Supermodel vying to become Burundi president
October 19, 2004 Edition 4
Paris - France's first black supermodel, a real-life princess from Burundi, has decided to run for president when her native country holds elections in April next year.
Speaking in Paris, where she has lived for the past 30 years, Esther Kamatari spoke about her ambitious plans to bring peace to the nation which for the past 11 years has been torn apart by civil war fuelled by ethnic tensions between the Tutsi minority and Hutu majority.
With her new party Abahuza (Rally) officially recognised last month by the Burundi interior ministry, the 53-year-old princess wants to "reconcile Burundians with themselves" by electing her as president, restoring the monarchy and at the same time the ethnic harmony which has been lost.
A niece of the last king of Burundi, and a member of the "ganwa" (royal clan), she says she belongs to a group with no blood on its hands and is in a unique position to offer a political "third way".
Shaken by the violence which marked the years immediately after independence in 1962 and her father's assassination in 1964 in a palace plot, she left Burundi as soon as she had completed her studies at the National School of Administration.
On arriving in France in August 1970, she carved out a successful career in fashion.
The peace accord signed in Arusha in Tanzania in 2000, under which the country is to have a new constitution and general and presidential elections, has given her new hope. - Sapa-AFP
