Burundi: Second Republic (1976 - 1987)

Updated April 2010

On coming to power in November 1976 President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza attempted to defuse inter and intra ethnic tensions by a series of liberalisations. He returned Burundi to civilian rule in 1977 and Hutus were incorporated into the government, an anti-corruption drive was launched and eventually a limited land reform programme was embarked upon (Kimber 1996; Bentley & Southall 2005, 43). A new Constitution was endorsed by a popular referendum in November 1981, but Burundi remained a one-party state under Unite pour le Progrès National (UPRONA; Bayefsky.com 1992; Mthembu-Salter 2008, 153). In terms of the Constitution, National Assembly elections were held in October 1982 and Bagaza was elected President in 1984 with 99% of the vote in a one-man race (Bayefsky.com 1992; Bentley & Southall 2005, 44). The reforms were thus cosmetic in character, the state remained dominated by UPRONA and the army and both continued to serve as the instruments of political and economic domination of Burundi by the Tutsis in general, and the Bururi based Hima clan in particular, while the Hutu majority remain marginalised and disempowered (Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98). Though not recognised as significant at the time, the Parti pour la Libération du Peuple Hutu (PALIPEHUTU) was founded in about April 1980 to organise resistance to Tutsi domination amongst Hutu refugees in the DRC (Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98).

Tutsis continued to receive preferential access to education and to employment in the organs of state (Bentley & Southall 2005, 44). As the state centralised all decision making and information distribution it came into conflict with the Catholic Church. The Church provided an alternative means for access to health-care, education and social mobilisation to that of the Tutsi controlled state, as a result of which it was "accused of succouring Hutu resistance" (Bentley & Southall 2005, 45). This conflict culminated in the expulsion of missionaries and the nationalisation of Catholic schools in 1985 (Nkurunziza & Ngaruko 2002, 57-58). The failure to engage in meaningful political, economic and social reform and the persecution of the Church by the state, led to increased dissent, which was dealt with every greater brutality from 1984 onwards, through arrests and torture of government opponents (Bentley & Southall 2005, 44; Mthembu-Salter 2008, 153).

The early years of Bagaza's government were characterised by massive state investments financed through foreign loans. Since these investments were made to create new sources of income and patronage for the Bururi-Tutsi elite, and not to reach economic developmental goals, they had no long-term viability. They placed enormous demands on the country's balance of payments as it struggled to service foreign debt (Nkurunziza & Ngaruko 2002, 5-6; Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98). The deteriorating human rights situation led to conflict with Burundi's major foreign donors, especially Belgium and France, who began to pressure the government for meaningful reform by withholding aid, which made up 50% of government expenditure (Bentley & Southall 2005, 44; Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98). By 1986 the economic situation had become untenable and Bagaza was forced to adopt a structural adjustment programme imposed by the IMF and the World Bank that included massive cuts in military and state spending (Kimber 1996; Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98). This proved to be Bagaza's undoing, for the Tutsi elite and the military would not countenance the loss of jobs, income and patronage power this entailed, and he was deposed in September 1987 in a military coup led by Major Pierre Buyoya (Kimber 1996; Oketch & Polzer 2002, 98).

References

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BENTLEY, K & SOUTHALL, R 2005 An African peace process: Mandela, South Africa-Burundi, Cape Town, HSRC Press.

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MTHEMBU-SALTER, G 2008 "Burundi: Recent History" IN Frame, I (ed) Africa South of the Sahara 2008, London and New York, Routledge.

NKURUNZIZA, JD & NGARUKO, F 2002, 17-19 "Explaining Growth in Burundi: 1960-2000 (Draft)", Centre for the Study of African Economies, [www] http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/workingpapers/pdfs/2002-03text.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

OKETCH, JS & POLZER, T 2002 "Conflict and Coffee in Burundi" IN Lind, J & Sturman, K (eds) Scarcity and Surfeit: The ecology of Africa's conflicts, Institute for Security Studies, [www] http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Books/ScarcitySurfeit/Chapter3.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).