The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2003

in government were somewhat threatened. Traditionally, the ambas- sador had been a male — all of my colleagues heading the 15 or so embassies were male. Some men (and especially the military) made a point to salute my husband when he accompanied me. I found all the people to be very gentle, kind, and respectful — but inscrutable. It was impossible to read their thoughts. They would say that Burundi is one country, with one peo- ple, with one language, but you had the sense it wasn’t a nation of peace or one without division. For all my time in the country, I did not always know which were Hutu and which were Tutsi by their features or their speech patterns. But I learned to recognize differences, although they were not consistently identifiable due to the pattern of intermarriages between the two. They were all handsome and intelligent people. I guess my first real memory of coming face to face with the underly- ing friction was my first attendance at Armed Forces Day. All ambassadors were invited to come out and sit in covered stands to watch the parade of French-made tanks and mounted guns. They were polished, shining in the bright sunlight like new money, ready for combat; the troops all stood tall, disciplined; the drums were fear- some, their deep and strong sounds reverberating through one’s chest, stomach, head. The army in its state of readiness was indeed impressive. I turned to one of the Burundian authorities and said, “Who’s the enemy?” He looked at me like “Stupid.” I continued to ask that question. If there is no threat from the outside, why such a war effort? Rwanda has no interest in Burundi; Zaire doesn’t want any part of it; Tanzania shows no interest. Who is the enemy? When I finally asked the right person, he informed me that it’s the Hutus — they are the enemy, the internal threat. So that well-oiled mil- itary machine I was looking at was all Tutsi; no Hutu could serve in the fighting military. Of course, I had been briefed about this, but it was nearly overwhelming to observe the hundreds of these men, six-feet and 54 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 “I turned to one of the Burundian authorities and said, ‘Who’s the enemy?’ He looked at me like ‘Stupid.’” – Amb. Cynthia Perry Year-End Roundup of FOREIGN SERVICE AUTHORS As we have done each year since 2000, the November 2003 Foreign Service Journal will include a list of recently published books by Foreign Service-affiliated authors in a special section: “In Their Own Write.” FS authors who have had a book published either by a commercial or academic publisher last year or this year (2002-2003) that has not previously been featured in the roundup are invited to send a copy of the book, along with a press release or backgrounder with information on the author, to: Susan Maitra Associate Editor Foreign Service Journal 2101 E Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 Deadline for submissions is Sept. 1.