Agathe Habyarimana

Agathe Habyarimana Full Name: Agathe Kanziga Habyarimana Alias: Mrs. Genocide Origin: Karago, Gisenyi Prefecture, Rwanda Occupation: First Lady of Rwanda (1973 - 1994) Skills: Manipulation Planning Hobby: Planning genocides Goals: Eliminate Tutsis in Rwanda (failed) Keep her husband and his party in power (failed) Crimes: Genocide War crimes Mass murder Crimes against humanity Conspiracy Ethnic cleansing Propaganda Torture Xenophobia Type of Villain: Conspiratorial Mastermind

Agathe Habyarimana (January 23, 1942) was the First Lady of Rwanda from 1973-1994. As First Lady, she was highly influential, and together with a group of Hutu supremacists who supported her and her husband Juvénal Habyarimana, was instrumental in plotting the Rwandan Genocide.

Early life

Agathe Habyarimana was born Agathe Kanziga in 1942 in Gisenyi Prefecture. She came from a powerful family that had once ruled a Hutu city-state, and remained influential. In 1963, she was married to Juvenal Habyarimana.

Role in Rwandan politics

In 1973, Juvenal overthrew President Grégoire Kayibanda and made himself president. It's believed that Agathe's family connections provided him with a lot of support for his coup; as a result, she had a lot of power and was seen by some as Rwanda's real ruler.

Akazu and genocide planning

At some point in the early 1990's in response to the Rwandan Civil War and democratization of the country, Agathe and her allies formed a group within the ruling MRND party called the Akazu (Kinyarwanda: "little house") also known as the Zero Network. Since Agathe was the leader, it was also known as le clan de madame(French: "the lady's clan"). The group was informal and was not an organization, nor a secret society. They believed the time had come to eliminate the Tutsi once and for all, and their objective was to promote this idea to the general Hutu population.

They created Kangura magazine, which was edited by one of their members, Hassan Ngeze and funded by the businessmen in the group, such as Felicien Kabuga, who, together with some of the group's other members, would also organize Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which promoted the Hutu Power ideology.

Habyarimana was flown out of Rwanda three days after the killings began, and landed in France, which had also helped other Akazu members escape, albeit not all to France.

After the genocide

Agathe remained in France until 1995, when she moved to her ally Mobutu Sese Seko's residence in Gbadolite. Fearing Mobutu being overthrown in 1997, she moved to Libreville, Gabon, and then eventually went back to France, where she was arrested in 2010. She's unlikely to face any consequences from Rwanda, as a French court has denied to extradite her back there. In 2017 Habyarimana appeared on VRT(Flemish Public Broadcasting) along with her son Jean-Luc, and denied her involvement. It is otherwise not known if she is still facing possible punishment, though Emmanuel Macron's proposal for France to make April 7, the first full day of the genocide, a remembrance day,as well as an investigation into French involvement, may indicate France has a renewed interest in pursuing her and other ringleaders they have harbored.

Trivia

• She's not to be confused with Agathe Uwilingiyimana, Prime Minister of Rwanda during the civil war. Ironically, they're polar opposites; Uwilingiyimana was a moderate, and declassified documents show that Habyarimana may have ordered her death.
• Some who blame the shootdown of her husband's plane on the Rwandan military believe Théoneste Bagosora, her right-hand man, ordered the strike.
• Agathe is similar to Adolf Eichmann and Reinhard Heydrich, who were also leaders of genocide planning groups. Although, Eichmann admitted to his crimes, whereas Habyarimana claimed she had no idea there was any genocide against the Tutsi.