Nkurunziza, Pierre

▪ 2006

      Pierre Nkurunziza, the former leader of the Hutu rebel group Forces for the Defense of Democracy (FDD), was elected president of Burundi on Aug. 19, 2005. Formally sworn into office on August 25, he became the country's first democratically elected president since civil war broke out in Burundi between Hutu rebel groups and the Tutsi-dominated army following the assassination of Pres. Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, in 1993. Nkurunziza succeeded interim Pres. Domitien Ndayizeye, who had taken office in 2003 as part of a power-sharing agreement between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi people. After leading the FDD to a decisive victory in the parliamentary elections of July 2005, Nkurunziza accepted the FDD's presidential nomination. In the ensuing vote by members of Parliament to determine the new president, he won 151 of the 162 ballots cast.

      Nkurunziza was born in December 1963 in the province of Ngozi in northern Burundi. His father was Hutu and had served as a governor of two provinces before he was killed in 1972 during a wave of ethnic violence. Nkurunziza's mother was Tutsi. After graduating from the University of Burundi in Bujumbura in 1990 with a degree in physical education, Nkurunziza taught in high school and served as an assistant lecturer at the university. In 1995 he narrowly avoided death when the Tutsi army attacked the university campus and killed some 200 people. Several of his siblings died in the fighting that followed.

      Becoming active in the civil war, Nkurunziza joined the FDD and by 2001 had assumed chairmanship of the group. He was deeply involved in the negotiations that culminated in the FDD's signing of the 2003 peace accords. Nkurunziza received immunity from prosecution for war crimes as part of the accords. He joined Ndayizeye's cabinet as minister of good governance in November 2004.

      As president of Burundi, Nkurunziza faced the daunting challenge of maintaining peace and stability in the war-ravaged country. In part to allay fears among many Tutsi of Hutu-dominated rule, he actively sought to bring in Tutsi members to the FDD. His new cabinet, named less than a week after he took office, included 11 Hutu and 9 Tutsi, virtually all of whom were serving in government posts for the first time. Seven of the new ministers were women. Nkurunziza also made overtures to the Forces for National Liberation (FLN), the last remaining Hutu rebel group outside the peace process. He vowed to bring the group back to the negotiating table, although his first attempt to renew the peace talks was rejected by the FLN in September.

Sherman Hollar

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