Les Champs de la mort
Bernard Debord
1994 - 54 min - 35 mm - Couleur - France

An investigation and historical reflection over the present and future of a ravaged region. Since they are composed of the same ethnic groups, Rwanda and Burundi share a similar history and destiny. The drama started in Burundi on October 21st, 1993, with the assassination of the democratically elected President of the Republic.
The ethnic confrontations which resulted spread to Rwanda. The Burundese "scenario" - the assassination of a Hutu President followed by the blind slaughter of the Tutsies by the Hutu militia and the organised reaction of an opposition made up of a majority of Tutsies - is repeated in Rwanda. The abomination, thus decupled, has reached the level of a genocide.
Two missions by Amnesty International in each country during the summer of 1994, try to determine the amplitude and investigate on an obviously unexisting legal system responsible for the return of violence whether in post-war Rwanda or in Burundi which is at the verge of another conflagration.