.jpg) Habyarimana in 1980 | |
| 2ndPresident of Rwanda | |
| In office 1 August 1973 – 6 April 1994 | |
| Prime Minister | Sylvestre Nsanzimana Dismas Nsengiyaremye Agathe Uwilingiyimana |
| Preceded by | Himself(as Chairman of the Committee for Peace and National Unity) |
| Succeeded by | Théodore Sindikubwabo (interim) |
| Chairman of theCommittee for Peace and National Unity | |
| In office 5 July 1973 – 1 August 1973 | |
| Preceded by | Position established (Grégoire Kayibanda(asPresident of Rwanda)) |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished (Himself(asPresident of Rwanda)) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1937-03-08)8 March 1937 |
| Died | 6 April 1994(1994-04-06) (aged 57) Kigali, Rwanda |
| Manner of death | Assassination (surface-to-air missile) |
| Nationality | Rwandan |
| Political party | MRND |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6 |
| Alma mater | Lovanium University Kigali Military Academy |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Rwanda |
| Years of service | 1963–1994 |
| Rank | Major-general |
| Unit | Rwanda National Guard |
| Battles/wars | Bugesera invasion Rwandan Civil War |
| ||
|---|---|---|
1973–1994
 | ||
Juvénal Habyarimana (Kinyarwanda:[hɑβɟɑːɾímɑ̂ːnɑ];French:[ʒyvenalabjaʁimana]; 8 March 1937 – 6 April 1994)[1] was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the secondpresident of Rwanda, from 1973 untilhis assassination in 1994. He was nicknamedKinani, aKinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
An ethnicHutu, Habyarimana served in several security positions includingminister of defense under Rwanda's first president,Grégoire Kayibanda. After overthrowing Kayibanda in acoup in 1973, he became the country's new president and eventually continued his predecessor's pro-Hutu policies. He was adictator, and electoral fraud was suspected for his unopposed re-elections: 98.99% of the vote on 24 December 1978, 99.97% of the vote on 19 December 1983, and 99.98% of the vote on 19 December 1988.[2] During his rule, Rwanda became atotalitarian,one-party state in which hisMRND-party enforcers required people to chant and dance in adulation of the president at mass pageants of political "animation".[2][3] While the country as a whole had become slightly less impoverished during Habyarimana's tenure, the great majority of Rwandans remained in circumstances ofextreme poverty.[2]
In 1990, theTutsi-ledRwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched theRwandan Civil War against his government. After three years of war, Habyarimana signed theArusha Accords in 1993 with the RPF as a peace agreement. The following year, he died under mysterious circumstances when his plane, also carrying thePresident of Burundi,Cyprien Ntaryamira, wasshot down by a missile near Kigali. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark theRwandan genocide.
Juvénal Habyarimana was born on 8 March 1937, inGisenyi,Ruanda-Urundi to a wealthyHutu family. After receiving a primary education, he attended the College of Saint Paul inBukavu,Belgian Congo, where he graduated with a degree in mathematics and humanities. In 1958 he enrolled inLovanium University's medical school inLéopoldville. After the beginning of theRwandan Revolution the following year, Habyarimana left Lovanium and enrolled in the officer training school inKigali. He graduated with distinction in 1961 and became an aide to the Belgian commander of the force in Rwanda.[4] He marriedAgathe Kanziga in 1962.[5]
On 29 June 1963 Habyarimana, as a lieutenant, was appointed head of theGarde Nationale Rwandaise.[6] Two years later he was made Minister of the National Guard and Police.[4]
On 5 July 1973, while serving as Army Chief of Staff and minister of defense, Habyarimana seized powerin a coup d'état against the incumbent PresidentGrégoire Kayibanda, ousting Kayibanda's rulingParmehutu party. In 1975, he created theMouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement as the country's only legal party. The government stayed almost entirely in military hands until 1978 when a new constitution wasapproved in a referendum. At the same time, Habyarimana was elected to a five-year term as president; as president of the MRND, he was the only candidate. He was reelected in 1983 and 1988, both times as the only candidate.
