History of Burundi

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Follower of King Kasliwami in Urundi, today's Burundi, between 1906 and 1918

The History of Burundi deals with the history of the East African state of Burundi .

Pre-colonial period

According to the prevailing opinion today, the area in which the states of Rwanda and Burundi are located was originally settled by the ancestors of the Twa , a tribe that now makes up only a very small proportion of the population in both countries and that of the political and social development was practically not involved.

It is not possible to say with certainty how exactly the migration movement and / or the social development took place, which led to the structures in Burundian society, some of which still exist today. A few years ago there was still the general opinion, developed by racial researchers at the turn of the century before last and further developed in the 1920s and 1930s, that the area was initially inhabited by the group known today as Hutu , to which the Tutsi from the area of ​​the Today's Ethiopia or today's Egypt were added, namely in two waves, which could explain the two different groups within the Tutsi, who later sometimes became enemies. The rulership structures found by researchers in the 19th century were accordingly seen as caused by the arrival of the “superior race”.

At the beginning of the 1990s, when the region came into the focus of research due to political developments (which will be discussed later), the well-known thesis was spread that ethnic differences between Hutu and Tutsi did not exist and only existed in the Colonial times were postulated. According to more recent ideas, the differences between Hutu and Tutsi can be explained structurally: The groups were initially only named functionally (Tutsi means “rich in cattle”, which was socially synonymous with influential, while Hutu referred to a person who was subordinate). It was only after this functional difference had been named that the respective groups began to separate, marriages between members of different social origins became rarer, this resulted in a separate gene pool and thus a manifestation of the difference, which was actually reflected so clearly in appearance, that the differences later claimed were not entirely wrong. Another opinion expressed does not rule out different local origins of the groups, but notes that these are not suitable for explaining the current group membership of individuals, as these would have developed socially away from possible ethnic groups .

Later a state was formed under the leadership of a Mwami (King). There were around three hundred Tutsi clans in total, but only four of them acquired royal rights. The Mwami was recruited from the clans of Bataga (king title Mutaga ), Bezi (king title Mwezi ), Bambutsa (king title Mwambutsa ) and Batare (king title Ntare ). The high nobility , known as the Ganwa , consisted of all Tutsi clans . These nobles were quite independent of the king at the local level. Below the aristocratic class were the ordinary members of the Tutsi, who alone had land rights and large cattle. The subjects, the Hutu, worked the land. Over the centuries there were numerous mixed marriages between Tutsi and Hutu, so that ethnicity became a question of standard of living. Cattle breeders were regarded as Tutsi, and arable farmers as Hutu. Both spoke Kirundi .

In the 19th century, the residents had to defend themselves massively against slave hunts by Arab slave traders from the east coast of Africa.

The first Europeans known by name to visit what is now Burundi were Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke in 1858. In search of the sources of the Nile, they advanced to Lake Tanganyika . They were followed in 1871 by Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone . The next missionaries from the Order of the White Fathers came to the country in 1879 , but in 1881 they were accused of friendship with the slave traders and murdered by the locals. At the Congo Conference on November 8, 1884, the area was assigned to the German sphere of influence .

Colonial times

Map of German East Africa with Burundi

For the time being, the Germans did not occupy the country. The borders with the Congo were defined in 1885, those with the British territories in 1886. In 1892 the Austrian Oskar Baumann traveled to the country which together made up the Rwanda-Urundi area within German East Africa . It was not until 1896 that the first German missionaries and soldiers arrived. The Usumbura military station (now the city of Bujumbura ) was established. In 1899 Burundi became part of the Rwanda-Urundi Protectorate with the capital Usumbura. The German colonial rule ruled the country with the help of the Mwami and the local nobles. The area was a military district until 1906 and has been under civil administration since then. The construction of colonial institutions such as schools and hospitals began in 1909. In 1916 , during the First World War , Belgian troops occupied the Rwanda-Urundi protectorate.

