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Ndadaye took office on July 10 after his June 1 election victory defeating Pierre Buyoya, the military ruler who ousted Bagaza, and pledged to release all political prisoners and to work for national unity.
He immediately appointed a Tutsi prime minister, Sylvie Kinigi, after declaring that his own success at the polls was not a victory for the Hutus, but a victory for democracy itself.
His Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) party did well in the country's first multi-party legislative elections on June 29, taking 65 of the 81 seats in parliament.
Ambassador Bangurambona said he had unconfirmed reports that the leader of the formerly sole, ruling Union for National Progress, Nicolas Mayugi, was also implicated in the coup attempt.
The first trouble came before Ndadaye was invested, with a coup attempt by Tutsi officers on July 3. This was put down quickly as the army, led then by chief of staff Colonel Michel Mibarurwa, proved loyal to the new president.
Ndadaye appeared Thursday to have been betrayed by the men he placed to head the army and those politicians he freed.
Like neighbouring Rwanda, another densely populated highland nation, Burundi has been wracked by outbreaks of strife between the Hutu majority and their Tutsi overlords.
Some 200,000 Hutus were massacred in 1972, eight years after independence from Belgium, and another wave of violence claimed at least 5,000 lives in 1988, according to official figures.
sa/nb/dm AFP AFP
