The Hutu ( / ˈ h uː t uː / ), also known as the Abahutu , are a Bantu ethnic group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda , Burundi , and Uganda where they form one of the principal ethnic groups alongside the Tutsi and the Great Lakes Twa .
42-400: President of Rwanda Government Presidential elections Battles/wars Juvénal Habyarimana ( Kinyarwanda: [hɑβɟɑːɾímɑ̂ːnɑ] , French: [ʒyvenal abjaʁimana] ; 8 March 1937 – 6 April 1994) 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 ,
84-445: A Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An ethnic Hutu , Habyarimana served in several security positions including minister of defense under Rwanda's first president, Grégoire Kayibanda . After overthrowing Kayibanda in a coup in 1973 , he became the country's new president and eventually continued his predecessor's pro-Hutu policies. He was a dictator , and electoral fraud was suspected for his unopposed re-elections: 98.99% of
126-591: A French court denied Rwanda's request for extradition of Agathe Habyarimana. Habyarimana was a devout Catholic . President of Rwanda This article lists the presidents of Rwanda since the creation of the office in 1961 (during the Rwandan Revolution ), to the present day. The president of Rwanda is the head of state and head of executive of the Republic of Rwanda. The president
168-465: A French crew, a French investigation was conducted; in 2006 it concluded that Kagame was responsible for the killing and demanded that he be prosecuted. The response from Kagame, the de facto leader of Rwanda since the genocide, was that the French were only trying to cover up their own part in the genocide that followed. A more recent French probe in a January 2012 report was falsely reported to exonerate
210-511: A campaign of genocide was conducted against the Hutu population in 1972, and an estimated 100,000 Hutus died. In 1993, Burundi's first democratically elected president, Melchior Ndadaye , who was Hutu, was believed to be assassinated by Tutsi officers, as was the person constitutionally entitled to succeed him. This sparked a counter-genocide in Burundi between Hutu political structures and
252-583: A civil war against Rwanda's Hutu government in 1990. A peace agreement was signed, but violence erupted again, culminating in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when Hutu extremists killed an estimated 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis. About 30% of the Twa pygmy population of Rwanda were also killed by the Hutu extremists. At the same time, the Rwandan Patriotic Front took control of the country and
294-597: A conservative political agenda and was anti-communist. However, in 1990, before the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invasion, and because of mounting pressure from several sources—Rwanda's main ally and financial backer, France , its main funders, the IMF and the World Bank , and from its own citizens wishing for a greater voice and economic change—he agreed to allow the formation of other parties such as
336-499: A government that mirrored the policies of Kayibanda. Quotas were once again applied to jobs for universities and government services which intentionally disadvantaged Tutsis. As Habyarimana continued to favor a smaller and smaller coterie of supporters, Hutu groups who felt slighted by him cooperated with Tutsis to weaken his leadership. By the start of the invasion from Uganda by the army of the Rwanda Patriotic Front,
378-561: A gradual, natural split, as those who owned cattle became known as the Tutsi and those who did not own cattle became known as the Hutu. Mahmood Mamdani states that the Belgian colonial power designated people as Tutsi or Hutu on the basis of cattle ownership, physical measurements and church records. The debate over the ethnic origins of the Hutu and Tutsi within Rwandan politics predates
420-556: A new constitution was approved in a referendum . At the same time, Habyarimana was elected to a five-year term as president; as president of the MRND, he was the only candidate. He was reelected in 1983 and 1988, both times as the only candidate. A Hutu himself, he initially won favor among both Hutu and Tutsi groups given his administration's reluctance to implement policies that catered to his primarily Hutu supporters. This restraint did not last and Habyarimana eventually began to oversee
462-650: A private mausoleum in Gbadolite , Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ). Mobutu promised Habyarimana's family that his body would eventually be given a proper burial in Rwanda. On 12 May 1997, as Laurent-Désiré Kabila 's ADFL rebels were advancing on Gbadolite, Mobutu had the remains flown by cargo plane to Kinshasa , where they waited on the apron of N'djili Airport for three days. On 16 May,
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#1732765043089504-402: A rebel army made up mostly of refugee Tutsi who had helped Uganda's Museveni seize control of the presidency, Habyarimana's supporters had shrunk down to the akazu ("little house" or "President's household"), which was mainly composed of an informal group of Hutu extremists from his home region, namely from the northwestern provinces of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri . From 1975 to 1990, the MRND and
546-537: A second ceremony, Chief Justice Joseph Kavaruganda did not appear and the suggested ministers were not sworn in, infuriating Habyarimana. On 6 April 1994, Habyarimana's private Falcon 50 jet was shot down near Kigali International Airport , killing Habyarimana. Cyprien Ntaryamira , the President of Burundi , the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan military, and numerous others also died in the attack. The plane crashed on
588-428: A shorter underclass, but with little relation to the gene pools that had existed a few centuries ago. The social categories are thus real, but there is little if any detectable genetic differentiation between Hutu and Tutsi. Tishkoff et al. (2009) found their mixed Hutu and Tutsi samples from Rwanda to be predominately of Bantu origin, with minor gene flow from Afro-Asiatic communities (17.7% Afro-Asiatic genes found in
