1965 Burundian coup attempt

1965 coup attempt in Burundi 1965 Burundian coup attempt Burundi in its region.svg Location of Burundi in Central Africa 18–19 October 1965 Bujumbura, Kingdom of Burundi Military coup Ethnic tensions between Hutus and Tutsis Mwambutsa IV's perceived interference in government by Hutu leaders Antoine Serukwavu Faction within the gendarmerie and army Coup fails Mwambutsa IV remains on the throne but moves into exile 86 alleged conspirators executed Several thousand civilians killed in ethnic violence burundi An attempted coup d'etat in Burundi took place between 18–19 October 1965, when a group of ethnic Hutu officers from the Burundian military and gendarmerie attempted to overthrow Burundi's government. The rebels were frustrated with the king (mwami) of Burundi, Mwambutsa IV, who had repeatedly attempted to cement his control over the government and bypassed parliamentary norms despite Hutu electoral gains. Although the prime minister was shot and wounded, the coup failed due to the intervention of a contingent of troops led by Captain Michel Micombero. The attempted coup d'état provoked a backlash against Hutus in which thousands of people, including the participants in the coup, were killed. The coup also facilitated a militant Tutsi backlash against the monarchy resulting in two further coups which culminated in the abolition of the monarchy in November 1966 and the proclamation of a republic with Micombero as President of Burundi. Background In 1962, the Belgian trust territory of Ruanda-Urundi received independence, creating the Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi. Both states historically had monarchies with members of the Tutsi ethnic group holding higher social prestige over a Hutu ethnic majority, but Rwanda's monarchy was abolished by a political revolution in 1959–1961. In Burundi the Mwami (king), Mwambutsa IV, was popular with all groups but was himself Ganwa. Tutsis, Hutus and Ganwas were part of the dominant political party, the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA).Tshimba David-Ngendo 2015 as a repeat of 1965 in Burundi: the stubbornness of political history https://www.thinkingafrica.org/V2/2015-as-a-repeat-of-1965-in-burundi-the-stubbornness-of-political-history/ Thinking Africa 21 January 2016 18 October 2016 On 13 October 1961, the Prime Minister of Burundi, UPRONA leader Louis Rwagasore, was assassinated in a plot devised by political rivals with the support of some Belgian officials.Weinstein 1976 11 His death derailed his attempts to build national inter-ethnic cohesion and facilitated the growth of Hutu-Tutsi tensions.Lemarchand 1970 342 His murder also stoked divisions in UPRONA, and fueled a rivalry between Hutu politician Paul Mirerekano and the new Ganwa prime minister, André Muhirwa. Both claimed to be the heirs to Rwagasore's legacy and both sought to become president of UPRONA in his wake. The controversy led to the coalescing of two factions in the party, with Muhirwa leading the Tutsi-dominated "Casablanca group" and Mirekano leading the Hutu-led "Monrovia group". The former was generally anti-West in its political orientation, while the latter took a more moderate stance on the West.Eggers 2006 95–96 thumb|left|upright|The actions of Mwami Mwambutsa IV (pictured in 1962) angered Hutu political leaders before the coup attempt. After Muhirwa's government resigned in 1963, the Mwami consolidated power in the court, and he attempted to cement his authority over the successive governments and bypassed parliamentary norms. This provoked protests from members of the National Assembly.Lemarchand 1970 364–365 Meanwhile, the Casablanca group grew increasingly close to the People's Republic of China, which used its connections in Burundi to support communist rebels in neighbouring states. Fearing a Chinese-sponsored coup was being planned, in January 1965 Mwambutsa dismissed Prime Minister Albin Nyamoya and asked Hutu politician Pierre Ngendandumwe to form a new government. Surprised by this development, the Casablanca leaders conspired with Rwandan refugees and assassinated Ngendandumwe a few days later.Lemarchand 1970 387–388, 395 The government arrested several Rwandans as well as leading figures of the Casablanca group,Weinstein 1976 212–213 but all of the charges