SUMMARY
The one-sided violence by the MAGRIVI (Mutuelle des Agriculteurs de Virunga, Virunga Farmers and Herders Association) was perpetrated in the Nord Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire). The Nord Kivu province is situated in the eastern parts of the country bordering Rwanda and Uganda. Much of the land in the Nord Kivu province is fertile and it is more densely populated than other parts of the country. The Nord Kivu province is and has for centuries been inhabited by a broad range of different communities: Hunde, Nyanga, Tembo, Kano, Twa, Pere, and Hutu and Tutsi. Before colonization these communities were governed differently in different chiefdoms. And under the colonial administration these chieftaincies were absorbed by the new power and in some cases re-drawn into Sectors and in some cases importing new chiefs. The Belgians also made a distinction between the indigenous/autochthonous tribes of the area who were entitled to holding land and the foreigners; oftentimes being those of Rwandan descent (Hutu and Tutsi), who were not entitled to holding land. At the same time all land belonged to the colonial power and they could expropriate customary land to lease or sell it to plantation-owners.
During the colonial rule the plantation-owners needed labor on their farms. To meet this demand labor workers were recruited in neighboring Rwanda. In some areas of the Nord Kivu Province this new wave of immigration changed the ethnic balance. In total it is believed that 150 000 and 300 000 Hutu and Tutsi immigrants moved to Nord Kivu during the colonial period. After independence these shifts have been one of the roots of conflicts in the area. While the indigenous communities have kept the customary power and the right over land, the Hutu and Tutsi have been more numerous and therefore a threat in a democratic DR. Congo (Zaire). Different laws regulating citizenship have granted or ripped the Hutu and Tutsi communities of their rights aggravating the situation. Under the Mobutu Zairianisation process the big plantations were nationalized and then granted to close allies of president Mobutu according to his patronage system of ruling the country. Hutu and Tutsi elite manage to by land during this period and consequently manage to gain economic power.
In this context we should see the one-sided violence by MAGRIVI. After the Rwandan genocide, Hutu refugees added to ethnic tensions in the Kivu regions. Playing on these tensions MAGRIVI (Mutuelle des Agriculteurs de Virunga, Virunga Farmers and Herders Association), a Congolese Hutu organization the group targeted Tutsi and Bahunde civilians in the area. Reportedly their first targets were families whose sons had joined the RPF (Front Patriotique Rwandais, Rwandan Patriotic Front) in fighting the former Hutu government in Rwanda.
The [Interahamwe, ex-FAR, MAGRIVI]Actor/3861) coalition first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1996, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in February of that year when the coalition killed 69 civilians in the Masisis zone in DR Congo (Zaire).
