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Domitien Ndayizeye (born May 2, 1953 in Murango, Kayanza Province) is a former president of Burundi. Of Hutu descent, he succeeded Pierre Buyoya, a Tutsi, on April 30, 2003, after serving as his vice president for 18 months. Ndayizeye served as president until Pierre Nkurunziza took office on August 26, 2005.

Under his government, Ndayizeye tried to bridge the gap between the Hutu and the minority Tutsi people of Burundi through cooperation with other presidents in the region such as Museveni of Uganda and Mkapa of Tanzania.

The recent attack on Congolese Tutsi refugees at the border of Burundi was considered a test of the president's capacity to maintain law and order and stability in the country. He promised swift retaliation and that the culprits would be apprehended.

In 2004, Ndayizeye proposed a draft constitution to the Parliament prior to it being put to the electorate in referendum later in the year. Relations with the Tutsi group were strained, reflected in their boycotting of the legislative session due to consider the proposal.

Due to a lack of preparation, the ballot was postponed, to be held in late November 2004.

Burundi is still to emerge from a civil war that began in 1993 when several groups drawn from the large Hutu majority took up arms against a government and army then dominated by a Tutsi elite.

The interim government pledged to more equitably share power between the two main ethnic groups.

On 21 August 2006, Ndayizeye was arrested in Bujumbura in relation to his alleged role in a coup plot earlier in the year. The Senate lifted his immunity as Senator prior to his arrest.^[1] He denied the charges against him in court on December 19 and said that he had "never dreamed of organising a coup, in fact I had given up politics to do business and be with my family".^[2] On January 15, 2007, he was acquitted along with former vice president Alphonse-Marie Kadege and three other defendants; two others were sentenced to long prison terms.^[3]

1. ^ "Burundi's former leader arrested", BBC News, August 21, 2006.
2. ^ "I never planned a coup, says Ndayizeye", Reuters (IOL), December 20, 2006.
3. ^ Patrick Nduwimana, "Ndayizeye acquitted of coup plot in Burundi", Reuters (IOL), January 16, 2007.

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