(Excerpt from the book ‘Greeks in Burundi and Rwanda’)
In 1961, elections were held in Burundi, which was still under Belgian
rule. Prince Louis Rwagasore emerges victorious, but the Belgians organized his
assassination and selected a capable sniper, Ioannis Karageorgis, to carry out
the execution. Rwagasore was assassinated on 13/10/1961 and Karageorgis was
immediately arrested and sentenced to death by a Belgian court. Shortly before
his execution, on 29/6/1962, Karageorgis sent a letter to the Burundi Attorney
General stating the conspiracy plan. He also sent another letter to his
parents, naming Jean Paul Harroy, the Deputy Governor of Congo and
Ruanda-Urundi in 1955-1961, and Roberto Regnier, a resident of Burundi, as
those who led him to the murder. However, the original decision was not changed
and on 30/6/1962, Karageorgis was executed in Bujumbura.
A few years later, another Greek, Michalis Iatrou, was charged for the same
case and was executed.
Fifty years later, the journalist Guy Poppe revealed the conspiracy and the
culprits after an investigation into the files of the Belgian Foreign Ministry.
