The 1993 Burundi Standoff
The Burundi Province of Zaire had been devastated by the Marburg Rwanda virus. In the chaos, all semblance of law and order had disappeared as the central government . The main government had fallen apart. The old tribes of Hutu and Tutsi were now the only sources of security, food, water, and shelter as society began to organize itself around ethnic lines. Competition for the basic necessities of life was fierce, and resulted in the emergence of two main factions organized along the old ethnic lines made by the occupying Belgians: Tutsi and Hutu.
While open conflict had not yet broken out, thanks in part to the devastation, the situation had definitely worsened once tribes in Burundi began to organize along the same lines, and the central government went into panic mode. While they were happy to gain this during World War III it now proved to be too much of a burden. When Hutu tribesman beat back the first rescue mission of government forces on the 10th of February, the Zairian Dictator Seko asked President Ioccocoa to use US troops and diplomacy to solve the crisis.
While the President had campaigned on focusing on domestic issues as opposed to the Republicans supposed “foolhardy foreign adventures in suspicious social sciences”, he was still a Communoationalist at heart. After meeting with his cabinet and talking on the phone with the Zairian Ambassador, it was agreed that a roundtable would be held in Kinshasa, where American, Zairian, Hutu, and Tutsi representatives, including the President, would negotiate a peaceful settlement. Accompanying the president would be the 1st Air Cav, who would be ready to pounce on Burundi Province, if necessary. After initial bluster from the mysterious Hutu leadership, which died off with the arrival of the 1st Air Cav, all parties agreed to the talks on the 1st of March. In addition, representatives of the Vatican agreed to administer the talks and act as guides to ensure smooth negotiations.
While Ioccocoa had achieved domestic victories, he knew that to be re-elected he would have to be seen as “the man who won the peace”. Ethnic strife in Burundi, so soon after the Marburg Virus, would be a serious stain on the resume of “The Great Dealmaker”. Aiding him was ex-academic and Democratic foreign policy thinker Andrew Bennett, a dark-horse pick that now found himself as the Secretary of State, who had engineered the 1984 Frank Church campaign and the 1988 Celeste campaign foreign policy plans.
-Recording from Air Force One on the way to Kampala from the Lee Iaccoca Presidential Library in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Iaccoca's childhood home-
Iacocca: “You say it's about 30% Tutsi and 70% Hutu?”
Secretary of State Andrew Bennett: “Yeah, it used to be 15-85, but the virus killed more Hutu than Tutsi because the Tutsi, being wealthier, had more access to medical supplies"
Iacocca: “And you say this divide ain’t that geographical, meaning that there’s no ancestral lines to point towards like in Europe.”
Bennett: “Yep, that’s the puzzle.”
Iacocca: “Why don’t we just make these lines-*The president points at the map of the current frontlines*-areas on the ground where the two factions have made contiguous, if geographically illogical, areas of control-the borders of two new countries!”
Bennett: “Well, two things. First, Seko ain’t gonna like losing his hardwon territory, and second, the Tutsi need more land if their gonna defend themselves.”
Iacocca: “Seko can’t do anything I don’t like, and besides, he doesn't need a civil war.”
Bennett: “That still leaves the issue of the Tutsis’ minority status.”
Iacocca: “Hmmm…”
Iacocca: “Wait I got it!”
Bennett: “What?”
Iacocca: “The Hutu need better schools, right?”
Bennett: “Absolutely.”
Iacocca: “Why don’t we, the American government, as part of the deal, propose for about 5000 or so Hutu kids to study in the U.S., and then come back home? That way they can use what they learned in their studies to help fix their economy, have an educated bureaucratic class, etc.”
Bennett: “That won’t be enough, we’ll need a permanent military presence to ensure that nothing spontaneous erupts, and if we use American troops they’ll be hell to be at home there.”
Iacocca: “We’ll use a UN task force as cover with one division of American troops as the spearhead. God this reminds me, we really need to reform the IMF, I’d loan them money too, but that would open another can of worms.”
Bennett: “Sounds good, I’ll draw up a plan….”
-End Recording-
Lee Iaccoca on Air Force One
Iacocca arrived at the talks with a show of force aboard a brand new Air Force One flanked by fighter jets, helicopter, and Peace Corps employees that put on a show for the locals as the President landed. Many at home thought it was too flamboyant, but this show of force, when paired with Iacocca’s genuine personal kindness for all parties involved, somehow worked. Iacocca seemed like a reasonable man who should be feared if he was dealt with unreasonably. While his bold statements in favor of partition, aid to the Hutus, and a permanent UN presence shocked the conference, (which had quite frankly thought little would be achieved), they were bold enough to catch the imagination of the most important element in this equation: the mysterious Hutu leadership, that as of the time of negotiations had continued to conceal itself, only sending envoys. The promise of American education for the Hutus bothered the Tutsi at first, who were worried that if the Hutu grew too much as a power through education they would “finish” the Tutsis forever. As such, 400 Tutsi scholarships were added to the now 8000 Hutu scholarships. In addition, a few families had to be moved to ensure contiguous, if absolutely garish (some newspaper’s nicknamed the result “border-gore”) lines of partition. These families were compensated with more land than before and first-pick in scholarships. Knowing state-sponsored ethnic cleansing would kill the deal, UN monitors were present throughout. After all parties signed the agreement on the 14th of February, the treaty was sent to the US Senate., Iacocca earned himself a major diplomatic victory and his reputation as “The Great Dealmaker”. While some in the congressional Caucus complained that Iacocca was too focused on foreign affairs and not on rebuilding America, the few independent voters remaining swung heavily towards the Democrats in the opinion polls.While the treaty passed unanimously in the Senate there were points of contention….
