Cyprien Ntaryamira

Cyprien Ntaryamira (6 March 1955 – 6 April 1994) was a Burundian politician who served as President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his death two months later.

A Hutu born in Burundi, Ntaryamira studied there before fleeing to Rwanda to avoid ethnic violence and complete his education.

Active in a Burundian student movement, he cofounded the socialist Burundi Workers' Party and earned an agricultural degree.

Cyprien Ntaryamira was born on 6 March 1955 in the Mageyo Zone's commune of Mubimbi, Bujumbura Rural Province, Ruanda-Urundi.

Ethnically, he was Hutu and the sixth of eleven children in his family.

He attended primary school in Rushubi before enrolling in the Collège du Saint-Ésprit in Bujumbura in 1968.

In 1972 a Hutu rebellion against the regime of Tutsi President Michel Micombero led to a wave of anti-Hutu genocidal repression inflicted by the Burundian Army.

According to his cousin, François Ngeze, government administrator Basile Gateretse hid Ngeze and Ntaryamira in his home for two weeks.

Once the authorities became suspicious, Gateretse arranged for the two of them to flee across the Ruzizi River into Zaire.

Thousands of Hutus ultimately fled the country.

Ntaryamira eventually went to Rwanda.

He reentered school at Rilima College in Kigali Prefecture, studying there from 1973 to 1976.

He subsequently attended the National University of Rwanda, earning a bachelor's of science degree and a degree in agriculture engineering in 1976 and 1979, respectively.

While abroad, Ntaryamira maintained an interest in Burundian politics and in 1976 cofounded a student movement, known as the Movement of Progressive Barundi Students (Mouvement des Etudiants Progressistes Barundi).

He served as head of its information department.

In August 1979, some of the student movement members founded the Burundi Workers' Party (Umugambwe wa'Bakozi Uburundi, UBU), a revolutionary socialist political party.

By 1981 he sat on its central committee as its national secretary responsible for economic and social questions.

In 1983, he returned to Burundi and worked agricultural jobs, though he was briefly detained as a political prisoner.

He returned to Burundi in March 1983 and was hired as an advisor in the Burundian General Directorate of Agricultural Planning.

He also established a hen-breeding business in Mubimbi.

The following January he took charge of the Compagnie de Gérance du Coton's northern cotton region.

He married Sylvana Mpabwanayo in 1985 and had three children with her.

In May 1985 he was arrested and held at Mpimba prison for working with a subversive political movement—UBU.

Incarcerated for a year, he was reportedly freed at the request of the wife of President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, a childhood friend of his.

As the Cold War wound down Ntaryamira, Melchior Ndadaye, and several other UBU members sought to move away from socialist ideology in favor of embracing democracy and electoral processes, as was more acceptable to the international community.

Ntaryamira was viewed as politically moderate with regards to ethnic issues, believing Hutus could work with the Tutsi minority to govern Burundi.

In 1986 he cofounded the Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU), and in 1993 FRODEBU won Burundi's general elections.

He subsequently became the Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry on 10 July, but in October Tutsi soldiers killed the president and other top officials in an attempted coup.

In August 1986 Ntaryamira, Ndadaye, and 10 others founded the Front for Democracy in Burundi (Front pour la Démocratie au Burundi, FRODEBU).

Ntaryamira served in its political bureau and was responsible for creating the party's economic policies.

In December 1987 he was appointed Burundi's Director General of Agriculture and Livestock.

FRODEBU gained power after Burundi's first democratic presidential and parliamentary elections, which ended a long history of rule by military officers of the Tutsi minority and the Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progrès national, UPRONA).

Ndadaye became President.

Ntaryamira was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, representing the Bujumbura Rural constituency.

On 10 July 1993, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, serving under Prime Minister Sylvie Kinigi.

In that capacity he appointed several Tutsis to key posts in the agriculture ministry.

Ntaryamira survived the putsch and in January 1994 the National Assembly elected him to become the President of Burundi.

After a prolonged constitutional dispute, he was inaugurated on 5 February, declaring that his top priorities would be restoring peace, promoting human rights, and resettling refugees.

Throughout his tenure he unsuccessfully sought to mitigate ethnic conflict.

He was killed on 6 April 1994 when the plane he was travelling in with Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down over Kigali.