Juvénal Habyarimana

Infobox_President|name=Juvénal Habyarimana
nationality=Rwandan


order=3rd President of Rwanda
term_start=July 5, 1973
term_end=April 6, 1994
predecessor=Grégoire Kayibanda
successor=Théodore Sindikubwabo
birth_date=birth date|1937|3|8|mf=y
birth_place=Ruanda-Urundi
death_date=death date and age|1994|4|6|1937|3|8|mf=y
death_place=Kigali, Rwanda
spouse=Agathe Habyarimana
party=MRND
vicepresident=
religion=

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.

eizure 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.

Rebellion

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. The French and Zairian militaries intervened on behalf of Habyarimana's government forces, and a ceasefire was officially reached in 1993 through the Arusha Accords.

Assassination

"See also Assassination of Habyarimana and Ntaryamira."

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. [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE3DC1631F931A25752C1A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3
title=Unsolved Rwanda Mystery: The President's Plane Crash
author=Raymond Bonner
date=November 12, 1994
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-01-01]

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. [cite web
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6168280.stm
title=Rwanda fury at Kagame trial call
publisher =BBC News
date=21 November, 2006]

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

Aftermath of death

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 in the Rwandan Genocide.

torage of body and cremation in Zaire

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 Indian Hindu leader. [" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDA1538F935A25756C0A961958260 Ending a Chapter, Mobutu Cremates Rwanda Ally] by Howard W. French. "New York Times." May 16, 1997]

Family

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. [cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4428434.stm
title=Blazing a trail for Africa's women
date=23 November 2005
accessdate=2008-02-08
publisher=BBC News] 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. [cite news
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6251425.stm
title=Rwanda seeks ex-first lady arrest
date=11 January 2007|accessdate=2008-02-08
publisher=BBC News]

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm Rwanda: How the genocide happened] , "BBC News", 1 April 2004

References