Citation
BUJUMBURA, June 3 (AFP) - Melchior Ndadaye, who unexpectedly defeated outgoing president Major Pierre Buyoya in Burundi's presidential elections, is a member of the Hutu ethnic majority, traditionally excluded from power in this central African state.
Ndadaye, a 40-year-old bank official and leader of the Burundi Democratic Front, took refuge in neighbouring Rwanda for several years after the massacre of some 200,000 Hutus by Tutsis in 1972.
Before leaving for Rwanda he was a student at the teacher training college in Gitega, central Burundi. He continued his studies in Butare, in the south of neighbouring Rwanda, and the educational science faculty at the national university of Rwanda, also in Butare.
He went on to become a part-time lecturer at the university.
On his return here in 1984, he worked at the Kamenge neuro-psychiatric centre in Bujumbura for a few months before being put in charge of training for a savings programme for farmers.
From 1987 to 1992, while he was working full-time, he took a correspondence course in banking at one of France's top educational establishments, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris.
In 1989 he was appointed advisor to the office of the minister of rural development. He was then recruted by the Meridien bank, where he was head of the credit department before being put in charge of credit review, a post he held when he was elected.
After his electoral triumph at Tuesday's polls, Ndadaye made it clear that he saw it as a victory for democracy and not of one part of the population over the other.
His predecessor, who came to power in an army coup in September 1987, was a member of the Tutsi ethnic minority, which have long held the reins of power although they comprise only around 14 percent of the population against 85 percent for the Hutu.
The president-elect pledged to put human rights at the top of his agenda and to build a new Burundi.
dn-dc/ss/nb AFP AFP SEQN-0129
