Dictator of Rwanda: Juvénal Habyarimana Quiz

Answer: Gisenyi

Gisenyi is located in Rwanda's Western Province (one of the five provinces of Rwanda) and is situated on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Juvénal Habyarimana was born in 1937 to an affluent Hutu family, when what is now Rwanda was part of the territory Ruanda-Urundi, which existed from 1916-1962, ruled by various colonial forces. He was born when Ruanda-Urundi was under Belgian rule.

He went to university in 1958 in Léopoldville, which is now Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1960, the Rwandan Revolution happened, and he quit university to train as an officer in Kigali.

Answer: Agathe Kanziga

Agathe Kanziga was regularly regarded as an influencer of Habyarimana, her opinion carrying significant weight with him during his 20 years as President of Rwanda. Her family were wealthy, well-connected Hutus, who are alleged to have provided Habyarimana with resources during his time in power.

In 2010 during a visit to France, long after her husband's death in 1994, Agathe Kanziga was arrested by French police after French President Nicolas Sarkozy had visited Rwanda. Having been in France since 1998, she remains there since France refused to extradite her to Rwanda in 2011. However, she is not there receiving asylum status, as France understandably suspect her of having a considerable part of one of the most horrific genocides in human history.

She if often accused of being part of the "Akazu" - the Hutu group who planned and orchestrated the genocide.

Answer: Dominique Mbonyumutwa

Dominique Mbonyumutwa was a Rwandan politician who served as the first President of Rwanda (while it was still part of part of Ruanda-Urundi), who held the post for 9 months in 1961. This was following the abolition of the Rwandan monarchy, when King Kigeri V of Rwanda was away from the country. He lost the election of October 1961, the first election in the country.

In 2010, Dominique Mbonyumutwa's son, Shinguiro Mbonyumutwa, protested against the government orders to exhume the remains of his father, who died in 1986. The exhumation was ordered because Dominique Mbonyumutwa was buried in Gitarama town's sports stadium, Democracy Stadium, which was in the process of being renovated. This stadium is where Rwanda's Hutu leader announced the abolishment of the Hutu monarchy.

Answer: Gregoire Kayibanda

Gregoire Kayibanda was a pioneer of Rwanda's plight of independence from Belgium and was heavily active during the Rwandan Revolution. He was crucial in the replacement of the Tutsi monarchy with a government.

During his time in power there were massacres in Burundi. This created an anti-Tutsi sentiment in Rwanda, and the Hutus of the country demanded their leader Gregoire Kayibanda act against the Tutsi, but they were not pleased with his response. This unsatisfactory response was coupled with the government corruption of Gregoire Kayibanda's government. This led to the coup against him.

He was ousted in a military coup in 1973 by Juvenal Habyarimana, who by then was Defense Minister of Rwanda. Gregoire Kayibanda and his wife were killed, and it is reported that Habyarimana had them locked in a room to starve to death.

Answer: Invincible

"Kinani" is the the Kinyarwanda word for "invincible." This nickname would prove inappropriate, considering Habyarimana's demise. He died on 6 April 1994, aged 57.

Kinyarwanda is one of the official languages of Rwanda. It is also widely spoken in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in areas of the south of Uganda, where the language is referred to as "Rufumbira." Kinyarwanda is very similar to Kirundi, the official language of Burundi.

After the 1994 Rwandan genocide (sparked by Habyarimana's death) English was added as one of Rwanda's official languages, because many Tutsis had grown up in exile, in English-speaking Uganda.

Answer: Peasants

Habyarimana wished for Rwanda to be an agricultural society, glorifying the peasantry. In his ideas of rural romanticism, the Hutus were the true peasants of Rwandan society, whereas the Tutsi were more so the feudal class - closely involved with the colonial invaders. Hutu ideology painted the Hutus are oppressed and unfairly treated, with no other option but to rise against the Tutsis to achieve liberation.

The glorification of peasant society is not unique to this dictatorship. Both the Khmer Rouge and Nazi Germany also glorified peasants, and used them for violence. Hitler also described the Jews as work-shy and exploitative of the German people. Habyarimana described the Tutsis the same way.