In the Versailles Peace Treaty , Burundi was awarded a League of Nations mandate on June 28, 1919 as part of Rwanda-Urundi Belgium . The Belgians banned all forms of slavery in 1924 . From 1925 the country was ruled from the Belgian Congo . On December 13, 1946 was UN - mandate under Belgian administration. Hutu parties won the local elections in 1953, while Tutsi parties won the regional elections. This led the Tutsi and Hutu to drift apart because the latter continued to feel oppressed. From September 1959 onwards, numerous parties were founded, mostly following ethnic or clan boundaries. The UPRONA was an exception , in which both Hutu and Tutsi were represented in the leadership ranks. In November 1959 there was serious unrest between Hutu and Tutsi, which was suppressed by the Belgians.

In the spring of 1961 the country received an autonomous interim government under the Hutu Joseph Cimpaye , which consisted of numerous parties. In 1961 women's suffrage was also introduced. On September 29, 1961, the first parliamentary elections took place under UN supervision, which UPRONA clearly won. In place of Cimpaye, Prince Louis Rwagasore became the new Prime Minister. On October 13, 1961, the head of government, who was married to a Hutu woman, was killed by a paid murderer - a Greek named Ioannis Kageorgis. Members of the Batare clan who belonged to the Parti Démocrate Chrétien (PDC) were accused of commissioning the murder. They were publicly executed in January 1963. UPRONA split along ethnic lines. The new head of government was on October 20, 1961, the Tare-Tutsi André Muhirwa . He remained in office until 1963, becoming the first head of government of the independent state of Burundi.

Independence and post-colonial period

Independence Monument in Bujumbura

Kingdom from 1962 to 1966

On June 6, 1962, the UN decided to give the two regions of Rwanda and Burundi independence as separate states. The country was granted independence by Belgium on July 1, 1962. On the same day the ruling party UPRONA broke up into two rival groups, the so-called Monrovia group made up of moderate pro-Western Tutsi and Hutu under the leadership of Hutu Paul Mirerekano and the Casablanca group made up of radical Tutsi. For the time being, the Monrovia group was able to prevail. She provided with André Muhirwa and from June 18, 1963 with Pierre Ngendandumwe the head of government and tried to stabilize the country. After Mwami Mwambutsa IV, who ruled as head of state from 1915, had four Hutu ministers dismissed, Ngendandumwe resigned as head of government. He was replaced by Albin Nyamoya , a radical Tutsi. This formed a new government on April 6, 1964. Nyamoya changed the pro-Western policy of his predecessors and leaned on the People's Republic of China . There were border disputes with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When large quantities of weapons of Chinese origin were found in December, Nyamoya lost the Mwami's trust. He was released on January 8, 1965. His predecessor Ngendandumwe took his place. A few days later, on January 15, he was murdered by a group of radical Tutsi. The Mwami appointed the President of UPRONA, Joseph Bamina , as the new head of government. On May 10, 1965, the first parliamentary elections after independence took place. UPRONA clearly won with 64 percent of the vote. But the radical Tutsi party Parti du Peuple (PP) received 30 percent of the vote and went on a confrontation course with UPRONA. Despite winning the election, the king forced Bamina, a Hutu, to resign. On July 24th, the king declared a state of emergency. The new head of government was on October 13, 1965, the private secretary of Mwami, Léopold Biha . He belonged to the royal clan of the Bezi-Tutsi. Both the radical Tutsi and the Hutu, who had been cheated of their government responsibility, attempted a coup in October . The army, consisting of Tutsi, killed over 5,000 Hutu in this context, including ex-Prime Minister Bamina and ex-UPRONA President Mirerekano. The king was discredited and moved to Europe. The country was drifting towards civil war. On March 24th, the son of Mwami Mwambutse, Charles Ndizeye, became the new king as Ntare V. The commander-in-chief of the army, Michel Micombero , and Ntare V. fought for de facto power in the country. For the time being, the new Mwami won. Micombero became the new head of government on July 11, 1966 in place of Biha. On November 28, 1966, Micombero seized power during a foreign visit by Ntare V. and declared Burundi a republic.

Micombero era 1966–1976 (First Republic)

Michel Micombero became the first President of the Republic. At the same time the office of head of government was abolished. Micombero was at the head of a so-called National Revolutionary Council , which was dissolved in 1968. Within a few years, Micombero removed all Hutu from leadership positions in the military, police and administration.

