RWANDA: HABYARIMANA FAMILY RECOUNTS TRAGEDY

[James Yuma]

[The following article, originally entitled *Le recit en direct de la famille
Habyarimana*, was published by *JEUNE AFRIQUE*, Nos. 1738-1739, Apr 28-
May 11, 1994]

[written copyright permission granted James Yuma by *JEUNE AFRIQUE* for
translation and Internet posting of its materials; use restricted to the sole
electronic medium]

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RWANDA: FROM PARIS, HABYARIMANA'S FAMILY RECOUNTS THE TRAGEDY

BYLINE: PHILIPPE GAILLARD & HAMID BARRADA

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"Listen, Jeanne, I can hear your father's plane."
Agathe Habyarimana can't be mistaken. The presidential residence is less than
one kilometer from the airport of Kigali, on the very axis of the sole runway.
President Juvenal Habyarimana's wife has learned to recognize planes from their
purrs. And no other flight is scheduled, except the one that brings back from
the Dar es-Salaam summit the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi.

It's 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 6. Less than a hundred meters from the house,
Jean-Luc and his cousins are just coming out of the swimming pool. They, too,
hear the Mystere 50. The lights of the 3-engine jet soon appear, the wheezing
intensifies. Suddenly, three blasts within a few seconds. After the first
explosion, the plane rocks and its jet-engines seem to be racing. After the
second, it's engulfed in falmes. After the third, it explodes. The burning
debris of the cockpit fall in the garden of the head of state, the wings beyond
the fences, at some dozen meters.

Jean-Luc Habyarimana, 18, is a student at the French high-school of Cairo
[Egypt] with his 15-year-old sister, Marie-Merci. Both are on vacation in
Kigali. He described the scene and the flashing streaks of the rockets shelled
from Massaka, the hill approaching aircrafts circle before touching down, just
ahead of the residence. His mother was inside the villa, as well as his older
sister, Jeanne, who is 28 and lives in Kigali with her husband, Alphonse
Ntirivamunda, and their children.

Upon hearing the blasts, Jeanne rushed outside, on the side opposite the
swimming pool. She sees pieces of the Mystere falling down.
"Mom!," she screams, "They shot down Dad's plane!"
Mrs. Habyarimana doesn't want to get out. She finds herself longing for a
miracle: "Maybe," she thinks, "my husband's in Mobutu's plane [the head of
state of Zaire didn't go to Dar es-Salaam, though he was expected there] which
is expected to stop here."

Gunfire's heard. The head of the presidential guard rushes in.
"Watch out, Madame," he says, "They're firing at the house. Steer clear of the
windows and switch off the lights."
"They'll kill us all," thinks Agathe Habyarimana. She sends her mother and the
children to the [presidential] chapel, then she joins them there. In the
pandemonium, Jeanne, her daughter in her arms, falls down and breaks her leg.

The gunfire, more or less sporadic, will last all night long. But the snipers
are doubtlessly very far. For no bullet impact will be found. The presidential
guard, soon reinforced by other soldiers from nearby barracks and led by a
lieutenant-colonel and a major, organizes the counter-attack and reassures the
family: "We've got the situation under control."

Jean-Luc has run into the house. He's seen that his mother "is taking it easy."
He too. Alongside with guards, he pushes the cars from the inferno that the
center of the garden has become; he attempts to put out the fire with dirt and
water. In the darkness the grisly search for the bodies starts.

The first one to be discovered is that of the personal physician of the
president, Dr. Emmanuel Akingeneye. It had darted through the roof of the
garage and slammed on top of a car. Progressively, as the bodies are found,
they're aligned in two rows in the livingroom. Soon after 9:00 p.m., Mrs.
Habyarimana is told they're bringing in her husband. She comes in to collect
herself by the remains of her husband, in the improvised funeral home. But
a half-hour later, soldiers spot the president in a clump of flowers and
honor him before carrying him in. The mutilated body that was first mistakenly
identified as his was that of his political advisor, ambassador Kenzaho. They
still then think it's the body of [Burundi's] Cyprien Ntaryamina. It's only
after they'd have discovered and identified the president of Burundi, around
3:00 a.m., that they'd be able to put its real name to the remains of
Kenzaho who - it will be learned from his wife - was wearing a red shirt
with stripes. The last three bodies, those of the French pilots, will only
be spotted at dawn, outside the garden of the residence.

French soldiers participated in the searches and found the black box.