AHutu himself, he initially won favor among both Hutu andTutsi groups given his administration's reluctance to implement policies that catered to his primarily Hutu supporters. This restraint did not last and Habyarimana eventually began to oversee a government that mirrored the policies of Kayibanda. Quotas were once again applied to jobs for universities and government services which intentionally disadvantaged Tutsis. As Habyarimana continued to favor a smaller and smaller coterie of supporters, Hutu groups who felt slighted by him cooperated with Tutsis to weaken his leadership. By the start of the invasion from Uganda by the army of the Rwanda Patriotic Front, a rebel army made up mostly of refugee Tutsi who had helped Uganda's Museveni seize control of the presidency, Habyarimana's supporters had shrunk down to theakazu ("little house" or "President's household"), which was mainly composed of an informal group of Hutu extremists from his home region, namely from the northwestern provinces ofGisenyi andRuhengeri.[7]
From 1975 to 1990, the MRND and the Habyarimana government were one. Under a constitution adopted in 1978, every five years the president of the MRND, Hayarimana, was automatically elected to a five-year term as president of the republic, and was confirmed in office via a referendum. Every four years, voters had the option of choosing between two MRND candidates for the legislature. All citizens of Rwanda became members of the MRND at birth.
Local administrations simultaneously represented the official party as well as the local authority. Legal and party policies were communicated and enforced from the Head of State down through the local administrative units, especially the general policy of Umuganda, in which Rwandans were required to "allocate half a day's labour per week" to infrastructural projects.[7] Habyarimana is sometimes described as a moderate[8][9] though the party is said to have used right-wing propaganda methods,[10] advanced a conservative political agenda[11] and was anti-communist.[12][13][14][15]
However, in 1990, before theRwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion, and because of mounting pressure from several sources—Rwanda's main ally and financial backer,France, its main funders, theIMF and theWorld Bank, and from its own citizens wishing for a greater voice and economic change—he agreed to allow the formation of other parties such as theRepublican Democratic Movement, theSocial Democratic Party, theLiberal Party and theChristian Democratic Party.[7]
Under Habyarimana's leadership, the country adopted a planned economy called the "liberal planning" based onplanned liberalism, and adopted similar economic strategies in 1980 and 1986[16][17][18][19].In 1988, state-owned enterprises wereprivatized as part of the liberal planning policy.[20]
Under Habyarimana's government, Rwanda focused on foreign aid and theRwandan coffee industry,Habyarimana's leadership achieved great accomplishments and economic growth, including the proliferation of health centers at the municipal level, the creation of secondary schools throughout the country, the approval of private schools to supplement the government network from the mid-1980s, integrated rural development projects in different parts of the country, a network of tea projects with modern factories, the improvement of rural housing, water supply, rural electrification and telephone network, the modernization of the national asphalt road network, the construction of inter-municipal roads, the strengthening of the private banking network, and the reforestation of land unsuitable for agriculture[21].However, problems continued to exist, including an economic crisis caused by a collapse in coffee prices that began in the late 1980s.
