Pasteur Bizimungu | |
---|---|
3rd President of Rwanda | |
In office 19 July 1994 –23 March 2000 | |
Prime Minister | Faustin Twagiramungu Pierre-Célestin Rwigema Bernard Makuza |
Vice President | Paul Kagame |
Preceded by | Théodore Sindikubwabo |
Succeeded by | Paul Kagame |
Personal details | |
Born | April 1950 (age 74) Gisenyi,Rwanda-Urundi |
Political party | MRND (1980s-1990) Rwandan Patriotic Front (1990–2000) Party for Democratic Renewal (2001–) |
Spouse | Serafina Bizimungu |
Alma mater | National University of Rwanda University of Strasbourg |
Pasteur Bizimungu (born April 1950) is a Rwandan politician who served as the third President of Rwanda,holding office from 19 July 1994 until 23 March 2000.
Bizimungu had previously held several positions under President Juvenal Habyarimana throughout the 1980s. He joined the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel group against Habyarimana in 1990 following the death of his brother seemingly under the orders of Habyarimana's government. After the RPF's victory in the Rwandan Civil War in 1994 which ended the Rwandan genocide,Bizimungu became the new president of the country with RPF commander Paul Kagame as vice-president and minister of defense,who was seen as the country's de facto leader throughout his presidency. Bizumungu's presidency was marked by the reconstruction of the country in the wake of the civil war and genocide,as well as the country's support for rebel groups in the First Congo War from 1996 to 1997,and the Second Congo War from 1998 to 2003. Following a series of disputes with Kagame,Bizimungu resigned in 2000,whereupon he was succeeded by Kagame. The following year,Bizimungu founded the Party for Democratic Renewal,which was immediately banned by Kagame's new government. In 2004,Bizimungu was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for attempting to form a militia,inciting violence,and embezzlement,but was pardoned three years later by Kagame.
A Rwandan,Bizimingu was born in the Gisenyi prefecture of Rwanda. [1] According to the academic Filip Reyntjens,Bizimungu had ties to radical anti-Tutsi groups as a student in the 1970s,but later joined the RPF. He served as President of Rwanda after the 1994 genocide.
In the 1980s and 1990s,Bizimungu worked within the MRND government which ruled Rwanda until 1994. Prior to 1990,Bizimungu had close ties to Hutu president Juvénal Habyarimana. [2] During this period,he held several positions,including director-general of Electrogaz,the national electricity company. [1]
In 1990 he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) after his brother,a colonel in the Rwandan Armed Forces,was murdered. [3] At the time,the RPF was just beginning its invasion of Rwanda from Uganda,starting the Rwandan Civil War. [1] Bizimungu lived in exile in Belgium,serving as the party's information officer. [4] In 1993,he helped negotiate the 1993 Arusha Accords. [1]
After Habyarimana's death in a plane crash on 6 April 1994,ethnic extremists unleashed the Rwandan genocide.
In July 1994 the RPF gained control of the country and established a national unity government. The de facto RPF leader,Paul Kagame,was chosen as vice president,and Bizimungu became president.
During Bizimungu's administration,many believed that he was merely a figurehead,and Kagame held the real power. [3] Bizimungu soon found himself in conflict with Kagame over what Bizimungu argued was unjustified repression of dissent. [1] Critics accused Bizimungu of corruption,alleging that he had blocked Parliament's attempts to censure corrupt ministers,refused to pay compensation to evicted residents on one of his building sites,and dodged Rwandan taxes by registering two of his trucks in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [3]
Bizimungu resigned in March 2000 in a dispute over the make-up of a new cabinet,and Kagame became president. [4]
Weeks before Bizimungu resigned,his adviser,Assiel Kabera,was killed outside his home by men in military uniforms. It has been alleged that Kabera,a genocide survivor,was killed on the orders of Paul Kagame. [5]
In May 2001,Bizimungu founded a new political party,the Party for Democratic Renewal (PDR),known as Ubuyanja in Kinyarwanda. It was almost immediately banned by the government,which accused it of being a radical Hutu party. Bizimungu was arrested,and Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience. [6]
He was placed under house arrest for continuing the operations of the party on 19 April 2002 and charged with endangering the state. On 7 June 2004 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to form a militia,inciting violence,and embezzlement. He received a five-year sentence for each of these convictions,which were to run consecutively. [1]
On 17 February 2006,Bizimungu's appeal,based on the fact that he was convicted of crimes different from those with which he was initially charged,was denied by the Supreme Court. [7]
He was released on 6 April 2007,having been pardoned by Kagame. Kagame gave no explanation of the pardon. [4] As of April 2011,PDR co-founder and later co-defendant Charles Ntakirutinka remained in prison,and was named an Amnesty International "priority case." [8] However,he was released on 1 March 2012 after serving his full ten-year sentence. [9]
Bizimungu's wife is Séraphine Utamuliza. He has one son,and two daughters,Alexander Tabara,Nicole Tamara,and Carine Cyuzuzo. [1]
Human occupation of Rwanda is thought to have begun shortly after the last ice age. By the 11th century,the inhabitants had organized into a number of kingdoms. In the 19th century,Mwami (king) Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda conducted a decades-long process of military conquest and administrative consolidation that resulted in the kingdom coming to control most of what is now Rwanda. The colonial powers,Germany and Belgium,allied with the Rwandan court.
Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda,from 1973 until his assassination in 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani,a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
Paul Kagame is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide. He was considered Rwanda's de facto leader when he was Vice President and Minister of Defence under President Pasteur Bizimungu from 1994 to 2000 after which the vice-presidential post was abolished.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 872 on 5 October 1993. It was intended to assist in the implementation of the Arusha Accords,signed on 4 August 1993,which was meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The UNAMIR has received much attention for its role in failing,due to the limitations of its rules of engagement,to prevent the Rwandan genocide and outbreak of fighting. Its mandate extended past the RPF overthrow of the government and into the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The mission is thus regarded as a major failure.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda.
The Interahamwe is a Hutu paramilitary organization active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The Interahamwe was formed around 1990 as the youth wing of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development,the then-ruling party of Rwanda,and enjoyed the backing of the Hutu Power government. The Interahamwe,led by Robert Kajuga,were the main perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide,during which an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Tutsi,Twa,and moderate Hutus were killed from April to July 1994,and the term "Interahamwe" was widened to mean any civilian militias or bands killing Tutsi.
The Rwandan genocide,also known as the genocide against the Tutsi,occurred between 7 April and 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days,members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group,as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa,were killed by armed Hutu militias. Although the Constitution of Rwanda states that more than 1 million people perished in the genocide,the demographic evidence suggests that the real number killed was likely lower. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths.
Augustin Bizimungu is a Rwandan convicted war criminal and former general of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR). On 16 April 1994,at the start of the genocide against the Tutsi,he was appointed chief of staff of the army and promoted to the rank of major general. In 2011,he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the Rwandan genocide.
Joseph Kavaruganda was a Rwandan jurist who served as president of Rwanda's Constitutional Court. He was killed at the beginning of the Rwandan genocide.
Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan human rights activist. He worked as the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali,during a period in which it housed 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees fleeing the Interahamwe militia during the Rwandan genocide. None of these refugees were hurt or killed during the attacks.
The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces,representing the country's government,and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1 October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose from the long-running dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi groups within the Rwandan population. A 1959–1962 revolution had replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a Hutu-led republic,forcing more than 336,000 Tutsi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. A group of these refugees in Uganda founded the RPF which,under the leadership of Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame,became a battle-ready army by the late 1980s.
Tharcisse Renzaho is a Rwandan soldier,former politician and war criminal. He is best known for his role in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
On the evening of 6 April 1994,the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira,both Hutu,was shot down with surface-to-air missiles as their jet prepared to land in Kigali,Rwanda;both were killed. The assassination set in motion the Rwandan genocide,one of the bloodiest events of the late 20th century.
The following is a partial chronology of significant events surrounding the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Human rights in Rwanda have been violated on a grand scale. The greatest violation is the Rwandan genocide of Tutsi in 1994. The post-genocide government is also responsible for grave violations of human rights.
Seth Sendashonga was the Minister of the Interior in the government of national unity in Rwanda,following the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) after the 1994 genocide. One of the politically moderate Hutus in the National Unity Cabinet,he became increasingly disenchanted with the RPF and was eventually forced from office in 1995 after criticizing government policies. After surviving a 1996 assassination attempt while in exile in Kenya,he launched a new opposition movement,the Forces de Résistance pour la Démocratie (FRD). Sendashonga was killed by unidentified gunmen in May 1998. The Rwandan government is widely believed to be responsible for the assassination.
Charles Ntakirutinka is a former Transportation Minister in the post-genocide Rwandan government,who was later imprisoned on charges of creating civil disorder as well as planning assassinations. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and a 2011 "priority case".
The role of France in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi has been a source of controversy and debate both within and beyond France and Rwanda. France actively supported the Hutu-led government of Juvénal Habyarimana against the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front,which since 1990 had been engaged in a conflict intended to restore the rights of Rwandan Tutsis both within Rwanda and exiled in neighboring countries following over four decades of anti-Tutsi violence. France provided arms and military training to Habyarimana's militias,the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi,which were among the government's primary means of operationalizing the genocide following the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6,1994.
The following lists events that happened during 1994 in the Republic of Rwanda.
In Praise of Blood:The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House of Canada;it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes alleged war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),Rwanda's ruling political party,during its ascent to power in the 1990s.