Two days and two nights of horror will still be endured by Habyarimana's
family members, who lose any notion of the passing time. Preparations for
the burial turn out to be impossible, and even moving the bodies to a
hospital as first planned. The twelve corpses are still aligned in the
livingroom. And the clatter of gunfire is relentless. On Friday, they'd be able
nonetheless to carry the two heads of state in the freezer of nearby
barracks.

On Saturday, finally, a French officer shows up and claims to be sent by
president Mitterand. "My orders are to take you to France," he tells Mrs.
Habyarimana. "A military plane's awaiting you. There's room for ten people,
as many children as possible, each one with one luggage - and light." He
brushes off the timid objections: "I'm sorry, but it's all we can do. You
must be ready in thirty minutes."

The brother of the president, a physician with a practice in Kigali, drew the
list of the passengers. The military plane brought the ten refugees to
Bangui [Central African Republic] where they were greeted by president
[Ange] Patasse. On Sunday, they boarded a commercial flight of Air Afrique
bound for Paris. Two representatives of the [French] cooperation ministry
were awaiting. A somewhat summary welcome after all this ordeal? "Not at
all," interrupts Agathe Habyarimana. "I got condolence messages from the
[French] president of the republic and the Prime minister. Mr. Mitterand sent
me flowers. Let everyone know we're very grateful to the French government
for what it did for us."

The exiles have rejoined two of the sons of the presidential couple, both
studying architecture in Paris: the eldest son, Jean-Pierre, 29, and
Bernard, 22. Jean-Claude, 27, Marie-Rose, 25, and Leon, 24 - all three
students in Canada - have also joined them; as well as the brother of
Mrs. Habyarimana, Seraphin Rwabukumba, and cousins.

Some family members are staying at a hotel and others at the four-bedroom
apartment president Habyarimana just acquired through a rent with option to
buy arrangement, and which wasn't furnished yet. It was in this apartment
that the whole family greeted us, to give an account of the tragedy.

Who committed the crime?
Not one single family member has the least doubt.
"We don't have any proof yet, but we'll find out," sums up Agathe Habyarimana.
"It's the work of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), in complicity with the
Belgians." The RPF is the mighty Tutsi rebel group which had accepted the
armistice and its reintegration into legality in August 1993.

A hypothesis has been put forth, however, of a conspiracy hatched by Hutus
of the entourage of Habyarimana, who might have wanted to stall the
reconcilliation process.

"That doesn't hold water!" the family members object. "The authors of this
thesis cite as heads of the so-called network of conspirators the army chief-
of-staff, Deo Nsabimana, and colonel Elie Sagatwa, personal secretary of the
president. But, now, both of them were aboard the plane...The same sources
hold the Presidential Guard responsible. That's unbelievable. These men were
totally devoted to the president. We've seen them cry within minutes of
the explosion of the aircraft. They protected us and they've repeatedly
shown proofs of their loyalty. On the other hand, Hutu parties which were
previously close to the RPF had rallied around the president since the
assassination of the head of state of Burundi, Melchior Ndaudaye, by
Tutsis probably incited by Paul Kagame, the head of the RPF. In fact,
Kagame went on numerous occasions to Bujumbura after the election of
Ndadaye."

There had been, however, at the end of February, bloody confrontations
between southern Hutus, pushing for national reconciliation, and southern
Hutus, known for their anti-Tutsi extrmism..."That's what the RPF, which
is responsible for the assassination, wants you to believe. According
to people who pass on its propaganda, Felicien Gatabazi, the minister of
Public Works, was killed because he was close to the RPF. But, a few
days before, he went to proclaim his allegiance to the head of State, and
the RPF was furious about it. As for Martin Bucyana, he was killed by
the Social-Democratic Party members, to avenge their leader, but the
murderers belonged to the pro-RPF faction from which Gatabazi just
distanced himself."

Is that enough to accuse the RPF of the assassination of Juvenal Habyarimama
and the eleven people who were traveling with him? The family of the president
replies that the RPF had multiplied threats of ambushes against the man.
Motorcades were reinforced, making difficult the prospect of a successful
attempt on the road. There remained the prospect of a strike on the aircraft.

On the other hand, in the hour that followed the downing of the plane,
RPF units attacked the presidential guard barracks. The same units, without
a doubt, that fired on the presidential residence. In the meantime, rebel
groups from the borders launched their converging march towards Kigali.

