{{The Burundian government has said it will hire lawyers in its bid to obtain the repatriation from Switzerland of the remains of the country\u2019s last monarch, King Mwambutsa IV.}}<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Burundi government is challenging Princess Kamatari\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n
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