were eventually dropped.Eggers 2006 113–114 The lack of a conviction for the murder became a grievance for Hutu politicians.Weinstein 1976 213 Another Hutu, Joseph Bamina, was made Prime Minister as a compromise between the Casablanca and Monrovia factions.Russell 2019 152 With Ngendandumwe's death having created a political crisis,Eggers 2006 114 the Mwami scheduled new elections for the National Assembly. By then, Hutu political consciousness had risen and in the May 1965 contests 23 of the 33 seats in the Assembly were won by Hutus, and 10 of these were won by politicians from the Hutu-interest aligned Party of the People (PP). UPRONA won a majority 21 seats, but by then the party had lost cohesion and was overtaken by factionalism. Hutus were subsequently selected by the Assembly to lead its bureau.Lemarchand 1970 411–412 While discussions on the creation of a new government took place, Gervais Nyangoma offered himself as a candidate to be named prime minister. He was a Hutu who served as Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office and was critical of the monarchy.Lemarchand 1970 413–414 In August the Mwami rejected consideration of Nyangoma for the premiership, surprising Hutu deputies in the Assembly.Lemarchand 1970 414 Tutsi parliamentarians suggested Senator Thaddée Siryuyumunsi for the position, but he was also passed over.Weinstein 1976 261 On 13 September Mwambutsa instead selected Léopold Biha, a trusted Ganwa associated with his court, to lead the government.Lemarchand 1970 414–415 The installation of Biha infuriated many Hutus and some extremist Tutsis;Weinstein 1976 86 though he was personally well-respected, his appointment was viewed as an autocratic move by the Mwami. There were rumours that radical Tutsi army officers were planning a coup.Russell 2019 154 While seven of the other 10 portfolios were granted to Hutus, giving them their first cabinet majority since independence, Hutu parliamentarians felt that the Mwami continued to exercise outsized influence over the government and that they did not have true control.Lemarchand 1970 415 Tutsi leaders were also angered, feeling that the government had been imposed upon them by the crown.Weinstein 1976 87 On 2 September Mwambutsa issued an arrêté-loi that reduced the number of communes in the country from 181 to 78 and made all burgomasters appointed functionaries responsible to the crown and the government instead of locally elected officials. Hutu politicians were infuriated by the Mwami's bypassing of the parliamentary government in issuing the decree and by removing their potential to consolidate their strength in communal elections. On 28 September a group of Hutu members of Parliament—including the officers of both the Assembly and the Senate—signed a letter declaring that they "absolutely refused to accept the provisions of the arrêté-loi".Lemarchand 1970 414 The recasting of the burgomasters was particularly sensitive since, after the elections, disruptions and complaints arose from the countryside involving disputes with local officials due to ethnic tensions and alleged discrimination.Lemarchand 1970 414–415 With resentment at the Mwami's increased involvement in politics building, talk of coup plots circulated among Hutu and Tutsi politicians and were repeated in reports by foreign observers.Russell 2019 154 Coup attempt Late in the night on 18 October 1965, Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie Antoine Serukwavu left Kamenge with several jeeps and troops, headed towards the Mwami's palace. Near there he was joined by a small group of mostly-Hutu paracommandos led by a Hutu non-commissioned officer (NCO), Budaga. They were quickly joined by a third group of putschists led by gendarmerie NCOs François Rusake and Albert Harimenshi. Rusake and Harimenshi proceeded to launch an attack on the palace, while a Hutu army officer, Banikwa, went to his barracks presumably to gather reinforcements.Lemarchand 1970 416 The New York Times estimated that about 120 gendarmes and soldiers were involved in the attack. Burundi Fearful of Tribal Killing: Toll Believed High Already in Riots in Wake of Revolt The New York Times 20 25 October 1965 They were aided by one of the Mwami's palace guards.Russell 2019 154 At the palace, the putschists shot three sentries. According