The Burundian government has said it will hire lawyers in its bid to obtain the repatriation from Switzerland of the remains of the country’s last monarch, King Mwambutsa IV.
Burundi wants the remains of the former king buried in the country, with all the dignity the attendant dignity of an ex-head of state, the country’s Youth and Culture Minister Jean Jacques Nyenimigabo said Tuesday.
Mr Nyenimigabo said it was unacceptable that the Burundian king, who ruled the country from 1915 to 1966, could be cremated in a foreign land in 2017, the year when the Swiss cemetery is likely to be closed. The king was buried there in 1977.
The minister said the Burundian king must be buried honorably at his former Muramvya palace in central Burundi, which has been renovated as a museum.
The remains of Mwambutsa IV were meant to be repatriated to Burundi on May 26 during the celebrations of the country’s Golden Jubilee of independence.
However, the exercise was suspended and postponed to a later date following a ruling by a Swiss court over a case filed by Princess Esther Kamatari, a niece to the king.
The princess had filed a case in which she spoke of Mwambutsa IV’s “will” in which he had expressed the desire to be buried in Switzerland, a country that had been his land of exile for over three decades.
The Burundi government is challenging Princess Kamatari’s claim.
XINHUA
Leave a Reply