Michel Micombero

Michel Micombero (* 1940 in Rutovu ; † July 16, 1983 in Somalia ) was the President of Burundi from November 28, 1966 to November 1, 1976 .

Life

In the years after independence , Burundi became increasingly chaotic . King Mwambutsa IV replaced the prime minister after anti- Tutsi troops threatened to use the same violence as in Rwanda . On October 18, 1965, Hutu leader Gervais Nyangoma deposed the king in a coup . Soon after, the mostly Hutu police force began to assassinate Tutsi in some parts of the country under the orders of Antoine Serkwavus.

Michel Micombero was a young Tutsi army captain. In 1965 he had finished his training in Belgium and was quickly promoted to Minister of Defense. He united the army, which consisted mostly of Tutsi, behind him against the coup and overthrew the regime. A variety of attacks on Hutu across the country followed.

Micombero became Prime Minister on July 11, 1966 and thus the driving force of the nation, only overseen by King Ntare V. A short time later, on November 28, Micombero overthrew the monarchy and declared himself president.

As president, Micombero became an advocate of African socialism and received support from China . He wanted to create law and order and took action against the Hutu.

In 1972 Hutu refugees from neighboring countries organized an uprising in Burundi. This was put down and responded to with organized ethnic violence that claimed at least 150,000 Hutu victims. Micombero had the leading role in this genocide , which led to lasting tensions between Hutu and Tutsi - both in Burundi and in neighboring Rwanda .

After these events, Micombero fell more and more into corruption and alcohol. Some sources report that he even had delusions. Four years later, he was deposed in a coup by deputy chief of staff and distant cousin Jean-Baptiste Bagaza .

Micombero went into exile in Somalia , where he died of a heart attack in 1983 .

See also

• History of Burundi: Independence and the Post-Colonial Period .

literature

• Micombero, Michel . In: Mark R. Lipschutz, R. Kent Rasmussen: Dictionary of African Historical Biography . First Paperback Printing, with corrections. University of California Press. 1989, p. 274. ISBN 0-520-06611-1 , Google Books

Individual evidence

1. ^ R. Lemarchand: Genocide in the Great Lakes: which genocide? Whose genocide? In: African Studies Review , 3-16, 1998, JSTOR 524678