630-401: A small portion of Hutu speak French , the other official language of Rwanda and Burundi, as a lingua franca , although the population is dwindling given the poor relations between Rwanda and France. The Belgian-sponsored Tutsi monarchy survived until 1959 when Kigeli V was exiled from the colony (then called Ruanda-Urundi ). In Burundi, Tutsis, who are the minority, maintained control of
672-404: A spectrum of physical variation in the peoples, Belgian authorities legally mandated ethnic affiliation in the 1920s, based on economic criteria. Formal and discrete social divisions were consequently imposed upon ambiguous biological distinctions. To some extent, the permeability of these categories in the intervening decades helped to reify the biological distinctions, generating a taller elite and
714-611: Is elected every seven years by popular vote , and appoints the prime minister and all other members of Cabinet . A total of four people have served in the office. The incumbent president is Paul Kagame , who took office on 22 April 2000, after being acting president for nearly a month. There was a two-term limit for the president in the Constitution of Rwanda . The constitutional referendum in 2015 allowed Paul Kagame third seven-year term, and ability to run for further two five-year terms thereafter. Hutu The Hutu
756-539: Is the largest of the three main population divisions in Burundi and Rwanda . Prior to 2017, the CIA World Factbook stated that 84% of Rwandans and 85% of Burundians are Hutu, with Tutsis being the second largest ethnic group at 15% and 14% of residents of Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. However, these figures were omitted in 2017 and no new figures have been published since then. The Twa pygmies ,
798-880: The Republican Democratic Movement , the Social Democratic Party , the Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Party . In October 1990, an attack on Habyarimana's government began when rebels from the RPF , a force of mostly Tutsi Rwandan refugees and expatriates who had served in the Ugandan army (many in key positions), crossed the border from Uganda . Habyarimana was in New York City attending
840-577: The Rwandan genocide , and it continues to the present day, with the government of Rwanda no longer using the distinction. Modern-day genetic studies of the Y-chromosome suggest that the Hutu, like the Tutsi, are largely of Bantu extraction (83% E1b1a , 8% E2 ). Paternal genetic influences associated with the Horn of Africa and North Africa are few (3% E1b1b and 1% R1b ), and are ascribed to much earlier inhabitants who were assimilated. However,
882-464: The Habyarimana government were one. Under a constitution adopted in 1978, every five years the president of the MRND, Hayarimana, was automatically elected to a five-year term as president of the republic, and was confirmed in office via a referendum. Every four years, voters had the option of choosing between two MRND candidates for the legislature. All citizens of Rwanda became members of the MRND at birth. Local administrations simultaneously represented
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#1732765043089924-624: The Hutu have considerably fewer Nilo-Saharan paternal lineages (4.3% B) than the Tutsi (14.9% B). In general, the Hutu appear to share a close genetic kinship with neighboring Bantu populations, particularly the Tutsi. However, it is unclear whether this similarity is primarily due to extensive genetic exchanges between these communities through intermarriage or whether it ultimately stems from common origins: [...] generations of gene flow obliterated whatever clear-cut physical distinctions may have once existed between these two Bantu peoples – renowned to be height, body build, and facial features. With
966-594: The RPF. Members of Kagame's inner circle have come out publicly stating that the attack was ordered by Kagame himself. These include his former Chief of Staff and Ambassador to the United States Theogene Rudasingwa , the former army chief and Ambassador to India General Kayumba Nyamwasa , the former secretary in the Ministry of Defense Major Jean-Marie Micombero and others. Habyarimana's body
1008-535: The Tutsi military, in which an estimated 500,000 Burundians died. There were many mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus; these events were deemed to be a genocide by the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry for Burundi. While Tutsis remained in control of Burundi, the conflict resulted in genocide in Rwanda as well. A Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front , invaded Rwanda from Uganda, which started
1050-431: The Tutsi. The Tutsi were pastoralists and are believed to have established aristocratic control over the sedentary Hutu and Twa. Through intermarriage with the Hutu, the Tutsi were gradually assimilated, culturally, linguistically, and racially. Others suggest that the two groups are related but not identical, and they also suggest that the differences between them were exacerbated by Europeans, or they were exacerbated by
1092-663: The Ugandan Government of supplying the RPF, establishing a "rear command" for the group in Kampala, and "flagging off" the invasion. The Rwandan Government announced on 30 October that the war was over. On 4 August 1993 the Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) signed the Arusha Accords to end the Rwandan Civil War . As stipulated by the agreement, the new transitional government
1134-563: The United Nations World Summit for Children when the attack commenced. When news of the RPF offensive broke, Habyarimana requested assistance from France in fighting the invasion. The French government responded by dispatching troops to his aid under the cover of protecting French nationals. Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko 's contribution was to send several hundred troops of the elite Special Presidential Division (DSP). The Zairian soldiers raped Rwandan civilians in
1176-649: The beginning of the Rwandan Revolution the following year, Habyarimana left Lovanium and enrolled in the officer training school in Kigali . He graduated with distinction in 1961 and became an aide to the Belgian commander of the force in Rwanda. He married Agathe Kanziga in 1962. On 29 June 1963 Habyarimana, as a lieutenant, was appointed head of the Garde Nationale Rwandaise . Two years later he
