Juvénal Habyarimana
| Juvénal Habyarimana | |
|---|---|
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Habyarimana in 1980
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| President of Rwanda | |
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In office July 5, 1973 – April 6, 1994 |
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| Preceded by | Grégoire Kayibanda |
| Succeeded by | Théodore Sindikubwabo |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 8, 1937 Ruanda-Urundi |
| Died | April 6, 1994 (aged 57) Kigali, Rwanda |
| Nationality | Rwandan |
| Political party | MRND |
| Spouse(s) | Agathe Habyarimana |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Juvénal Habyarimana (Kinyarwanda: [hɑbɟɑ̂ːɾimɑ̂ːnɑ]; March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) was the third President of the Republic of Rwanda, the post he held longer than any other president to date, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed "Kinani", a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
Habyarimana was a dictatorial leader, 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. During his rule, Rwanda became a totalitarian order in which his MRND-party enforcers required people to chant and dance in adulation of the President at mass pageants of political "animation". While the country as a whole had become slightly less impoverished during Habyarimana's tenure, the great majority of Rwandans remained in circumstances of extreme poverty.
On April 6, 1994, he was killed when his airplane, also carrying the President of neighbouring Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down close to Kigali International Airport. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the Rwandan Genocide.
On July 5, 1973, while serving as Army Chief of Staff, Habyarimana seized power in a coup d'état against the incumbent President Grégoire Kayibanda and ousting Kayibanda's ruling Parmehutu party. In 1975, he created the Mouvement Révolutionaire 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 was approved in a referendum. At the same time, Habyarimana was elected to a five-year term as president as the only candidate. He was reelected in single-candidate elections in 1983 and 1988.
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