1. Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was a Burundian army officer and politician who ruled Burundi as president and de facto military dictator from November 1976 to September 1987.
36 Facts About Jean-Baptiste Bagaza
1. 2.
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza deposed Micombero in a bloodless coup d'etat in 1976 and took power himself as head of the ruling Union for National Progress.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza's regime became increasingly repressive after it became consolidated in 1984, especially targeting the powerful Catholic Church.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza's rule lasted until 1987 when his regime was overthrown in a further coup d'etat and he was forced into exile.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza returned to Burundi in 1994 and became involved in national politics as the leader of the Party for National Recovery.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was born in Rutovu, Bururi Province in Belgian-ruled Ruanda-Urundi on 29 August 1946.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza's family were ethnic Hima, part of the wider Tutsi ethnic group.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was sent to Belgium in 1966 where he studied at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels until 1971.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was involved in President Michel Micombero's genocidal killings of ethnic Hutu in 1972, though the "extent or nature of his involvement" remain unclear.
10.
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza overthrew Micombero in a military coup on 1 November 1976.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza initiated a number of reforms after taking power, attacking corruption and making modest reforms to improve conditions for Hutu who had been targeted under the Micombero regime.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza earned respect for his work ethic, as he "drove himself to work at 7:30 am each day" instead of travelling in large cavalcades as most regional politicians did at the time.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza granted a few government posts to Hutu, appointing two Hutu ministers in his first cabinet.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza emphasized Kirundi as the common language of all Burundians, the "social solidarity" of the peasants, and the country's rich oral tradition.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza ensured that the Tutsi remained economically and politically dominant.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza initiated road building programs, expanded the availability of drinking water, and developed a port on Lake Tanganyika.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza remained well remembered for his infrastructure improvements and development projects in Burundi.
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Internationally, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza successfully maneuvered between different political factions, securing economic aid from the Western Bloc, the Eastern Bloc, China, and the Arab world.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza expelled the large Congolese migrant community from Burundi, claiming that they had just decided to leave on their own.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza pushed for the "villagization" of Burundi's rural areas, seeking to collect the common hamlets of the countryside into larger, concentrated villages.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza's regime introduced a new national constitution in 1981 which consolidated Burundi as a one-party dictatorship under UPRONA, which he re-organised under his own leadership.
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Jean-Baptiste 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.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza ordered the closure of 87 churches, including Gitega Cathedral.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza tried to implement other "eccentricities" such as restricting bar openings and officially limiting the time as well as money Burundians were allowed to spend for traditional betrothal and mourning ceremonies.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza himself went into exile in neighbouring Uganda and later in Libya where he lived until 1993.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was a senator for life as a former head of state.
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At the time, Jean-Baptiste 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.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza eventually began to advocate the division of Burundi into a "Tutsiland" and a "Hutuland".
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On 18 January 1997, Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was placed under house arrest for gathering weapons for a plot against President Buyoya.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was involved in the peace talks which were supposed to end the Burundian Civil War.
31.
In 2005, there were rumours that radical followers of Jean-Baptiste Bagaza were organising a rebel group known as "Justice and Liberity United Front".
32.
Jean-Baptiste Bagaza ran as PARENA's candidate for the 2010 presidential election, but withdrew when the Burundian opposition boycotted the elections.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza stepped down as head of PARENA in March 2014, and was succeeded by Zenon Nimbona.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza remained the main opposition leader in the Burundian Senate, and joined the opposition boycott of the 2015 elections.
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Jean-Baptiste 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.
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Jean-Baptiste Bagaza was survived by his wife Fausta and four daughters.