ABSTRACT
In the case of Burundi, it was the Tutsi military elite, under intense pressure from human rights groups and public opinion to open up the political system, who had been forced to allow the first moves toward democracy. The Burundian army itself was the only potential source of security, if its moderates could be brought to the fore and its strategy and methods used to promote security by handling an enflamed situation with care rather than brutality. In October 1993, the extent to which ethnicity had been used as a “resource” by the ambitious in the four months since Burundi had embarked on its first experience of democracy became clear. The majority of Burundi’s Hutu accepted democracy, despite their overwhelming numbers, which made them at least theoretically capable of overthrowing the minority through an uprising.
