Jean-Paul Harroy

Jean-Paul Harroy
Governor of Ruanda-Urundi and Deputy Governor-General of the Belgian Congo
Preceded by Alfred Boùùaert
Personal details
Born (1909-05-04)4 May 1909
Schaerbeek, Belgium
Died (1995-07-08)8 July 1995
Ixelles, Belgium

Jean-Paul Harroy (4 May 1909 – 8 July 1995) was a Belgian colonial civil servant who served as the last Governor and only Resident-General of Ruanda-Urundi. His term coincided with the assassination of Burundi's first Prime Minister, Prince Louis Rwagasore, and it has been alleged that Harroy was implicated.

Education and career

Jean-Paul Harroy studied at the Solvay Business School from which he graduated as a business engineer in 1931. In 1936, he obtained a degree in colonial sciences at the Free University of Brussels and in 1946 the title of doctor in colonial sciences. His thesis addressed soil erosion in Central Africa and was entitled Afrique, terre qui meurt, la dégradation des sols africains sous l'influence de la colonisation ("Africa, a dying land: The Degradation of African Soils under the Influence of Colonization"). This thesis had a certain international impact, both in the United States and in the USSR.

From 1932 to 1935 Jean-Paul Harroy worked in the family company, before being appointed to manage the Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo belge, a precursor of the Institut congolais pour la conservation de la nature. From 1948 et 1955, Jean-Paul Harroy was the first secretary-general of the International Union for Protection of Nature, later to become IUCN.

Controversy and the assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore

Harroy arrived in Ruanda-Urundi in 1955 and served as the territory's Governor in addition to being the Deputy Governor-General of the Belgian Congo. Following Urundi's formal request for independence on 20 January 1959, Urundi's first democratic elections took place on 8 September 1961. These elections were won by UPRONA, a multi-ethnic unity party led by Prince Louis Rwagasore, which won just over 80 percent of the electorate's votes. In the wake of the elections, on 13 October, the Rwagasore was assassinated.[1][2] The assassination was planned by members of the pro-Belgian Christian Democratic Party (PDC).[3] Rwagasore had been a notable critic of Harroy's administration.[4] Prior to his execution, the assassin Jean (Ioannis) Kageorgis explicitly accused Harroy and Régnier of responsibility in the murder.[5]

René Lemarchand has written that "Harroy is seen by many Barundi as the incarnation of the devil. A more measured assessment suggests that he will probably go down in history as one of the most irresponsible and inept colonial civil servants to preside over the dissolution of colonial rule in Africa."[6]

Later life

Following his rule as Governor-General of Ruanda-Urundi, Harroy went on to work as a professor at Free University of Brussels. He died in 1995 at Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels.

Authography

  • Burundi, 1955-1962: Souvenirs d'un combattant d'une guerre perdue (1987)

References

  1. ↑ Background Note: Burundi. United States Department of State. February 2008. Retrieved on 28 June 2008.
  2. ↑ "Ethnicity and Burundi’s Refugees" Archived 2009-01-05 at the Wayback Machine., African Studies Quarterly: The online journal for African Studies. Retrieved 12 July 2008.
  3. ↑ Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Cambridge University Press, 1996), ISBN 9780521566230, pg. 55-56)
  4. ↑ afrika focus — Volume 28, Nr. 2, 2015 — pp. 156 -164, The murder of Burundi’s prime minister, Louis Rwagasore, Guy Poppe, http://www.afrikafocus.eu/file/96
  5. ↑ afrika focus — Volume 28, Nr. 2, 2015 — pp. 156 -164, The murder of Burundi’s prime minister, Louis Rwagasore, Guy Poppe, http://www.afrikafocus.eu/file/96
  6. ↑ Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Cambridge University Press, 1996), ISBN 9780521566230, pg. 55-56)
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