Burundi 500 Franc Banknote – Face and Back
It was October 21, 1993 when President Melchior Ndadaye was assassinated. That morning the sun arose on the first democratically elected president of Burundi. That evening the darkness arose for another year of genocide. In the words of the American ambassador to Burundi:
“The bayonets thrust into President Melchior Ndadaye’s thorax, and the bullets that felled his vice president and cabinet members, critically injured the world’s newest democracy, born only 102 days before. Six million people, more than the population of Denmark mark or Ireland, and equal to the population of Israel, were suddenly thrust back into a miasma of misrule and uncertainty after a brief season of hope while the outside world took only temporary measures to stanch the bleeding.”
Ambassador Robert Krueger. From Bloodshed to Hope in Burundi: Our Embassy Years during Genocide (Focus on American History Series) (Kindle Locations 489-491). Kindle Edition.”
Reverse side features Banque de la République du Burundi (Ibanki ya Republika y’Uburundi;
Burundi) building, Bujumbura