Jean-Baptiste Bagaza (29 August 19464 May 2016) was a Burundian army officer and politician who ruled Burundi as president and de facto military dictator from November 1976 to September 1987.
Born into the Tutsi ethnic group in 1946, Bagaza served in the Burundian military and rose through the ranks under the rule of Michel Micombero after his rise to power in 1966. Bagaza deposed Micombero in a bloodless coup d'état in 1976 and took power himself as head of the ruling Union for National Progress (, UPRONA). Despite having participated in the genocidal killings of 1972, he introduced various reforms which modernised the state and made concessions to the country's ethnic Hutu majority. His regime became increasingly repressive after it became consolidated in 1984, especially targeting the powerful Catholic Church. His rule lasted until 1987 when his regime was overthrown in a further coup d'état and he was forced into exile. He returned to Burundi in 1994 and became involved in national politics as the leader of the Party for National Recovery (, PARENA). He died in 2016.
Biography
Early life and military career
Bagaza was born in Rutovu, Bururi Province in Belgian-ruled Ruanda-Urundi on 29 August 1946. His family were ethnic Hima, part of the wider Tutsi ethnic group. After studying in Catholic schools in Bujumbura, he enlisted in the army of the newly independent Kingdom of Burundi. He was sent to Belgium in 1966 where he studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels until 1971. He earned a sociology degree. After the election, Bagaza organized a military operation against the Catholic Church in Burundi, regarding it as a threat to his power. The Church was increasingly targeted as the regime became increasingly repressive. Foreign missionaries were expelled and attempts were made to break its influence over the public and education. Bagaza escalated his anti-clerical campaign, banning Catholic media and church services, closing Church-run literacy centers, nationalizing Church-run schools, and ordering the arrest and torture of Church figures. He ordered the closure of 87 churches, including Gitega Cathedral. Opposed to the empowerment of Hutu through the 1993 elections, he reportedly played a major part in the coup d'état against Melchior Ndadaye, Burundi's first democratically elected president. The putschists killed Ndadaye, but failed to maintain control. Power was consequently returned to a civilian, democratic government. Bagaza subsequently denied any involvement in the putsch. Despite the coup's failure, he returned to Burundi where he founded the Party for National Recovery (Parti pour le Redressement National, PARENA). At the time, Bagaza was known for his extreme views, including general opposition to any power-sharing agreements with Hutu factions such as the Front for Democracy in Burundi (Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi, FRODEBU). He eventually began to advocate the division of Burundi into a "Tutsiland" and a "Hutuland".
On 18 January 1997, Bagaza was placed under house arrest for gathering weapons for a plot against President Buyoya. Two months later, the house arrest was changed into a prison sentence, though he was quickly released. Bagaza was subsequently involved in the peace talks which were supposed to end the Burundian Civil War. As he and PARENA as a whole tended to be opposed to the implementation of power-sharing deals with the Hutu rebels, the government placed Bagaza under house arrest and banned PARENA from November 2002 to May 2003. In 2005, there were rumours that radical followers of Bagaza were organising a rebel group known as "Justice and Liberity United Front". Tensions abated when PARENA accepted ministerial position in the newly formed coalition government. Bagaza ran as PARENA's candidate for the 2010 presidential election, but withdrew when the Burundian opposition boycotted the elections. He stepped down as head of PARENA in March 2014, and was succeeded by Zénon Nimbona. He remained the main opposition leader in the Burundian Senate, and joined the opposition boycott of the 2015 elections. When major unrest erupted in the country in the period leading up to the 2015 election, Bagaza and the other three still-living ex-presidents called for an international intervention.
Bagaza died in Brussels, Belgium on 4 May 2016 at the age of 69 of natural causes and was buried in Bujumbura on 17 May 2016. He was survived by his wife Fausta and four daughters.