Juvénal Habyarimana

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3rd President of Rwanda
Juvénal Habyarimana

In office July 5, 1973 – April 6, 1994
Preceded by	Grégoire Kayibanda
Succeeded by	Théodore Sindikubwabo

Born	March 8, 1937(1937-03-08) Rwanda
Died	April 6, 1994 (aged 57) Kigali, Rwanda
Nationality	Rwandan
Political party	MRND
Spouse	Agathe Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) was a Rwandan Hutu politician who was president of Rwanda from 1973 until he died when his airplane was shot down in 1994. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and marked the beginning of the Rwandan Genocide. Responsibility for the attack remains unclear, but his death was used as the pretext for the ensuing genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus.

1 Seizure of power
2 Rebellion, death, and genocide
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Seizure of power

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.

[edit] Rebellion, death, and genocide

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 en masse from the Ugandan army.

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 Rwandan military; and others. 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.^[2]

However, many scholars and the British MI6 report that Théodore Sindikubwabo, who succeeded Habyarimana, and Hutu hardliners organized Habyarimana's assassination due to concerns over the Arusha Accords with the aid of French intelligence.

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 four months, almost one million Rwandans were massacred in the Rwandan Genocide.

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. ^[3]

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. ^[4]