Jean Baptiste Bagaza
| Jean-Baptiste Bagaza | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 2nd President of Burundi | |
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In office 1 November 1976 – 3 September 1987 |
|
| Prime Minister | Édouard Nzambimana (1976–78) |
| Preceded by | Michel Micombero |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Buyoya |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 August 1946 Rutovu, Ruanda-Urundi (modern-day Burundi) |
| Died | 4 May 2016 (aged 69) Brussels, Belgium |
| Political party | Union for National Progress (UPRONA) |
Colonel Jean-Baptiste Bagaza (1946–2016) was a Burundian soldier 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 who took power in 1966. He was involved in the government-backed genocide of 1972 which targeted the ethnic Hutu majority. In 1976, he deposed Micombero in a bloodless coup d'état and took power himself. 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 briefly returned to national politics as the leader of the Party for National Recovery (PARENA). He died in 2016.
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was born in Rutovu in the Belgian-controlled mandate of Ruanda-Urundi on 29 August 1946. He attended a Roman Catholic school before enlisting in the army. In 1962, he went to Belgium to enroll in a military school before moving back to Burundi in 1971.
Upon returning to Burundi, Bagaza became the army's chief of staff assistant because of his family's relationship to Burundi's President Michel Micombero. Bagaza played a part in the 1972 genocide of Hutus, and was promoted to the military's chief of staff after the genocide.
In November 1976, Bagaza overthrew Micombero in a non-violent coup d'état and became the next president of Burundi. In the elections held in 1984, he was re-elected as Burundi's president with an almost unanimous vote of 99.6 percent. After the election, Bagaza organized a military operation against the Roman Catholic Church.
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