Burundi: The Lucky Mwami

Premiers do not thrive in Burundi, a small, landlocked central African nation of 2,750,000. In the three years since it gained independence from Belgium, two heads of government have died at the hands of assassins. Last week a third went down in a volley of bullets.

It was before dawn when a band of mutinous gendarmes crept into the capital of Bujumbura (pop. 47,000). While some surprised Prime Minister Leopold Biha in his home and pumped bullets into his head, others attacked the palace of the King, Mwami Mwambutsa IV. The Mwami proved luckier than Biha, managed to conceal himself in an upstairs room until loyal troops recaptured the palace later in the day.

Though Maryland-sized Burundi was an important Red Chinese base for African subversion until Mwambutsa booted Peking's diplomats out last January (TIME, Jan. 29), international conspiracy apparently had nothing to do with last week's revolt. Instead, it was caused by the same thing that killed the other Premiers—the tribal rivalry between the towering Watutsis and the shorter but far more numerous Bahutus, who for centuries have served the Watutsis as virtual slaves. Fed up, the Bahutus now demand a republic—like the one their fellow tribesmen achieved in neighboring Rwanda after overthrowing a Watutsi king in 1959. But Burundi's Watutsis are as determined as ever to continue in the ascendancy they now enjoy. Not surprisingly, the Mwami's men dealt harshly with last week's rebels. After a hurried court-martial, 34 Bahutu gendarmes were executed by a firing squad in the Bujumbura stadium. A bleak future probably also lay ahead for several leading Bahutu politicians, including the former president of Burundi's Parliament, who were clapped in jail and charged with complicity.

The crackdown only enraged the Bahutus. From the countryside at week's end, came reports of machete-wielding Bahutus chopping down scores of Watutsis and burning villages. Mwami Mwambutsa clamped the entire country under martial law.