In September 1969 the last remaining Hutu officers in the military attempted a coup. This failed, and 23 people were executed in December 1969. Micombero relied more and more on Tutsi from his home region and thus angered the other Tutsi clans. In 1971 the last moderate Tutsi within the leadership were removed from the leadership circles after the establishment of a Supreme Council of the Revolution . Only two representatives of the Hutu and the Ganwa (high nobility) belonged to this thirty-member body.

As Ntare V on 30 March 1972 for unknown reasons (the guesses range from commitments concerning its safety and personal amnesty to violent abduction) from Uganda to his homeland returned, he was arrested. On April 16, after a mass arrest, a Hutu riot broke out among the Hutu communities. On April 29, Micombero sacked his entire government and the president of the ruling party. Riots broke out in Bujumbura. Ntare V. was murdered by supporters of Micomberos in his country house, where he was under arrest. Micombero gained the upper hand on May 6 with the help of troops loyal to him. All 450 Hutu remaining in the army were liquidated. The army massacred between 100,000 and 250,000 Hutu in the months that followed. In particular, educated Hutu such as ministers, officials and teachers were killed so as not to endanger the Tutsi's claim to leadership. The genocide in Burundi as the systematic and mass murder of ethnic Hutu received little attention in western countries at that time, although genocide criteria were met. At the same time, between 3,000 and 10,000 Tutsi died in acts of revenge. The events of 1972 are now assigned an important meaning for the later genocide in Rwanda in 1994, as a result of a strong distrust on the part of the Hutu towards the Tutsi.

The entire Hutu elite was dead or in exile in mid-1973. The radical Tutsi leader Albin Nyamoya was again head of government during this period (from July 15, 1972 to June 5, 1973). On July 11, 1974, Micombero received absolute power. Parliament was dissolved and he was head of state, head of government and president of the ruling party. On November 1, 1976 Micombero was overthrown by an army coup led by Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza and Colonel Édouard Nzambimana . He fled to Somalia .

Bagaza era 1976–1987 (Second Republic)

Jean-Baptiste Bagaza became the new head of state and Edouard Nzambimana was head of government from November 12, 1976 to October 13, 1978. A Supreme Revolutionary Council took over government responsibility. But only a few of the culprits of the 1972/73 massacres were arrested and convicted. Bagaza pursued a more left-wing policy and tried to improve relations between Tutsi and Hutu. After the adoption of a new constitution, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza officially became president. The first parliamentary elections in 17 years were held in October 1982. Two candidates from the ruling party UPRONA competed against each other. On August 31, 1984, Bagaza was re-elected. In 1986 the first opposition party, FRODEBU , was founded. Its president is Melchior Ndadaye . While attending the Francophonie Summit in Canada, Bagaza was ousted from office by the army led by Pierre Buyoya .

First era Buyoya 1987 to 1993

Byuoya became head of state and headed a military regime called the Military Committee for National Salvation . In August 1988 the army massacred the civilian population. It was triggered by conflicts between Hutu and Tutsi: the army, of which 99.7% of the members were Tutsi, carried out systematic arrests and abductions of Hutu in the northern provinces of Ngozi , Kirundo and Muyinga . When a soldier shot and killed two Hutu on August 11, villagers lynched them . The result was massive reprisals from the military. Hutu settlements were set on fire with incendiary devices, villagers were driven out of hiding with tear gas , and refugees were shot from army helicopters. Around 20,000 people are killed within a week, mostly Hutu. More than 53,000 Hutu fled to neighboring Rwanda.

On October 6, 1988, Buyoya set up an investigative commission made up of twelve Hutu and twelve Tutsi to clarify the incident. To alleviate ethnic tensions, the number of Hutu ministers was doubled from six to twelve and Hutu Adrien Sibomana was appointed as the new head of government (October 19, 1988). In the following three years, numerous Hutu returned from abroad. With the PALIPEHUTU they founded their own Hutu party on February 1, 1991. In March 1993 a new constitution was introduced that banned ethnic and religious parties. At the same time, other parties were legalized. On June 1, 1993, Hutu Melchior Ndadaye won the presidential election against Buyoya. He took office on July 10th. On June 29, 1993, multi-party parliamentary elections were held.

