Juvénal Habyarimana

March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994

Rwandan army officer who seized power in 1973 and was President of Rwanda until his plane was shot down on 6 April 1994, the event that set off the genocide.

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Biography

Juvénal Habyarimana was born in 1937 in Gisenyi, in Belgian-ruled Ruanda-Urundi, to a well-off Hutu family. After secondary school in Bukavu he began medical studies at Lovanium University in Léopoldville, but left during the Rwandan Revolution to join the officer school in Kigali, graduating in 1961. He headed the National Guard from 1963, became minister of the National Guard and police in 1965, and later served as army chief of staff and defence minister.

On 5 July 1973 he overthrew President Grégoire Kayibanda in a coup and took power. In 1975 he founded the MRND, which became the only legal party; every Rwandan was enrolled at birth. He was confirmed as president, as sole candidate, in 1978, 1983 and 1988. His rule brought roads, schools and health centres but was authoritarian, and it increasingly favoured a narrow circle from the north-west, the akazu, while restoring quotas against Tutsis.

In 1990, under foreign pressure, he allowed opposition parties, and in October the Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded from Uganda, starting a civil war in which France backed his government. After three years of fighting he signed the Arusha Accords in August 1993, but the transitional government they provided for had still not been installed months later.

On 6 April 1994 his plane was shot down as it approached Kigali, killing him and Burundi's president Cyprien Ntaryamira. Responsibility remains disputed. His death triggered the genocide of the Tutsi that began within hours.