Citation
BUJUMBURA, April 7 (Reuter) - These are the key facts about Burundi,
the central African state whose president Cyprien Ntaryamira was killed
along with the president of neighbouring Rwanda in a rocket attack on
their plane:
POPULATION: An estimated 5.6 million. The largest tribe is the Hutu, a
Bantu people who account for an estimated 85 percent. The Tutsi, feudal
overlords before colonial days, make up about 15 percent and there are
small numbers of Twi, a group related to the Pygmy people of Zaire.
Hutu and Tutsi have no defined territories and speak the same language.
But systematic discrimination in favour of the Tutsi assured them
control of the government and army for most of the time since
independence in 1962.
RELIGION: More than 60 percent of the people are Christian, mostly
Roman Catholic. The rest mainly follow traditional religions, although
one percent of the population is Moslem.
AREA: 27,834 square km (10,747 square miles). Burundi is bordered by
Rwanda to the north, Zaire to the west across Lake Tanganyika, and
Tanzania to the south and east.
CAPITAL: Bujumbura, population about 180,000. Gitega, with about 15,000
people, is the second largest town. There are few other towns or
villages since most Burundians live in the densely populated
countryside. The World Bank estimates population density on arable
lands at 210 per sq km (338 per sq mile), one of the densest rates in
the world.
ARMED FORCES: The army has 5,500 men in two infantry battalions, one
parachute battalion, one commando battalion and one armoured car
company. The 150-man Air Force has three combat aircraft, while a navy
of 50 men has three patrol boats, two of which are in reserve. There is
also a 1,500-man gendarmerie.
ECONOMY: Burundi is one of the poorest countries in the world with per
capita income estimated by the World Bank at $259 a year. Most people
are farmers who essentially feed themselves and sell nothing. Burundi's
biggest export is coffee. Like Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, it
was hit hard by a slump in coffee prices and has been trying to
diversify its exports by boosting tea production and exploring
horticultural exports. The World Bank projects growth at between three
and 4.4 percent between until 1996. Foreign debt is more than $530
million. Burundi embarked on a World Bank structural adjustment
programme in 1986, liberalising trade and prices.
HISTORY: Tribal hatred has exploded several times since Burundi won
independence from Belgium in 1962. An estimated 100,000 people, mainly
Hutu, were killed in massacres in 1972. In August 1988 Hutu farmers
along the border with Rwanda staged an uprising. An estimated 5,000
people had died by the time the army restored calm. Major Pierre
Buyoya's military government, shaken by the killings, sought lasting
political solutions.
Buyoya, who came to power in a bloodless coup in 1987, named a cabinet
split between the two tribes, giving Hutu their first real voice in
government in 20 years and naming the first Hutu premier since 1965.
Buyoya was defeated by Melchior Ndadaye in legislative elections last
June.
Until then, Burundi had been governed by military men ever since
Captain Michel Micombero overthrew King Ntare V in 1966. His coup ended
a monarchy which started in the 15th century and survived the German
colonial administration and Belgian rule which followed the end of
World War One. Micombero ended the old king's system of alternately
appointing Hutu and Tutsi prime ministers and helped the Tutsi
consolidate control over the government and army.
Micombero was overthrown in 1976 by Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, whose
1977 land reforms put an end to Tutsi feudal overlords. But Bagaza soon
clashed with the Roman Catholic church, accusing it of aggravating
tribal tensions. He banned weekday masses and nationalised church
schools. In 1985, he expelled 90 missionaries and jailed several
priests.
Buyoya's coup against him was largely aimed at ending those
church-state tensions, which antagonised many of Burundi's western
donors.
Ndadaye, Buyoya's successor and the country's first Hutu president, was
killed by renegade troops from the Tutsi-dominated army in a failed
coup last October. His murder unleashed a wave of Hutu-Tutsi slaughter
throughout Burundi in which up to 50,000 people were killed.
Cyprien Ntaryamira, elected in January to succeed Ndadaye, was killed
on Wednesday night along with Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in
a rocket attack on their plane when they returned to Kigali from a
regional peace conference in Tanzania.
(c) Reuters Limited 1994