Putsch and civil war 1993 to 2005

On July 10, 1993, Sylvie Kinigi became head of government. Ndadaye was killed in a failed military coup just 101 days after his election victory. From October 21 to October 27, 1993, the coup leader François Ngézé asserted himself in power. Then the army prevailed. The head of government temporarily took over the office of head of state until February 5, 1994. After that, the Hutu Cyprien Ntaryamira received the office of head of state. In the autumn of 1993 there were extensive massacres, this time mainly Tutsi victims. Estimates speak of 200,000 dead. On February 7, 1994, Anatole Kanyenkiko , a Tutsi, took over as head of government. On April 6, 1994, the plane in which the heads of state of Burundi and Rwanda were traveling was shot down. Sylvestre Ntibantunganya , a Hutu , became the new head of state . Ethnic riots broke out in the suburbs of Bujumbura in April 1994, as well as in August after the arrest of the Tutsi leader Mathias Hitimana . In December 1994, the UN urged both ethnic groups to exercise moderation after further clashes with dead and injured people. On February 16, 1995, the head of government resigned after days of strikes. He was succeeded on February 22, 1995 by Antoine Nduwayo , also a Tutsi. Massacres, both large and small, took place throughout 1995. Around 15,000 people died. After massacres of 4,050 unarmed civilians in Gitega by the army in July and August 1996, the army under Pierre Buyoya came back to power on July 26, 1996. The new head of government was Hutu Pascal-Firmin Ndimira . In December 1996, the army massacred hundreds of civilians in a church. On May 14, 1998, ex-coup activist François Ngézé was charged with the murder of President Ndadaye. On July 23, 2001, Hutu and Tutsi signed an agreement on alternating rotation between Hutu and Tutsi in the office of head of state. On April 30, 2003, Hutu Domitien Ndayizeye took over this office from Tutsi Buyoya. A ceasefire between all parties was negotiated at the beginning of the year. As the last rebel group, the Forces Nationales de Liberation (FNL) stopped fighting on February 1, 2005.

Nkurunziza's reign from 2005 to 2020

In the elections for the head of state on August 19, 2005, Hutu Pierre Nkurunziza , whose group CNDD-FDD had already won the July 3, 2005 elections, was victorious . The security situation has improved significantly since then. Many refugees returned. In 2007 there were four camps in Tanzania with fewer than 150,000 Burundian refugees, after there had been ten camps along the border with Burundi with well over half a million refugees in 2003.

The UN has been present in Burundi since 2004: The United Nations Mission in Burundi (ONUB) from May to December 2006 was followed by the Integrated Office of the United Nations in Burundi (BINUB), which was replaced by the United Nations Office in Burundi (BNUB) in 2011 has been.

In August 2005, elections to the Burundian National Assembly were held for the first time in Burundi , in which the CNDD-FDD received a majority and Pierre Nkurunziza became the new president. The two major parties of the transitional government (UPRONA and FRODEBU) were "punished" by the electorate, among other things for corruption and nepotism.

Domestically, the ruling party appears authoritarian and persecutes critics and competitors.

In April 2009 the PALIPEHUTU-FNL officially laid down their arms and was then recognized as the FNL party after 29 years. With the recognition there are now officially no more rebel movements in Burundi.

In June 2010, Nkurunziza was re-elected. The ruling party CNDD-FDD competed in particular with the FNL. The party leader of the FNL, Agathon Rwasa, did not accept the election result. His whereabouts have been unknown since then.

From June 2004 to December 2006, the UN ONUB mission was in Burundi and was replaced by BINUB 2007. From January 2011, BINUB was replaced by BNUB , the mandate was valid until the end of 2011 and was extended three times until the end of 2014.

At the end of April 2015, incumbent President Pierre Nkurunziza was proposed by the ruling party for a third term, which sparked violent protests in the country. On May 13, Army General Godefroid Niyombare declared the president deposed and at the same time the parliament dissolved (see coup in Burundi 2015 ). After two days, the putschists had to give up. The elections scheduled for May and June 2015 have been postponed. The parliamentary election took place on June 29, 2015. The process was criticized by UN observers as not being free and not fair. The ruling party received 77 of the 100 seats, 21 seats went to the opposition alliance Indépendants de l'espoir despite its boycott . In the presidential election on July 21, 2015, which was also unfair and boycotted by the opposition parties, Nkurunziza received around 69 percent of the vote.

