Burundi to file court case over remains of King Mwambutsa IV from Switzerland

The Burundian government has said it will hire lawyers in its case against Princess Esther Kamatari, a niece to Mwambutsa IV from Switzerland who was the last Burundian monarch, in a bid to obtain the repatriation of the remains of the king.Burundi wants to see the remains of the former king buried in Burundi, with all the dignity that he deserves as an ex-president of Burundi, the East African countrys Youth and Culture Minister Jean Jacques Nyenimigabo said on Tuesday. Nyenimigabo said it was unacceptable to learn 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 could be destroyed. The king was buried there in 1977.He said the Burundian king must be buried honorably at his former Muramvya palace in central Burundi, which has been renovated as a museum.The remains of Mwambutsa IV were meant to be repatriated to Burundi on May 26 during the celebrations of the countrys Golden Jubilee of independence. However, the exercise was suspended and postponed to a later date following a ruling by a Swiss court over the case that had been filed by Princess Kamatari. Kamatari had filed a case in which she used Mwambutsa IVs 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.