Mrs. Habyarimana goes on to say: "Easter Sunday, three days before the
tragedy, we'd invited a UN high-ranking official to dinner. That personality
told my husband, and repeated it three times in front of our small intimate
circle: 'Paul Kagame wants me to warn you personally that he'll kill you and
he'll use any means necessary to that end.'" Who is that personality? Agathe
Habyarimana refuses to identify him for the time being.

And Belgians? "Don't write 'Belgians'," corrects the widow of the head of
state. "My husband had always had excellent relationships with the king,
the Prime Minister, Wilfried Martens, and many other statesmen, including
the present minister of Defense. We accuse *some Belgians*, not the
Belgian nation or the Belgian government." Then, which Belgians, and why?

The Habyarimana family points out that the colonist relied on the Tutsi
monarchy to the detriment of the Hutu majority. "Many former colonists
never swallowed the 1959 change," they add. Some married Tutsis. Tutsi
refugees, many of them in Belgium, are very active and influent in media
circles. In a word, in Brussels, a "Tutsi party" and a large section of
the opinion, which knows very little of the Hutus, still lean to thinking
that Tutsis are "born to rule".

Moreover, Belgians--who, alongside with the French--had sent troops [to Rwanda]
during the November 1990 uprisings, called them back immediately after
evacuating their nationals, whereas French troops stayed on. The
Rwandan government was thus very grateful to the French. As a
consequence, Belgium had the feeling of losing once more its former
colony.

That's the context. Did Belgian politicians go as far as to get involved
in a plot to assasinate the head of state in order to push for some kind
of a restoration? The Habyarimanas don't provide any names. But they don't
lack arguments to state that "some Belgians" were closely involved in the
inception and the carrying out of the attempt. To better understand, you
have to bear in mind that beside the blue helmets coming principally from
Bangladesh and Ghana, the only whites in the ranks of the UN mission in
Rwanda are Belgians, about less than five hundred out of a total of about
two thousand.

Here are these arguments.

Since the arrival of the UN mission in Rwanda, by the end of 1993, Belgian
blue helmets have dispayed their hostitlity to Hutus on the streets and coffee-
shops. One of them snatched a Habyarimana medalion worn by a passerby. The
incident having being publicized, its author was sent back home discreetly.
But the provocations intensified so much as Belgians were confined to barracks.

In the days that preceeded the tragedy--recall Agathe, Jeanne, and
Jean-Luc--white helicopters, therefore of the UN--frequently circled the
residence and the president's office. Several patrols of Belgium paratroopers
closely surveyed the vicinity of the airport and the Massaka hill.

A few minutes after the explosion of the Mystere 50, Jean-Luc asserts, a white
transport aircraft, a C-130 or a Transall, flew past the residence. It was
unannounced. It was prevented from landing. It circled for a while, then
it vanished.

Immediately after hearing the explosion, peasants from Massaka saw white
soldiers leaving the hill aboard a jeep, firing as if to cover themselves, and
heading toward Kigali. This eyewitness account could be seen in the light of
the official version given on television by the Belgian Foreign minister
who offers a different interpretation of the incident: a Belgian detatchment
attemting to get back to the UN mission barracks was stopped by Bengalis
who were on guard and who found their behavior suspicious.

As to the interethnic massacres, the Habyarimana's family members have no
direct account to offer, but they are willing to volunteer a few precisions,
mainly on the role of the presidential guard. The media has seen its hand
everywhere, as the culprit of the carnage of the Tutsis. But it's only a
small unit, a battalion of five hundred men, who were involved in their
duty of defending the presidential residence, the airport, etc., and of
resisting to the three successive attacks launched by the RPF, two in the
night and one in the morning of April 7. The Tutsis have taken the offensive.
That they've had heavy losses is possible and logical: the number is against
them and they had to face soldiers and, most of all, civilians enraged by
the assassination of the president.

"The Tutsis will regret my father," adds Jeanne. "He's always intervened to
calm down Hutu extremists. He's no more. Look at what's happening in our
country."

Mrs. Habyarimana and their children also insist on the responsibility of
Uganda in the misfortune of Rwanda. Several RPF officers are Ugandan
citizens of Rwandan origin--they note--who have studied and been on
training in the US in Ugandan uniform. Kagame himself was not only one of
them, but he's the former head of security of Yoweri Museveni. The president
of the republic of Uganda was brought to power by the Tutsis. He's repaying
his debts at the expense of Rwanda.

Those were the eyewitness accounts and comments that we gathered on 21 April
1994, two weeks after the tragic death of Juvenal Habyarimana, fallen from
the skies onto his garden.

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