The events surrounding the election are processed by the International Criminal Court . Since Burundi revoked the Rome Statute on October 27, 2017 , the investigation only covers the period up to October 26, 2017. In 2018, a referendum was adopted that allows the President two terms of office of seven years each. President Nkurunziza did not run for the elections in May 2020 . This won his party colleague Évariste Ndayishimiye . Before he could take office in August, Nkurunziza died.

Term of office Évariste Ndyaishimiyes

The former President of Parliament, Pascal Nyabenda , became the new President, but he was replaced by Ndayishimiye on June 18, 2020. Six days later, Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni was appointed prime minister for the first time in 22 years ; Prosper Bazombanza became the new Vice President .

See also

literature

  • Rene Lemarchand: Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide. Cambridge University and Woodrow Wilson Center, Cambridge and New York 1994, ISBN 0-521-45176-0 .

Web links

Commons : History of Burundi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay, Reginald (1987): Burundi Since The Genocide; Minority Rights Group, London; [1]
  2. ↑ cf. also Holtz, Bruno (1973): Burundi: Genocide or Suicide? Imba, Freiburg, p. 24ff
  3. ↑ cf. Prunier, Gérard (1995): The Rwanda Crisis 1959-1994. History of a Genocide; Hurst & Company, London. P. 7
  4. ↑ cf. Strizek (1996): Rwanda and Burundi: From Independence to State Failure. World Forum, Cologne., P. 6.
  5. ↑ This view can be found, for example, in Human Rights Watch (1999): Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda; S. 31ff ( PDF ( Memento of the original of 4 November 2017 Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed on September 20, 2013). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / addisvoice.com
  6. ^ Barnett, Michael (2002): Eyewitness to a Genocide. Cornell, Ithaca, p. 50.
  7. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
  8. ↑ a b AFRICA: Black Apartheid . In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 1988 ( online - Sept. 5, 1988 ).
  9. ^ A b Lemarchand, R. (1998): Genocide in the Great Lakes: which genocide? Whose genocide? African Studies Review, 3-16, stable URL
  10. ↑ Howard Wolpe. Making peace after genocide. Anatomy of the Burundi Process. ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.usip.org archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. United States Institute of Peace, Peaceworks, March 2011, No. 70 (pdf; 766 kB)
  11. ↑ Information from the UNHCR dated August 16, 2007  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.unhcr.at  
  12. ↑ Chronicle 2009 at securitycouncilreport.org (English), accessed on August 13, 2016.
  13. ↑ Al Jazeera , June 30, 2010.
  14. ^ UN Security Council, Resolution 1858 ( Memento of October 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) December 22, 2008.
  15. ^ UN Security Council, Resolution 1902 ( Memento of October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) December 17, 2009
  16. ^ UN Security Council, Resolution 1959 ( Memento of July 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) December 16, 2010
  17. ↑ bnub.unmissions.org: Security Council extends mandate of UN political mission in Burundi , accessed on January 2, 2012.
  18. ↑ Security Council extends for another year mandate of UN office in Burundi. BNUB, February 13, 2013, accessed March 9, 2013 .
  19. ↑ Security Council extends UN mission in Burundi until December 2014. BNUB, February 14, 2014, accessed on March 14, 2014 .
  20. ↑ Burundi: President Pierre Nkurunziza postpones election again. Spiegel Online from June 3, 2015, accessed June 3, 2015.
  21. ↑ UN: UN observers criticize the parliamentary elections in Burundi. ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. zeit.de from July 3, 2015, accessed on July 3, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zeit.de
  22. ↑ Africa: ruling party in Burundi wins controversial parliamentary election. Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 8, 2015, accessed on July 8, 2015.
  23. ↑ Nkurunziza chosen as the election winner. Deutsche Welle from July 24, 2015, accessed on July 24, 2015.
  24. ↑ International Criminal Court : Burundi. icc-cpi.int, accessed on May 17, 2020
  25. ↑ Burundi restores Prime Minister post, MPs endorse new veep. africanews.com, June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020