Juvénal Habyarimana

Juvénal Habyarimana (1937-1994), president of Rwanda (1973-1994). Habyarimana was born in Gisenyi, in northern Rwanda, into a prominent family of the Hutu ethnic group. Habyarimana completed one year at Zaire's Lovanium University (now the University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) Medical School before joining the army and enrolling in officers' training school in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. Rising quickly through the ranks, he served in a number of military roles between 1963 and 1973, including national guard chief of staff, commander of the national guard, and minister for the armed forces and police.

Backed by northern military officers, Habyarimana overthrew the civilian government of Grégoire Kayibanda in July 1973 and declared himself president. After creating the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (NRMD) as Rwanda's only legal party in July 1975, he shifted control of many sectors of the government to civilians, while retaining northern Hutu military men in key posts. In single-candidate presidential elections he was returned for five-year terms in 1983 and 1988. For most of the 1980s, Habyarimana's regime was criticized for its austerity measures, corruption, and the instigation of ethnic tensions. He was faced with pressure from international donors, opposition groups, and international human-rights agencies. Responding to the pressure, Habyarimana initiated a transition to multiparty democracy in July 1990. In October 1990 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel army consisting of some moderate Hutu and many rival Tutsi refugees living in Uganda, invaded northern Rwanda. The invasion sparked a civil war and resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, many at the hands of government security forces. Habyarimana and RPF leaders signed a peace accord in August 1993 but political and ethnic tension remained high. In April 1994, four months after he was installed for a 22-month term as transitional president, Habyarimana was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport. It remains unknown who was responsible for his assassination, which sparked another, even deadlier, wave of ethnic violence.