to political scientist René Lemarchand, they then attempted to breach the compound, but were met with stiff resistance from the Mwami's personal guards.Lemarchand 1970 416 According to a report compiled by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the putschists briefly entered the palace and killed 10 Tutsi soldiers. The document reported rumours that Mwambutsa only avoided being captured because his telephone operator told him to hide in the palace and when the putschists confronted the operator he told them that the Mwami had already fled.Russell 2019 155 As Banikwa returned to his camp he was shot by a guard and thus unable to complete his mission. Army Captain Michel Micombero brought a contingent of loyalist troops to the palace and caught the putschists in a crossfire. Faced with this situation, they surrendered. While the battle was ongoing at the palace, a separate group of gendarmes drove to Biha's residence and beckoned him to step outside,Lemarchand 1970 416 saying the Mwami needed to see him.Russell 2019 155 Unsuspecting of their motives, Biha obliged and the putschists fired at him point-blank,Lemarchand 1970 416 striking his shoulder, abdomen, and leg. Burundi Shoots 34 For Role in Revolt The New York Times 1, 8 Reuters 23 October 1965 https://www.nytimes.com/1965/10/23/archives/burundi-shoots-34-for-role-in-revolt-burundi-shoots-34-as-plotters.html Though seriously wounded, the prime minister escaped. Hutu troops also mutinied at Bujumbura's two main military camps, and order was not restored until the following morning.Lemarchand 1970 416 Faced with the failure of the coup, Serukwavu fled to Rwanda.Lemarchand 1970 417 Aftermath Civil unrest Shortly after the attempted putsch, bands of Hutu militants began attacking Tutsi families and setting fire to homes. Most disturbances took place in Muramvya Province, though violence occurred in other places, particularly around Cibitoke near Rwanda.Lemarchand 1970 417 Twa people also participated in the hostilities.Russell 2019 155 The Muramvya attacks were largely attributed to the Jeunesse Mirerekano, a youth political organisation created by Mirerekano to support Hutu candidates for public office, though its role in the violence remains contested. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195382075.001.0001/acref-9780195382075-e-1370 Mirerekano, Paul (1921–1965) Mirerekano, Paul Oxford Reference January 2011 Oxford University Press 978-0-19-538207-5 30 July 2021 At least 500 Tutsi civilians were killed, while approximately 1,000 sought shelter at a Catholic mission in Bukeye and an additional 500 found refuge at the mission in Muramvya.Lemarchand 1970 417 The army and "self-defence" groups under its supervision launched reprisals. In Muramvya, one local commissioner, Tharcisse Ntavyubhua, shot at nearly every Hutu he encountered.Lemarchand 1970 417–418 The incumbent Hutu governor of the province was executed and Ntavyubhua subsequently replaced him.Weinstein 1976 222 An estimated 2,500–5,000 Hutus were killed, and hundreds more imprisoned,Lemarchand 1970 417–418 including in Gitega Province, where there had been no violence. Approximately 4,000 refugees fled to Rwanda.Russell 2019 157 Government response Shaken by the fighting, Mwambutsa fled his palace and by the morning of 19 October had taken refuge in the city of Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He only returned to Bujumbura after white mercenaries in the employ of the Armée Nationale Congolaise determined that it would be safe for him to do so.Lemarchand 1970 416 That evening he delivered radio broadcast proclaiming Burundi to be under martial law and formally dismissing Serukwavu. Burundi Is Placed Under Martial Law The New York Times Reuters 4 21 October 1964 Nevertheless, he stayed for only several days and fled to Europe on 2 November.Lemarchand 1970 416 He never returned to Burundi,Russell 2019 157 and in Lemarchand's view his departure greatly tarnished the image of the monarchy.Lemarchand 1970 421–422 Biha also went to Belgium for several weeks to be treated for his injuries;Lemarchand 1966 425 Mathieu Muhakwanke served as acting premier in his absence. The remnants of his government set about repressing the perpetrators of the coup and suspected collaborators.Lemarchand 1970 418 On 21 October, a