Burundi

Country in east central Africa, bounded north by Rwanda, west by the Democratic Republic of Congo, southwest by Lake Tanganyika, and southeast and east by Tanzania.

Government

The 1992 constitution provides for a president, elected by universal suffrage for a maximum of two five-year terms, and a single-chamber, 81-member national assembly, similarly elected for a five-year term. The president shares power with a prime minister, who is chosen by the assembly and who appoints and heads a council of ministers. The constitution specifically bans parties that are ethnically or regionally based.

History

Originally inhabited by the Twa pygmies, Burundi was taken over by Bantu Hutus in the 13th century, and overrun in the 15th century by the Tutsi. In 1890, ruled by a Tutsi king and known as Urundi, it became part of German East Africa and during World War I was occupied by Belgium. Later, as part of Ruanda-Urundi, it was administered by Belgium as a League of Nations (and then United Nations) trust territory.

The 1961 elections, supervised by the United Nations (UN), were won by UPRONA, a party formed by Louis, one of the sons of the reigning king, Mwambutsa IV. Louis was assassinated after only two weeks as prime minister and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, André Muhirwa. In 1962 Urundi separated from Ruanda and, as Burundi, attained internal self-government and then full independence.

Republic

In 1966 King Mwambutsa IV, after a 50-year reign, was deposed by another son, Charles, with army help, and the constitution was suspended. Later that year Charles, now Ntare V, was deposed by his prime minister, Capt Michel Micombero, who declared Burundi a republic. Micombero was a Tutsi, whose main rivals were the numerically superior Hutu. In 1972 the deposed Ntare V was killed, allegedly by the Hutu, giving the Tutsi an excuse to massacre large numbers of Hutu.

One-party state

In 1973 amendments to the constitution made Micombero president and prime minister and in the following year UPRONA was declared the only political party. In 1976 Micombero was deposed in an army coup led by Col Jean-Baptiste Bagaza. 1977 saw a return to civilian rule, the implementation of a plan to eliminate corruption, and the promotion of Hutus to government positions.

Army massacre

In 1978 the post of prime minister was abolished and a new constitution, providing for a national assembly, was adopted in 1981. Bagaza was re-elected in 1984 but was deposed in a military coup in September 1987, his government being replaced by a Military Council for National Redemption headed by Maj Pierre Buyoyá, a Tutsi. In August 1988 the Tutsi-controlled Burundian army massacred thousands of Hutus and, despite Buyoya's pledges to end interethnic violence, this was seen by many as a continuation of the strife that began after an abortive Hutu rebellion in 1972.

Free elections, renewed violence

Following the adoption of a new constitution, Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, defeated Buyoya in the first direct presidential elections, in June 1993, and Ndadaye's supporters won a landslide victory in the assembly elections. Three months later Ndadaye was killed in a military coup and interethnic violence flared up across the country. The coup collapsed as its leaders sought to distance themselves from the killings, and Prime Minister Sylvie Kiningi was able to retain control of government. After a period of uncertainty, Cyprien Ntaryamira was elected president in January 1994. He was killed three months later when an aircraft he was flying in with the Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, crashed near the Rwandan capital, Kigali, apparently shot down by opponents of the Rwandan president. The speaker of the national assembly, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya, became acting president, and while talks were underway on finding a permanent head of state, violence spread, although not on the same scale as in neighbouring Rwanda.

In September 1994 the leaders of all political factions signed a power-sharing agreement and the following month Ntibantunganya was formally elected president. The election of a Hutu to the post of parliamentary speaker in December provoked renewed outbreaks of ethnic violence and the withdrawal from the coalition of the Tutsi leader of UPRONA. Violence flared up again in March 1995 after a massacre of Hutu refugees, apparently initiated by dissident Tutsi, and there were fears that it might spread uncontrollably.

In 1996, the former Tutsi president Pierre Buyoya seized power amid renewed ethnic violence; the coup provoked economic sanctions by other African countries. A ‘government of national unity’, led by Pascal-Firmin Ndimira, was appointed by President Buyoya in August 1996. At least 284 people were killed in a rebel attack on a village near Burundi's Bujumbura airport early in January 1997. In March 1998 fierce fighting was reported between the Tutsi-led army and Hutu rebels. However, in June warring factions agreed to a ceasefire.

Civil war peace talks

The leaders of seven east African countries agreed to suspend sanctions imposed on Burundi in 1996 after Buyoya seized power. The decision came after it became clear that peace talks that began in June 1998 among political parties and interest groups in Burundi were progressing well. Nevertheless, unrest, military clashes, and atrocities continued in 1999, and in January 2000 Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, took on the role of mediator in the discussions, with UN backing. He appealed for the armed rebels to be included in the peace process, as the civil war grew worse, with around 5,000 refugees fleeing across the Tanzanian border each day. Mandela and the UN condemned the resettlement camps in which tens of thousands of civilians in Burundi were forced to live in inhumane conditions, and an agreement was made to close them. Talks were renewed in March 2000, at which President Buyoya announced that he was ready to negotiate a ceasefire with Hutu rebels. According to Mandela, two rebel Hutu groups agreed to join negotiations. The talks faltered, and rebel activity began again at the end of July 2000, following an attack on rebels made by Burundi's army, in response to the killing of five government soldiers.

In August 2000, US president Clinton went to Arusha, Tanzania, for the signing of a Hutu-Tutsi power-sharing deal designed to end Burundi's seven-year civil war. However, some Tutsi parties refused to sign the deal, though in mid-September Mandela said that they had reconsidered. He remained determined that all the parties involved in the fighting, which had claimed 200,000 lives over the past seven years, would eventually sign a peace deal. However, in February 2001, Hutu rebels attacked Bujumbura, and held parts of the suburbs for four days before being repelled by the Tutsi-led army. A regional summit chaired by Nelson Mandela failed to revive the peace effort, and the battles continued into March, leading to the deaths of over 200 rebels and 20 government soldiers.

In July 2001, in a breakthrough at peace talks again chaired by Mandela, the country's 19 political parties agreed that Buyoya, a Tutsi, should remain president for the first 18 months of a new 3-year transitional government. A Hutu politician, Domitien Ndayizeye, would be vice-president, and their roles would be reversed halfway through the term. Once a total ceasefire had been agreed, countries including South Africa and Nigeria agreed to send peacekeepers. However, the peace plan came close to being permanently derailed later in the month, when around 100 extremist Tutsi soldiers tried to overthrow President Buyoya. Two soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded, but the attack was unsuccessful. The attempted coup took place in Bujumbura, just hours before the ceremony to approve a power-sharing government with the majority Hutus. Many Tutsis feared that too much power would be given to rival Hutus. The power-sharing government was eventually sworn in on 1 November 2001. However, two armed Hutu rebel groups, the Forces for National Liberation (FNL) and Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD), pledged to fight on. The arrival in Burundi of the first 700 South African peace-keeping troops on 28 October had heralded the final phase in efforts by Mandela to end the eight-year civil war. The main role of an eventual 1,400 peacekeepers would be to protect Hutus returning from abroad. On 10 January 2002, the Hutu leader of the Front pour la démocratie au Burundi (Frodebu; Front for Democracy in Burundi), Jean Minani, was elected president of the country's transitional assembly.

In January 2002, the government promised to withdraw troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo in return for a promise from Congo to stop supporting rebels in Burundi.

Parliamentary elections

In 2005, the first parliamentary elections since the start of the civil war took place. The FDD won the vote, and its leader Pierre Nkurunziza became president.

Burundi (redirected from Burundians)