the court martial as well as the provisions of the Burundian criminal code of 1940, as co-perpetrator of the assassination of the prelate.
According to the CVR, the responsibility also lies with the State which closed the case without further action. On December 16, 2024, Bishop Gihimbare was buried in the Christ Roi Cathedral in Gitega.
According to Ndayicariye, if we consider the results from the investigations carried out by the CVR, in particular the hearings collected on the ground, the CVR solemnly declares that the assassination of Bishop Gabriel Gihimbare, auxiliary bishop appointed by Pope Paul VI, to succeed Bishop Grauls Antoine, Archbishop of Gitega, is a state crime. This assassination has long created an identity fracture within the Catholic Church, Ndayicariye said.
For that reason, the CVR made some recommendations to the government of Burundi, namely, to recognize that the services of the State including the army planned and executed an innocent citizen and man of the Church. This commission recommended to the government to make a public statement condemning the assassination of Bishop Gihimbare and the impunity of his assassins that followed. Then, it recommended that a monument be erected in his favor at the venue of his assassination at kw’Iyanza in the Busoni district (Kirundo) and in his native village of Bihororo (Giheta / Gitega).
The CVR also asked the government to erect, in the memory of Bishop Gihimbare, a social infrastructure in his native village of Bihororo, namely a health center, a cooperative, a social center, a product processing unit. The CVR also recommended that the Catholic Church of Burundi perpetuate through works the memory of Mgr. Gabriel Gihimbare, the first Bishop expected to take up the position of Archbishop of Gitega, replacing Mgr. Antoine Hubert Grauls of Belgian nationality.