The assassination of Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira
Briefing Issue #67, Monday, April 6, 2020
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Dear RegionWeek Reader,
Burundi commemorates every April 6 the assassination of President Cyprien Ntaryamira. He died in a plane crash with his Rwandan counterpart Juvenal Habyarimana and two of his ministers.
From Dar-Es-Salaam (Tanzania) where he had taken part in a regional summit on the search for solutions to the inter-Burundian civil war of the time, On April 6, 1994, Ntaryamira was killed over Kanombe International airport (Kigali) "in circumstances not yet clarified"
The Burundi political class continues to call for justice. Various political party leaders are still calling for the elucidation of the assassination of former Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira.
First Lady Sylvane Ntaryamira, in a 2017 interview with Iwacu said she wants Burundians to grasp the extent of love for the Nation of Burundi and the sacrifice of her late husband.
"Accepting to take the reins of the country with the chaos and desolation that reigned at that time was not easy but he was ready to give everything for his country. ", notes Sylvane Ntaryamira, before and to insist: "It proves the strong personality, the determination of my husband to work for a peaceful and democratic Burundi.”
Who was Cyprien Ntaryamira?
He was born on March 6, 1955, on Gitwe hill, in the Mageyo zone, Mubimbi commune, Bujumbura province.
In 1972 Cyprien Ntaryamira fled to Rwanda, where he resumed his education from 1973 to 1976. It was at the National University of Rwanda that he obtained his Bachelor of Science (1979) as well as that of Agricultural Engineer (1982).
While in Rwanda he co-founded the Burundi Progressive Students Movement, BAMPERE, he held the position of head of the information department. In December 1979, he founded with M. Salvator Buyagu, Melchior Ndadaye, Jérôme Ndiho, Festus Ntanyungu, Jean Ndikumana, Sylvestre Ntibantunganya and others, a political party “Parti des Travailleurs Barundi (UBU)”, of socialist tendency, where he was in charge of the training on politics and ideology
In March 1983, he returned to Burundi as a forerunner of Melchior Ndadaye and worked as an adviser to the Burundi Directorate General of Agricultural Planning. Then, in January 1984, he headed the northern cotton region at COGERCO (a local cotton processing company).
However, in May 1985, he was imprisoned in Mpimba prison for a year, for strictly political reasons, without having benefited from any form of trial. In fact, he was accused of leading a clandestine political opposition network (the UBU in this case) to President Bagaza’s regime.
This was the time of the underground creation of the Sahwanya-FRODEBU party (the Front for Democracy in Burundi), founded by "the twelve", including Messrs. C. Ntaryamira, M. Ndadaye, and L. Nyangoma, in August 1986 in a popular district of Gitega.
Cyprien NTARYAMIRA, and Melchior NDADAYE, were part of the wing, which has become the majority within the UBU, favorable to an ideological adaptation, responding to the new perceptible current in international relations which was to culminate with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Cyprien NTARYAMIRA became a member of the Political Bureau and responsible for the economic issues of FRODEBU(the Front for Democracy in Burundi). With the creation of FRODEBU, they chose the option of a peaceful, legal and electoral way for a democratic transition that prevailed at the expense of the original revolutionary way.
In July 1993 after FRODEBU won the first democratic elections in Burundi, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, in the Government of Mrs. Sylvie KINIGI, under the Presidency of Melchior Ndadaye.
President Ndadaye was assassinated during an attempted military coup on October 21, 1993, and the wave of violence that followed sparked the country’s descent into civil war. Amid the violence, leaders of the attempted coup and members of Ndadaye’s government vied for power.
The main political parties finally chose Cyprien Ntaryamira, a Hutu, as president. Ntaryamira took office in February 1994, but two months later he and Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana were killed.
Discipline amidst chaos
To achieve what he wanted for the Burundian people, Ntaryamira felt that the Burundians needed discipline because there was indiscipline in all sectors of the State, at all levels of the national life.
"Discipline in the defense and security forces, discipline in political parties, discipline in university, discipline even in religious denominations, discipline everywhere.” - President Ntaryamira
For him, the success of any institution, whether it is a family or a territorial entity depends on Discipline.
Stay safe!
Fabrice Iranzi
Editor, RegionWeek.com
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IN THE REGION
COMESA
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the COMESA region continues to spread as countries record more cases. Since the last situational update on 31 March 2020, a total of 2,115 cases have been recorded. The total new cases reported for the last three days are 517 as compared to 701 reported on 31 March 2020.
The most affected countries in the COMESA Region are Egypt with 865 cases, Tunisia (455), Mauritius (169), DR Congo (134) and Kenya (110). Whilst the region experienced a surge in the number of new cases in the last update, the data from the past three days indicate that the average daily rate of new cases has slightly reduced. The total new cases reported for the past three days are 517.
The general reduction in the daily rate can be attributed to the various measures the Member States have undertaken to contain the spread of the virus. It should be noted that Comoros has not recorded any cases.
The regional recovery rate is 10.3 percent. Egypt has recorded the highest number of recoveries 23% of the cases. The recovery in Egypt is much higher than the total recovery in the region. So far, 14 countries have not recorded any cases of recoveries. The number of deaths has slightly increased by 7 percent to 100 as compared to the previous data.
East African community
The People of the Republic of Rwanda and the International Community commemorates the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda every 7th of April. In this period around the world, people are uniting to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections and keep their neighbors safe. East African is thus no exception.
To strike the difficult balance of commemorating while maintaining social distancing, a group of 10 selected people will take half an hour to commemorate at EAC headquarters and the rest of partners, EAC staff and members of the Rwandan community will continue commemoration through online social media.
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