| Juvénal Habyarimana | |
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In office July 5, 1973 – April 6, 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Grégoire Kayibanda |
| Succeeded by | Théodore Sindikubwabo |
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| Born | March 8, 1937 Ruanda-Urundi |
| Died | April 6, 1994 (aged 57) Kigali, Rwanda |
| Nationality | Rwandan |
| Political party | MRND |
| Spouse(s) | Agathe Habyarimana |
Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) was President of the Republic of Rwanda from 1973 until 1994. During his 20-year dictatorship he favored his own ethnic group, the Hutus, and supported the Hutu majority in neighboring Burundi against the Tutsi government. On April 6, 1994, he was killed when his airplane, also carrying the President of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down close to Kigali International Airport. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and sparked the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide.
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On July 5 1973, while serving as defense minister, Habyarimana seized power by overthrowing Grégoire Kayibanda and ousted the then-ruling Parmehutu party. Habyarimana was the leader of the Mouvement Révolutionaire National pour le Développement.
In the early 1990s, a rebellion against Habyarimana's government began when rebels from the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) crossed the border from Uganda; the RPF was a force of mostly Tutsi Rwandan expatriates who had defected in masses from the Ugandan army. The French and Zairian/Congolese (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) militaries intervened on behalf of Habyarimana's government forces, and a ceasefire was officially reached in 1993 through the Arusha Accords.
On April 6, 1994, Habyarimana's private Falcon 50 jet was shot down near Kigali International Airport, killing Habyarimana. Cyprien Ntaryamira, the President of Burundi, the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan military, and numerous others also perished in the attack. The plane crashed on the grounds of the presidential residence.[1]
The circumstances of the crash are unclear. At the time, the Hutu Power media claimed the plane had been shot down on orders from RPF leader Paul Kagame. Others, including the RPF, accused militant Hutus from within Habyarimana's party of orchestrating the crash in order to provoke anti-Tutsi outrage while simultaneously seizing power. Since the aircraft had a French crew, a French investigation has been conducted; it concluded that Kagame was responsible for the killing and demanded that he be prosecuted. The response from Kagame -- who has since become the president of Rwanda -- was that the French were only trying to cover up their own part in the genocide that followed.[2]
The death of Habyarimana ignited a murderous spree by extremists from the majority Hutus against rival Tutsis and those Hutus who had opposed the government. Within five months, almost one million Rwandans were massacred.
At some point following the April 6 assassination, Habyarimana's remains were obtained by Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko and stored in a private mausoleum in Gbadolite, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Mobutu promised Habyarimana's family that his body would eventually be given a proper burial in Rwanda. On May 12, 1997, as Laurent-Désiré Kabila's ADFL rebels were advancing on Gbadolite, Mobutu had the remains flown by cargo plane to Kinshasa where they waited on the tarmac of Kinshasa International Airport for three days. On May 16, the day before Mobutu fled Zaire (and the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Habyarimana's remains were burned under the supervision of an Indian Hindu leader.[3]
Habyarimana was survived by his wife, Agathe Habyarimana, who was evacuated by French troops shortly after his death. She has been described as having been extremely influential in Rwandan politics.[4] She has been accused by Rwandan justice minister Tharcisse Karugarama of complicity in the genocide and was denied asylum in France on the basis of evidence of her complicity.[5]
| Preceded by Grégoire Kayibanda |
President of
Rwanda July 5, 1973 – April 6, 1994 |
Succeeded by Théodore Sindikubwabo |
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