1218-599: The day before Mobutu fled Zaire and the country was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Habyarimana's remains were burned under the supervision of an Indian Hindu leader. The death of Habyarimana ignited the genocide against the Tutsi by extremists from the majority Hutus, against Tutsis and those Hutus who had opposed the government in the past or who had supported the peace accords. Within 100 days, somewhere between 491,000 and 800,000 Rwandans were massacred. Habyarimana's wife, Agathe Habyarimana ,
1260-722: The government and military. In Rwanda, the political power was transferred from the minority Tutsi to the majority Hutu. In Rwanda, this led to the "Social revolution" and Hutu and Tutsis conflicts. Tens of thousands of Tutsis were killed, and many others fled to neighboring countries, such as Burundi, Uganda , and forming the Banyamulenge Tutsi ethnic group in the South Kivu region of the Belgian Congo . Later, exiled Tutsis from Burundi invaded Rwanda, prompting Rwanda to close its border to Burundi. In Burundi ,
1302-493: The great majority of Rwandans remained in circumstances of extreme poverty . In 1990, the Tutsi -led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) launched the Rwandan Civil War against his government. After three years of war, Habyarimana signed the Arusha Accords in 1993 with the RPF as a peace agreement. The following year, he died under mysterious circumstances when his plane, also carrying the President of Burundi , Cyprien Ntaryamira ,
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1344-465: The grounds of the presidential residence. The circumstances of the crash remain unclear. At the time, the Hutu Power media claimed the plane had been shot down on orders from RPF leader Paul Kagame . Others, including the RPF, accused militant Hutus from within Habyarimana's party of orchestrating the crash to provoke anti- Tutsi outrage while simultaneously seizing power. Since the aircraft had
1386-576: The mixed Hutu–Tutsi population). Hutus speak Rwanda-Rundi as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Rwanda-Rundi is subdivided into the Kinyarwanda and Kirundi dialects, which have been standardized as official languages of Rwanda and Burundi, respectively. It is also spoken as a mother tongue by the Tutsi and Twa. Additionally,
1428-485: The north of the country and looted their homes, prompting Habyarimana to expel them within a week of their arrival. With French assistance, and benefiting from the loss of RPF morale after Fred Rwigyema 's death, the Rwandan Army enjoyed a major tactical advantage. By the end of October, they had regained all the ground taken by the RPF and pushed the rebels all the way back to the Ugandan border. Habyarimana accused
1470-499: The official party as well as the local authority. Legal and party policies were communicated and enforced from the Head of State down through the local administrative units, especially the general policy of Umuganda, in which Rwandans were required to "allocate half a day's labour per week" to infrastructural projects. Habyarimana is sometimes described as a moderate though the party is said to have used right-wing propaganda methods, advanced
1512-490: The smallest of the two countries' principal populations, share language and culture with the Hutu and Tutsi. They are distinguished by a considerably shorter stature. The Hutu are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from Central Africa in the great Bantu expansion . Various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu -speaking neighbors,
1554-420: 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 , one-party state 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,
1596-801: Was shot down by a missile near Kigali . His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the genocide against the Tutsi . Juvénal Habyarimana was born on 8 March 1937, in Gisenyi , Ruanda-Urundi to a wealthy Hutu family. After receiving a primary education, he attended the College of Saint Paul in Bukavu , Belgian Congo , where he graduated with a degree in mathematics and humanities. In 1958 he enrolled in Lovanium University 's medical school in Léopoldville . After
1638-612: Was evacuated by French troops shortly after his death. She has been described as having been extremely influential in Rwandan politics. She has been accused by Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama of complicity in the genocide and was denied asylum in France on the basis of evidence of her complicity. She was arrested in March 2010 in the Paris region by the police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant. In September 2011,
1680-543: Was identified lying in a flowerbed at about 21:30 on 6 April by the crash site. The corpses of the victims were taken into the presidential palace living room. Plans were initially made to take his body to the hospital, but the renewal of conflict made this difficult, and instead his corpse was stored in a freezer at a nearby army barracks. His family shortly thereafter fled to France, making no preparations for his burial. At some point following, Habyarimana's remains were obtained by Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko and kept in
1722-620: Was made Minister of the National Guard and Police. On 5 July 1973, while serving as Army Chief of Staff and minister of defense, Habyarimana seized power in a coup d'état against the incumbent President Grégoire Kayibanda , ousting Kayibanda's ruling Parmehutu party. In 1975, he created the Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement as the country's only legal party. The government stayed almost entirely in military hands until 1978 when
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1764-538: Was to be sworn in on 5 January 1994. Habyarimana was sworn in as interim President at the Parliament building, but then suddenly departed before calling up the new Prime Minister and cabinet to be inaugurated. Habyarimana returned that afternoon with a list of new cabinet members from Hutu extremist parties, who had not been agreed upon in the Arusha Accords, to be sworn in. Having not been formally invited for
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