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ex-President Habyarimana’s Son Recounts Downing of Father’s Jet

Thirty years ago, more than a million lives were lost in the 1994 genocide against Tutsi orchestrated by the government of Maj.Gen. Juvenal Habyarimana.

Four years into the protracted armed struggle led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front rebels against Habyarimana’s regime, there were efforts to bring the two sides to peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania.

The Peace Agreement between the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, also known as the Arusha Peace Agreement or Arusha negotiations,envisioned the establishment of a Broad-Based Transitional Government.

The accords included other points considered necessary for lasting peace: the rule of law, repatriation of refugees both from fighting and from power sharing agreements, and the merging of government and rebel armies.

The accord was signed in August 1993 however, security situation deteriorated throughout the year.

Meanwhile, on April 5th, a compromise extending the peacekeeping mission for three more months was finally reached. Habyarimana was also on marathon regional trips.

On 4 April, he flew to Zaire to meet with President Mobutu Sese Seko and on 6 April flew to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania for a one-day regional summit for heads of state.

As Habyarimana returned to Rwanda, he offered to take the President of Burundi Cyprien Ntaryamira. Ntaryamira accepted. Several Burundian ministers joined the president on the flight.

Shortly before 8:20 pm local time (18:20 UTC), the presidential jet circled once around Kigali International Airport before coming in for final approach in clear skies.

According to available information, two missiles hit the plane as it was descending to land; one hit the wings, and another hit the tail. The plane erupted into flames in mid-air before crashing into the garden of the presidential palace, exploding on impact.

The plane crash accelerated a countrywide implementation of genocide against Tutsi for the next 100 days resulting in the death of more than a million.

Thirty years later, Jean-Luc Habyarimana the son of the former President with negation and denial of his father’s cruelty paints a picture of the final moments of his father.

In a lengthy post on platform X, Jean-Luc Habyarimana who was aged 18 at that time shares his own experience from April 6 to 9, 1994.

“That day, April 9, 1994, I left my country in Rwanda, evacuated with my mother and part of my family by the French army,” the former first son recounts, adding, “3 days earlier, I was experiencing the worst day of my young life.”

On day 6 April, “that day my father went early in the morning to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, for a peace summit.”

“Around 8:30 p.m., my cousins ​​Aimé and Eric and I were coming out of the swimming pool when we heard the sound of the plane beginning to land for the return trip,” says Jean-Luc Habyarimana.

He adds that their private residence at Kanombe being located in line with the airport runway, “the plane was preparing to pass above us.”

“We then saw the Falcon 50 Presidential jet by its lights through the trees in our garden. Suddenly, we saw a large luminous trace coming from the neighbouring hill of Masaka, southeast of our residence, and a loud detonation followed,” Jean-Luc Habyarimana explains in a rare revelation.

He notes in his post, “The plane then applied full throttle and changed course.”

“In a fraction of a second, another luminous projectile came from almost the same place as the first, and this time the plane was hit and caught fire,” He says.

“Immediately afterwards, it exploded in the sky, and the burning debris landed in our garden. Later, my two cousins ​​would tell me that I cried out while calling Dad,” the former first son reminisced.

“This is how I saw my father being horribly taken from us with my own eyes. With soldiers from the guard, we then began to look for the bodies. On the ground, we found pieces of human flesh scattered, some still burning.”

He reveals that the smell of kerosene mixing with that of burning human flesh was unbearable, “It was a horror scene. It took me several years for my olfactory memory to detach itself from it.”

“It was in these circumstances that we found the first bodies, never whole, without the possibility of identifying them. Suddenly, by the light of a flashlight, a soldier shouted “The General!”

He notes that they all rushed out and found his father’s body lying in the flowers of his garden.

“I was as if numbed by this scene of horror where I saw the body of my father inert, and around me, the soldiers of the guard all began to give him a farewell salute, some sobbing and others completely lost,” He recounts.

“It was then that an awareness that I still can’t explain today led me to take a camera to immortalize what we were experiencing. This is how I took the only photo of my father’s body and all the photos of the other bodies and pieces of the plane’s cabin,” says the former first son.

He remembers that of all the bodies, his father’s was the only one that could be recognized by the face. For the other bodies, it was necessary to look for identification documents in their jackets.

“For the case of President Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, we had to ask the family for the colour of the suit or tie,” he says.

Jean-Luc Habyarimana then went back inside the house to find his mother who was praying in the chapel with his two sisters and cousins, and “I told her that we had just found Dad’s body.”

“My cousins, the soldiers and I then transported all the bodies to the funeral chapel that my mother and the daughters had just set up in the main living room of our house. My father was placed in the centre, his younger brother and Burundian counterpart at his side, and their companions.”

While Jean-Luc Habyarimana narrates his father’s death, he ignores the role he played in the horrific events that befell the country. Notably too, is the timing.

The time of mourning victims of the genocide against the Tutsi is not the time to recount the death of the leaders of the genocidal government.

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