Jean-Paul Harroy (4 May 1909 – 8 July 1995) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

colonial civil servant who served as the last

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

and only

Resident-General A resident minister, or resident for short, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of indi ...

of Ruanda-Urundi. His term coincided with the

Rwandan Revolution The Rwandan Revolution, also known as the Hutu Revolution, Social Revolution, or Wind of Destruction ( rw, muyaga), was a period of ethnic violence in Rwanda from 1959 to 1961 between the Hutu and the Tutsi, two of the three ethnic groups in R ...

and the assassination of the popular Burundian political leader Prince Louis Rwagasore. It has been alleged that Harroy may have been implicated in the murder.

Education and career

Jean-Paul Harroy studied at the

Solvay Business School The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (abbreviated as SBS-EM and also known as simply Solvay) is a school of economics and management and a Faculty of the Université libre de Bruxelles, a French-speaking private research univ ...

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 University of Brussels may refer to several institutions in Brussels, Belgium: Current institutions * Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), a French-speaking university established as a separate entity in 1970 *Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a D ...

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

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and Harroy was widely seen as a leading expert on applied ecology in Africa. 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 to 1955, Jean-Paul Harroy was the first secretary-general of the International Union for Protection of Nature, later to become the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Controversy and the assassination of Prince Louis Rwagasore

Harroy arrived in Ruanda-Urundi in 1955 and served as the

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

's Governor in addition to being the Vice Governor-General of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. Following

Urundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gre ...

'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, Rwagasore was assassinated.Background Note: Burundi

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. February 2008. Retrieved on 28 June 2008. The assassination was planned by members of the pro-Belgian

Christian Democratic Party __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

(PDC). Rwagasore had been a notable critic of Harroy's administration. Prior to his execution, the assassin Jean (Ioannis) Kageorgis explicitly accused Harroy and Régnier of responsibility in the murder. 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."Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide (Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Cambridge University Press, 1996), , pg. 55–56)

Later life

Following his rule as Governor-General of Ruanda-Urundi, Harroy went on to work as a professor at

. He published memoirs recounting his colonial service in 1987. He died in 1995 at

Ixelles (French, ) or ( Dutch, ), is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Brussels' city centre, it is geographically bisected by the City of Brussels. It is also bordered by the munic ...

, a suburb of

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Authography

*''Burundi, 1955–1962: Souvenirs d'un combattant d'une guerre perdue'' (1987) *''Rwanda, de la féodalité à la démocratie (1955-1962).'' Bruxelles, éditions Hayez, 1984. 512 p.

References

External links

Archive Jean-Paul Harroy
Royal museum for central Africa {{DEFAULTSORT:Harroy, Jean-Paul 1909 births 1995 deaths Colonial governors of Ruanda-Urundi Belgian civil servants Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni People from Schaerbeek