government-sponsored conseil de guerre sentenced 34 army personnel to death. They were executed by firing squad later that day. Four days later nine gendarmes—including four officers—were executed. Satisfied that the armed forces had been dealt with, the government then began detaining Hutu politicians. On 28 October, 10 were tried before the conseil de guerre and executed. The International Commission of Jurists reported that 86 people were executed in improvised tribunals jointly managed by the army and the Ministry of Justice.Lemarchand 1970 418 Among the most prominent persons executed were director general Gervais Nyangoma; Emile Bucumi and Paul Mirerekano, President and Second Vice-President of the National Assembly, respectively; Senate President Sylvestre Karibwami and senator Ignace Ndimanya; Party of the People President Paul Nibirantiza; Minister of Economy and Commerce Pierre Burarame; and chef de cabinet in the Ministry of Economy Bernard Niyirikana.Lemarchand 1970 419 All the signatories of the September letter of protest to the Mwami were killed.Lemarchand 1970 414 Bamina was arrested and eventually executed in December.Weinstein 1976 76 Senator Claver Nuwinkware, a former minister, was detained but eventually released several months later.Weinstein 1976 227 Nyangoma was generally presumed by the government to have proposed the putsch. According to Lemarchand, some Hutu politicians and civil servants were probably involved in the plot, but a substantial number of those executed were innocent.Lemarchand 1970 419 Serukwavu asserted that no politicians were involved in his plot.Russell 2019 155 The government repression was ultimately denounced by the International Commission of Jurists, the International Labour Organization, the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.Weinstein 1976 15 Some Hutu UPRONA members who escaped the purge gathered in Butare, Rwanda, and founded the Parti Démocrate Hutu, an organisation dedicated to launching a Hutu revolution in Burundi.Weinstein 1976 233 As Mwambutsa fled to Europe he suspended the powers of the Biha government, leaving all authority with the ministries' director-generals, the secretaries of state, and the provincial governors.Weinstein 1976 15 Mwambutsa restored the powers of the Biha government on 20 November.Lemarchand 1970 421 However, with the Mwami outside of the country and the prime minister incapable of discharging his duties, de facto governance fell to the army and the civil service. Lemarchand 1970 421 In December the Foreign Ministry ordered the expulsion of Donald A. Dumont, the United States Ambassador, accusing him of "rightly or wrongly" being under suspicion of having alleged contacts with the perpetrators of the coup attempt.Lemarchand 1970 424 The United States government denied any involvement and asked for evidence of such, but the Burundian authorities never provided any. Burundi Capsule Facts For The Armed Forces 1–4 United States Directorate for Armed Forces Information and Education August 1967 https://books.google.com/books?id=e-HVdbS8tdEC Long-term implications thumb|upright|After trying to govern from abroad, Mwambutsa turned power over to his son, Charles Ndizeye (pictured at his coronation). Parliament ceased to exist in wake of the coup and was not reconstituted until 1982. https://assemblee.bi/spip.php?article1 Historique Ndayizeye Jean Bosco 10 December 2011 Assemblée Nationale du Burundi. National Assembly of Burundi 29 December 2021 French 28 December 2021 https://web.archive.org/web/20211228230229/https://assemblee.bi/spip.php?article1 dead Faced with the difficulties of trying to govern from abroad and being increasingly attracted to a comfortable life in Europe, on 24 March 1966 Mwambutsa issued a decree giving Crown Prince Charles Ndizeye "special powers to co-ordinate and control the activities of the government and the secretariats of state".Lemarchand 1970 419–421 The Mwami did not specify whether he was de facto abdicating the throne.Lemarchand 1970 422 In the meantime, young army officers, junior civil servants, and cadres from radical youth organisations—all mostly Tutsi—became increasingly aware of the influence which they had gained in government.Lemarchand 1970 423 The army group, led by Micombero, was predominant in this informal