Théodore Sindikubwabo | |
---|---|
![]() Portrait, date unknown | |
Interim President of Rwanda | |
In office 9 April 1994 –19 July 1994 | |
Prime Minister | Jean Kambanda |
Preceded by | Juvénal Habyarimana |
Succeeded by | Pasteur Bizimungu |
Leader | Colonel Theoneste Bagosora |
Personal details | |
Born | 1928 Butare,Ruanda-Urundi |
Died | March 1998 (aged 69–70) Bukavu,Democratic Republic of the Congo |
Cause of death | Unknown |
Political party | National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development |
Alma mater | University of Rwanda (Medicine) |
Théodore Sindikubwabo (1928 –March 1998) was a Rwandan politician who was the interim President of Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide,from 9 April to 19 July 1994. Prior to that,he was President of the Rwandan legislature National Development Council from 1988–1994.
Sindikubwabo was born in Zivu,Shyanda village,in the town of Butare,formerly called Astrida in Rwanda-Urundi Territory,and currently the southern province of Rwanda. His parents Zacharrie Semutwa and Judithe Nyiramanda were both from the Tutsi ethnic group. Sindikubwabo was educated as a physician and was Minister of Health in the administration of President Kayibanda. Following the takeover by Juvénal Habyarimana,Sindikubwabo became a practising pediatrician in Kigali Central Hospital. He later returned to politics as a deputy in parliament.
Immediately following the assassinations of Habyarimana on 6 April 1994 and Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana on 7 April,Sindikubwabo was installed as interim President by the Crisis Committee controlled by Colonel Théoneste Bagosora,and he was the head of state during the genocide. [1] On 19 April 1994,Sindikubwabo made a now-infamous speech at the ceremony appointing a new Préfet (Governor) of Butare that was broadcast on national radio,in which he insulted those who were not "working",a euphemism for killing Tutsis,and told them to "get out of the way and let us work". [2] On 29 April,he returned to Butare and told the populace that he was there to supervise the killing of Tutsis. On 18 May,whilst on a visit to Kibuye Prefecture,he congratulated the people on how well they had done their "work".[ citation needed ]
Taking advantage of his medical knowledge,he advised the military to cut a certain vein on the jugular to cause certain death. [3]
Following the invasion of the Rwandan Patriotic Front that took control of the country and ended the genocide,Sindikubwabo fled to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo),where he lived in exile in Bukavu. He was interviewed there for the book We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families and quoted as saying:"The moment has not yet come to say who is guilty and who is not guilty." He was initially reported to have been killed in the Rwandan government attack on Bukavu in November 1996 at the beginning of the First Congo War,but subsequent reports put him in Kinshasa. He died in exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in March 1998 and was never charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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. roughly in the 12th century a Germany man named Joel Frederick made the borders for Rwanda but were changed when Rwanda claimed its Independence “Rwanda.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation in 1962.
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".
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa, were systematically killed by Hutu militias. While the Rwandan Constitution states that over 1 million people were killed, most scholarly estimates suggest between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi died. The genocide was marked by extreme violence, with victims often murdered by neighbors, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped.
Agathe Uwilingiyimana, sometimes known as Madame Agathe, was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994, during the opening stages of the Rwandan genocide. She was also Rwanda's acting head of state in the hours leading up to her death.
Pasteur Bizimungu is a Rwandan politician who served as the third President of Rwanda, holding office from 19 July 1994 until 23 March 2000.
Théoneste Bagosora was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89. According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings". On 25 September 2021, he died in a prison hospital in Mali, where he was being treated for heart issues.
Butare was a province (prefecture) of Rwanda prior to its dissolution in January 2006. Butare city was the second largest city in Rwanda and one of the nation's former twelve provinces. It is located in south-central region of the country and borders Burundi to the south. It had a population of 77.449 as of January 2006.
The failure of the international community to effectively respond to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has been the subject of significant criticism. During a period of around 100 days, between 7 April and 15 July, an estimated 500,000-1,100,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsi and moderate Hutu, were murdered by Interahamwe militias.
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko is a Rwandan politician who was the Minister for Family Welfare and the Advancement of Women. She was convicted of having incited troops and militia to carry out rape during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. She was tried for genocide and incitement to rape as part of the "Butare Group" at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania. In June 2011, she was convicted of seven charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nyiramasuhuko is the first woman to be convicted of genocide by the ICTR, and the first woman to be convicted of genocidal rape.
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.
Gitarama was one of the former twelve provinces (intara) of Rwanda and was situated in the centre of the country, to the west of the capital Kigali. Gitarama Prefecture was created in 1959, increasing the number of prefectures of Rwanda from eight to nine. In 2002, it was renamed a province, as were the other prefectures of Rwanda. It had an area of 2,187 square kilometres and a population of some 851,451 prior to its dissolution in January 2006. Gitarama was divided into 8 districts: Muhanga, Kayumbu, Kabagali, Ntenyo, Kamonyi, Ntongwe, Ndiza and Ruyumba; and two towns: Ruhango and Gitarama. Gitarama bordered the provinces Butare, Gikongoro, Kibuye, Gisenyi, Ruhengeri, Kigali-Ngali and Kigali City Tourist attractions included the Kamegeri rocks and the Busaga forest.
The Great Lakes refugee crisis is the common name for the situation beginning with the exodus in April 1994 of over two million Rwandans to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes region of Africa in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Many of the refugees were Hutu fleeing the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), which had gained control of the country at the end of the genocide. However, the humanitarian relief effort was vastly compromised by the presence among the refugees of many of the Interahamwe and government officials who carried out the genocide, who used the refugee camps as bases to launch attacks against the new government led by Paul Kagame. The camps in Zaire became particularly politicized and militarized. The knowledge that humanitarian aid was being diverted to further the aims of the genocidaires led many humanitarian organizations to withdraw their assistance. The conflict escalated until the start of the First Congo War in 1996, when RPF-supported rebels invaded Zaire and sought to repatriate the refugees.
Callixte Nzabonimana is a former Rwandan politician who is accused of participating in the Rwandan genocide.
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.
Christianity is the largest religion in Rwanda, with Protestantism and Catholicism being its main denominations. Around 3% of the population claims no religious affiliation, while another 3% practices other religions including traditional faiths. Approximately 2% of the populace is Muslim.
Ladislas Ntaganzwa is a Rwandan war criminal who was involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. According to his indictment, Ntaganzwa, as mayor of Nyakizu, a commune of Butare, was instrumental in rallying Hutu Power fervor leading up to the genocide, and as the genocide began, distributed weapons, and directed and participated in killings.
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.
Jean-Baptiste Habyalimana was a Rwandan academic and politician who served as the Prefect of Butare and was killed during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. He was the only Tutsi prefect at the time of the genocide, and also the only prefect belonging to the Liberal Party. He had resisted the genocide.
The following lists events that happened during 1994 in the Republic of Rwanda.
Beatrice Munyenyezi is a Rwandan woman known for her involvement in the Rwandan Genocide. She sought political asylum in the United States where she successfully applied citing persecution in her home country. Almost two decades later, in 2013, a US court prosecuted Beatrice for lying about her political affiliation during the Rwandan genocide. She was stripped of her American citizenship, imprisoned and eventually deported back to Rwanda, where she was given a life sentence.