In October 1990, an attack on Habyarimana's government began when rebels from theRPF, a force of mostlyTutsi Rwandan refugees and expatriates who had served in the Ugandan army (many in key positions), crossed the border fromUganda. Habyarimana was inNew York City attending the United NationsWorld Summit for Children when the attack commenced.[22] When news of the RPF offensive broke, Habyarimana requested assistance from France in fighting the invasion. The French government responded by dispatching troops to his aid under the cover of protecting French nationals.[23] Zairian PresidentMobutu Sese Seko's contribution was to send several hundred troops of the eliteSpecial Presidential Division (DSP).[24] The Zairian soldiers raped Rwandan civilians in the north of the country and looted their homes,[25] prompting Habyarimana to expel them within a week of their arrival.[26]
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With French assistance, and benefiting from the loss of RPF morale afterFred Rwigyema's death, the Rwandan Army enjoyed a major tactical advantage. By the end of October, they had regained all the ground taken by the RPF and pushed the rebels all the way back to the Ugandan border.[27] Habyarimana accused the Ugandan Government of supplying the RPF, establishing a "rear command" for the group in Kampala, and "flagging off" the invasion.[28] The Rwandan Government announced on 30 October that the war was over.[27]
On 4 August 1993 the Rwandan government and theRwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) signed theArusha Accords to end theRwandan Civil War. As stipulated by the agreement, the new transitional government was to be sworn in on 5 January 1994. Habyarimana was sworn in as interim President at the Parliament building, but then suddenly departed before calling up the new Prime Minister and cabinet to be inaugurated. Habyarimana returned that afternoon with a list of new cabinet members from Hutu extremist parties, who had not been agreed upon in the Arusha Accords, to be sworn in. Having not been formally invited for a second ceremony, Chief JusticeJoseph Kavaruganda did not appear and the suggested ministers were not sworn in, infuriating Habyarimana.[29]
On 6 April 1994, Habyarimana's privateFalcon 50 jet was shot down nearKigali International Airport, killing Habyarimana.Cyprien Ntaryamira, thePresident of Burundi, the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan military, and numerous others also died in the attack. The plane crashed on the grounds of the presidential residence.[30]
The circumstances of the crash remain unclear. At the time, theHutu Power media claimed the plane had been shot down on orders from RPF leaderPaul Kagame. Others, including the RPF, accused militant Hutus from within Habyarimana's party of orchestrating the crash to provoke anti-Tutsi outrage while simultaneously seizing power.[citation needed]
Since the aircraft had a French crew, a French investigation was conducted; in 2006 it concluded that Kagame was responsible for the killing and demanded that he be prosecuted. The response from Kagame, thede facto leader of Rwanda since the genocide, was that the French were only trying to cover up their own part in the genocide that followed.[31] A more recent French probe in a January 2012 report was falsely reported to exonerate the RPF.[32][33] Members of Kagame's inner circle have come out publicly stating that the attack was ordered by Kagame himself. These include his former Chief of Staff and Ambassador to the United StatesTheogene Rudasingwa,[34] the former army chief and Ambassador to India GeneralKayumba Nyamwasa, the former secretary in the Ministry of Defense Major Jean-Marie Micombero[35] and others.
Habyarimana's body was identified lying in a flowerbed at about 21:30 on 6 April by the crash site. The corpses of the victims were taken into the presidential palace living room. Plans were initially made to take his body to the hospital, but the renewal of conflict made this difficult, and instead his corpse was stored in a freezer at a nearby army barracks. His family shortly thereafter fled to France, making no preparations for his burial.[36] At some point following, Habyarimana's remains were obtained byZairian PresidentMobutu Sese Seko and kept in a private mausoleum inGbadolite,Zaire (now theDemocratic Republic of the Congo). Mobutu promised Habyarimana's family that his body would eventually be given a proper burial in Rwanda. On 12 May 1997, asLaurent-Désiré Kabila'sADFL rebels were advancing on Gbadolite, Mobutu had the remains flown by cargo plane toKinshasa, where they waited on the apron ofN'djili Airport for three days. On 16 May, 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 anIndianHindu leader.[37]
The death of Habyarimana ignited a genocide against the Tutsi minority and Hutus who had opposed the government in the past or who had supported the peace accords by extremists from the majority Hutus. Within 100 days, somewhere between 491,000 and 800,000 Rwandans were massacred.[38]
Habyarimana's wife,Agathe Habyarimana, was evacuated by French troops shortly after his death. She has been described as having been extremely influential in Rwandan politics.[39] She has been accused by Rwandan Justice MinisterTharcisse Karugarama of complicity in the genocide and was denied asylum in France on the basis of evidence of her complicity.[40] She was arrested in March 2010 in the Paris region by the police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant.[41] In September 2011, a French court denied Rwanda's request for extradition of Agathe Habyarimana.
Habyarimana was a devoutCatholic.[5]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of Rwanda 5 July 1973 – 6 April 1994 | Succeeded by |
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