Firstly, some voters, across the three parties, were angered by the fact that foreigners would get free education with U.S. tax dollars. The foreign student population at state universities, and private ones, had been steadily increasing, angering some votes who felt that the relationship between the taxpayer and the public universities had been broken. Rejection of the treaty in the Senate was politically impossible because if war or genocide did break out the party(ies) who did vote against the treaty would be branded as having “blood on their hands”, “warmongers”, and possibly even “anti-American”. However, Governor Ted Bundy found a loophole of sorts to go around this and capture some future political momentum. On June 15th 1993, Bundy signed the “State University and Student Relations Act” which mandated that the student population of all Washington State public Universities to always be within the limits as follows:
- 80%-90% from Washington State
- 8-15% from “Associated States” (States with which the Governor had signed a contract pledging mutual in-state tuition).
- 3-10% foreign born/ residents of U.S. states without an agreement with the state of Washington.
Washington State’s two premier universities had become world-class thanks to Bundy’s efforts to clean up the state, which brought numerous businesses which felt comfortable that crime (and the hippie movement) had been curtailed. Boeing had experienced a revival during the war, and it supported vast improvements in the engineering, science, and business departments at UW, WSU, and the various smaller technical schools to create an educated workforce. Meanwhile, the UC System, Stanford and many other schools had all been but destroyed during the infamous Second Blitz. As such, there was a post-war boom in the out of state and foreign population at Washington State Schools which angered many Washington residents who felt that their kids were no longer getting the spots they “deserved”. Now, however, the Governor had “protected our students”. This new treaty (or more derogatorily termed "foreign giveaway"), was the "Cherry on Top".
In reality, the student body populations did not change by more than 5% in any one university, but it was a great act of political theater on the part of Ted Bundy. Bundy had endeared himself to traditionally communonationalist voters, without alienating the “Rockefeller/Business Republican Types” (a 1994 state sales tax cut down to 7% from 10% helped in this department). His star was only growing brighter.
This bill would be copied by a few Republican and Democratic governors in other states. The Progressives formally announced their opposition to such a policy. The worst imitation of Bundy's bill was Jim Traficant’s “Buckeye Education Bill” which mandated that 96.32% of Ohio State Students be from Ohio, which lead to a steep drop in the reputation of what had been a rising research institution before the mid-90’s.
Back in Zaire, the Republic of the Tutsi People and Hutuland became independent in July 5th 1993. While Seko was worried about the upswing in democracy (thus empowering opposition to his rule) and disliked losing territory, preventing civil war and ethnic unrest gave him more power and stability than before. Moreover, he had earned the goodwill of Iaccoca for relinquishing control of the now partitioned Burundi which resulted in numerous important infrastructure investments. Both of these new states were officially recognized by the U.N. in December. While relations between both nations were tense initially, and the Hutu leadership remained unknown for some time, by the Mid-1990’s both groups realized that to rebuild from the war and the Marburg virus they would have to work together. While both oddly-shaped small states would remain independent, common infrastructure projects and relatively well-educated populations would help make both states some of the wealthiest on the continent. In addition, they would sign a mutual defense treaty, undergirded by the United States, in 1994, that would make their defense against their larger neighbors mutual, and war against each other much more difficult. While US involvement had "kickstarted" the peace process, it was really the leadership of the Hutu and Tutsi peoples themselves who had assured their own prosperity.
Many hoped that these two states would be an example of how Africa could move forward from the violence of the past into a peaceful and prosperous future. In addition, the 1993 treaty would become illustrative on how to make multi party negotiations succeed in academic circles whilst being a great defense of Communonationalsit foreign policy in political circles.
[A/N:
This post was edited to reflect a previous psot that retconned the Rwandan genocide, this post butterflies away the Burundi civil war (read more about that OTL here:
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~gallo22e/classweb/Website-World Politics/Burundi.html
Also,
Current UCLA Undergrad Population s are 92.9% Californian (ITL UW is around UCLA in its reputation)
OTL UCLA and UVA- best reputation of any US State schools worldwide
For UVA, Virginia State Law mandates that a certain percentage of undergraduates in all state schools be from Virginia. The law isn't particularly partisan.
In addition, OTL Washington State has an agreement with Oregon and Hawaii that allows Washington State Students to attend their universities while paying in-state tuition.
What's important here is
1.how Bundy
sells his bill as a major achievement
2. the fact that unlike in other states Washington Schools continue to maintain such a high reputation/success after such a bill (see Ohio and Traficant), thus balancing the demands of the lower middle class which wants its chance at an education and big business which wants a talented workforce.]