Today we commemorate the tragic events at a refugee camp in Burundi, 13 August 2004.

156 people were killed, most of them women and children, during a nighttime attack on the Gatumba refugee camp.

An IANSA member, Pastor Jacques Rutekereza of SOS Droits de l’Homme en Catastrophe, was killed in the massacre, along with six of his children: Mushambaro, 18, Igiraneza, 16, Nyamasoso, 12, Ndatabaye, 9, Nyazahabu, 6, and Nyamuryango, 4. Click here to read more about Pastor Jacques Rutekereza.

Click here for a complete list of the victims.

Cartridges found at the site of the massacre show that the guns were made in the 1990s in Bulgaria, China and Serbia. It is not clear how the guns ended up in the hands of armed groups in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

IANSA is campaigning for a global Arms Trade Treaty to prevent arms being used in atrocities. In October 2006, the UN General Assembly will consider a resolution to start the process of negotiating this treaty. Join the Million Faces petition in support of the Control Arms campaign for an Arms Trade Treaty.