Burundi
Wedged between Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda in
east-central Africa, Burundi occupies a high plateau divided by several deep
valleys. It is equal in size to Maryland.
Government
Republic.
History
The original inhabitants of Burundi were the Twa, a Pygmy people who now make up
only 1% of the population. Today the population is divided between the Hutu
(approximately 85%) and the Tutsi, approximately 14%. While the Hutu and Tutsi
are considered to be two separate ethnic groups, scholars point out that they
speak the same language, have a history of intermarriage, and share many
cultural characteristics. Traditionally, the differences between the two groups
were occupational rather than ethnic. Agricultural people were considered Hutu,
while the cattle-owning elite were identified as Tutsi. In theory, Tutsi were
tall and thin, while Hutu were short and square, but in fact it is often
impossible to tell one from the other. The 1933 requirement by the Belgians that
everyone carry an identity card indicating tribal ethnicity as Tutsi or Hutu
increased the distinction. Since independence, the landowning Tutsi aristocracy
has dominated Burundi.
Burundi was once part of German
East Africa. Belgium won a League of Nations mandate in 1923, and subsequently
Burundi, with Rwanda, was transferred to the status of a United Nations trust
territory. In 1962, Burundi gained independence and became a kingdom under Mwami
Mwambutsa IV, a Tutsi. A Hutu rebellion took place in 1965, leading to brutal
Tutsi retaliations. Mwambutsa was deposed by his son, Ntaré V, in 1966. Ntaré in
turn was overthrown the same year in a military coup by Premier Michel Micombero,
also a Tutsi. In 1970–1971, a civil war erupted, leaving more than 100,000 Hutu
dead.
On Nov. 1, 1976, Lt. Col. Jean-Baptiste
Bagaza led a coup and assumed the presidency. He suspended the constitution and
announced that a 30-member Supreme Revolutionary Council would be the governing
body. In Sept. 1987, Bagaza was overthrown by Maj. Pierre Buyoya, who became
president. Ethnic hatred again flared in Aug. 1988, and about 20,000 Hutu were
slaughtered. Buyoya, however, began reforms to heal the country's ethnic rift.
The Burundi Democracy Front's candidate, Melchior Ndadaye, won the country's
first democratic presidential elections, held on June 2, 1993. Ndadaye, the
first Hutu to assume power in Burundi, was killed within months during a coup.
The second Hutu president, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was killed on April 6, 1994, when
a plane carrying him and the Rwandan president was shot down. As a result, Hutu
youth gangs began massacring Tutsi; the Tutsi-controlled army retaliated by
killing Hutus.
Burundi's
Brutal Civil War Nears Its End
The frequency of ethnic clashes
increased, developing into a low-intensity civil war. A six-nation regional
proposal to send troops into Burundi to maintain peace and order was devised in
July 1996. Distrustful of the scheme, the Tutsi-dominated army led a coup
deposing the Hutu president and installed Maj. Pierre Buyoya that month. More
than 300,000 people have been killed in the civil war since 1993, with the
Tutsi-dominated army and the Hutu rebel forces responsible for the slaughter.
After several aborted cease-fires, a 2001 peace plan included a power-sharing
agreement that has been relatively successful: Buyoya, a Tutsi, governed the new
transitional government for the first 18 months; then, in April 2003, a Hutu
president, Domitien Ndayizeye, assumed power. In Aug. 2005, former Hutu rebel
leader Pierre Nkurunziza was elected president by Parliament. The peaceful
transfer of power to a democratically elected leader seemed to indicate that
Burundi's 12-year civil war was truly at an end. Peace talks between the
government and Burundi's only remaining rebel group continued in 2006.
The government and the rebel group Forces for
National Liberation, which was the last rebel group to engage in negotiations,
signed a cease-fire in May 2008, signaling finality in the 15-year civil war
that claimed some 300,000 lives.
Location
Central Africa, east of Democratic
Republic of the Congo
Ethnic groups
Hutu (Bantu) 85%, Tutsi (Hamitic)
14%, Twa (Pygmy) 1%, Europeans 3,000, South Asians 2,000
Religions
Christian 67% (Roman Catholic 62%,
Protestant 5%), indigenous beliefs 23%, Muslim 10%
Independence
1 July 1962 (from UN trusteeship
under Belgian administration)
National holiday
Independence Day, 1 July (1962)