coalition.Lemarchand 1970 445 Tutsi intellectuals and radicals—especially Gilles Bimazubute—began calling for the removal of the Biha government and the dissolution of the monarchy.Lemarchand 1970 424–425 On 8 July 1966 Ndizeye took control of the government and became the new head of state of Burundi. His usurpation was orchestrated by the young radicals and army officers with the hope that they could shape the nature of the Burundian regime while using the symbols of the monarchy to retain legitimacy.Lemarchand 1970 426–428 Ndizeye dismissed the Biha government and appointed a new one led by Micombero as prime minister. On 1 September he was formally crowned as Mwami Ntare V.Lemarchand 1970 428 Soon thereafter conflict arose between Ntare, who wished to actively rule, and the new government and its supporters, eager to implement progressive reforms without interference from the crown.Lemarchand 1970 429 On 28 November, while Ntare was abroad, the army launched a coup.Lemarchand 1970 433, 438 The army proclaimed the transformation of Burundi into a republic under the leadership of a National Revolutionary Council and Micombero as the new President of Burundi.Lemarchand 1970 445, 447 In the following years, some Tutsi government officials feared that Hutu soldiers would attempt to enact a "repeat of '65".Russell 2019 212, 214 A plot by Hutu army personnel was uncovered in September 1969, and in response the Micombero regime purged the armed forces and government, solidifying Tutsi hegemony in the country.Russell 2019 212–214 The attempted putsch has generally been portrayed in historiography as a "Hutu coup".Russell 2019 155 Burundian academic opinion on the coup attempt remains divided along ethnic lines,Banshimiyubusa 2018 248 with Hutu writers being more sympathetic to the perpetrators and Tutsi writers portraying them more negatively. Different accounts of the events are offered, with some scholars suggesting that the putschists located and addressed the Mwami in his palace, and some saying the coup failed when the rebellious soldiers and gendarmes began shooting at each other in confusion. There is also debate surrounding the motives of the putschists, such as whether they intended to capture or kill the Mwami, or whether they intended to repress the Tutsi population after seizing power.Manirakiza 2011 24–26 Some Hutu scholars suggest that Tutsi officers were party to the plot and opportunistically blamed it on Hutus to their advantage.Banshimiyubusa 2018 249 References 2 Bibliography Banshimiyubusa Denis Les enjeux et défis de la démocratisation au Burundi. Essai d'analyse et d'interprétation à partir des partis politiques Université Pau et des Pays de l'Adour 2018 French https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02361964/file/Denistheseversionfinale.pdf PhD thesis 1085890695 Eggers Ellen K. Historical Dictionary of Burundi Scarecrow Press third 2006 Lanham 978-0-8108-5302-7 Lemarchand René Social Change and Political Modernisation in Burundi The Journal of Modern African Studies 4 4 401–433 December 1966 10.1017/S0022278X00013719 159097 153869124 Lemarchand René Rwanda and Burundi Praeger Publishers 1970 New York https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00103151/00001? 254366212 Manirakiza Désiré Les intellectuels burundais face au piège de l'ethnisme Revue Africaine de Sociologie 15 1 20–47 2011 French 24487939 Russell Aiden Politics and Violence in Burundi: The Language of Truth in an Emerging State Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2019 https://books.google.com/books?id=qtGoDwAAQBAJ 978-1-108-49934-7 Weinstein Warren Historical Dictionary of Burundi Scarecrow Press 1976 Metuchen 978-0-8108-0962-8 Further reading Mariro Augustin Burundi 1965: La 1ère Crise ethnique. Genèse et contexte géopolitique 2005 L'Harmattan Paris 978-2-7475-9021-1 Coup Burundi Burundian coup attempt, 1965 Burundian coup attempt Category:Attempted coups d'état in Burundi Category:Attacks on official residences Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1965 Category:1965 mass murders Category:Murder in Burundi Category:20th-century mass murders in Africa Category:Attacks on government buildings and structures in Africa Category:Residential building arson attacks in Africa Category:Arson in the 1960s Category:1965 fires