Although he claimed to be for, and part of the peasantry, Habyarimana came from a wealthy family. This is similar to the lies of humble beginnings Pol Pot told the peasants of Cambodia. Habyarimana's policies claimed to benefit the peasants; however, in regards to agriculture, the money was going to the importers, wholesale traders and state-owned companies.

Answer: False

Habyarimana had a policy to keep the peasants strictly contained within rural areas. He believed that the cities were a place of prostitution, theft and immorality. The Catholic Church in Rwanda at the time added to this by preaching to the youth to stay out of the cities, which they believed were morally bankrupt.

Some of these so-called "prostitutes" were just Tutsi women who lived in the cities. In Kigali they were systemically kidnapped and taken to re-education camps in Nsinda, in the prefecture of Kibungo.

Answer: National Revolutionary Movement for Development

Between 1975-1991 every Rwandan citizen was by default a supporter of the National Revolutionary Movement for Development, the only legal political party under the reign of Habyarimana. The National Revolutionary Movement for Development was exclusively Hutus, most of which were from Habyarimana's homeland of Northern Rwanda. He outlawed the the Parmehutu party, which consisted of Hutus from Southern Rwanda.

This political party was banned after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Answer: Rwandan Patriotic Front

The Rwandan Patriotic Front was composed of Tutsis, many of which had served in the Ugandan Army. They crossed the border from Uganda in 1990, and attacked. Habyarimana was in New York at the time.

The Rwandan Patriotic Front ended the 1994 genocide when they defeated those carrying out mass murder of the Tutsis. The RPF saved tens of thousands of Tutsis from execution, and have been the dominant political party of Rwanda since 1994.

Answer: Arusha Accords

In 1993, Juvénal Habyarimana and the then President of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, Alexis Kanyarengwe. The Rwandan Civil War had been going on for around 3 years by this point. The talks had been going on since 1992, but the Accords were signed in Arusha, north-eastern Tanzania, 4 August 1993.

Following this in October 1993, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 872, which set up the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, whose aim was to ensure the Arusha Accords were properly implemented. This was not given a chance however, as the next year Juvénal Habyarimana was assassinated.

Answer: False

Rwanda was one of the most densely-populated countries in the world during Juvénal Habyarimana's regime, who actually had no family planning policies. He gave several reasons for this. One argument he made was that Rwandan families naturally want many children, it was a cultural norm. He also claimed to be waiting for advice from scientists, who were working on a solution to the country's large population. He also however wanted a large population of peasants to work agriculturally, similar to the beliefs of Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu.

During his reign groups of Catholic pro-life citizens were allowed to attack pharmacies that sold condoms.

Answer: Being struck by missiles

On 6 April 1994, the plane Habyarimana was on was shot down by ground-to-air missiles. Responsibility for the attack is not agreed on to this day. However, there are allegations that the Rwandan Patriotic Front, and the future President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, were behind the attack.

It is also suggested that Hutu extremists were behind the attack, as they were unhappy with the Arusha Accords which Habyarimana had signed, allowed Tutsis to enter politics.

Answer: Cyprien Ntaryamira

Cyprien Ntaryamira was also a Hutu. He and Habyarimana had been at peace talks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Habyarimana was rebuked at the meeting for stalling the peace process, and Ntaryamira accused him of making the tension worse, and therefore putting national security of Burundi at risk.

When the summit was over, Cyprien Ntaryamira asked Habyarimana if he could use his presidential jet to be taken home, as it was much faster than his own airplane. This decision would cost him his life.

Some have suggested that Habyarimana feared his life was at risk, and thought having another head of state in the plane with him would discourage an attack. If this was truly his reasoning, he was incorrect.

Answer: 800,000

The total death toll of the Rwandan Genocide including Hutu and Twa victims, as well as Tutsi, is estimated to be around 1,100,000. The genocide took place over the course of 100 days, from April - June, 1994.

Around 70% of Rwanda's Tutsi population were killed. Up to 2 million people fled Rwanda in the wake of the genocide, including many of the perpetrators of the killing.

Answer: Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko was President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965-71. How he acquired the remains of Habyarimana is unclear, but he had his remains cremated in Kinshasa. The remains were burned in order to avoid desecration of them by rebels, he said.