Faustin Twagiramungu (14 August 1945 – 2 December 2023) was a Rwandan politician. He was
Prime Minister of Rwanda
The prime minister of Rwanda is the head of government of the Republic of Rwanda. The prime minister is appointed by the List of presidents of Rwanda, president, along with other ministers in the Cabinet of Rwanda, Cabinet. A total of 11 people ...
from 1994 until his resignation in 1995, the first head of government appointed after the
Rwandan Patriotic Front
The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF–Inkotanyi; , FPR) is the ruling political party in Rwanda.
The RPF was founded in December 1987 by Rwandan Tutsi in exile in Uganda because of the ethnic violence that had occurred during the Rwandan Hutu Revo ...
(RPF) captured
Kigali
Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...
. He soon came to disagree with the RPF's policies and actions, resigned and was placed under house arrest, but managed to leave the country and settle in Belgium. He continued his opposition activity against
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame ( ; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded ...
's rule, subsequently returning to Rwanda and standing for elections, but without success.
Early life and career
Twagiramungu was born in Cyangugu prefecture on 14 August 1945. Although
Hutu
The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic group 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 L ...
in origin, Twagiramungu rejected the
ethnic
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
label and preferred to see himself as a Rwandan. Twagiramungu spoke
Kinyarwanda
Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and the national language of Rwanda. It is a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is also spoken in adjacent parts of the Democratic Republic of the ...
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, Canada, from 1968 to 1976, during which time he experienced Quebec separatism and met with
René Lévesque
René Lévesque ( ; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to seek, ...
. After returning to Rwanda, he ran a transportation company called STIR — Société des Transports Internationaux au Rwanda.
Political career
Twagiramungu rose to political prominence after the democratic opening in Rwanda in 1991, as the chairman of a new political party, the
Republican Democratic Movement
The Republican Democratic Movement (, MDR) was a political party in Rwanda.
History
The party was established in 1991,Dismas Nsengiyaremye, became the Prime Minister. However, in July 1993, MDR was split between two factions headed by Nsengiyaremye and Twagiramungu, who both wanted to be the Prime Minister in the anticipated Broad-Based Transitional Government (BBTG), a post which was to be decided prior to the signing of the Arusha Accords. Twagiramungu's faction was weak, but he succeeded thanks to support from the other political parties. The Arusha Accords were signed on 4 August 1993, and Twagiramungu was chosen to be the Prime Minister. The BBTG was never installed.
Prime Minister after the genocide
In July 1994, Twagiramungu finally became Prime Minister in the Arusha-inspired "Government of National Unity" set up by the RPF after taking power in wake of the
Rwandan genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...
. His appointment was tinged with symbolism for many Rwandans, as he was the son-in-law of Grégoire Kayibanda. After taking office, Twagiramungu was faced with the vexing problem of
human rights
Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...
abuses by the RPF. Like interior minister Seth Sendashonga, he believed there had to be a certain amount of tolerance, but was worried when there seemed to be no end in sight. According to the historian
Gérard Prunier
Gérard Prunier (born 14 October 1942 in Paris
) is a French academic, historian, and consultant. He specializes in African history and affairs
—particularly the Horn of Africa and the African Great Lakes regions.
Biography
Prunier received a P ...
who has discussed the issue with Twagiramungu at length, "The Hutu ministers were so conscious of the potential catastrophe their eventual resignations could cause that they swallowed it all in the name of national unity. Until the Kibeho slaughter pushed them over the brink." The tension within the administration came to a head when Twagiramungu called for an "extraordinary council of ministers on security matters" which met on 23 August 1995 and ended two days later when
Paul Kagame
Paul Kagame ( ; born 23 October 1957) is a Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded ...
—the ''de facto'' leader of Rwanda and the RPF—made a sardonic comment and left the room. On 28 August, Twagiramungu decided to resign, and four other ministers were fired the next day, including Sendashonga. Twagiramungu was put under house arrest, but managed to leave the country by the end of the year.
Opposition in exile
In
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
in March 1996, Twagiramungu and Sendashonga set up an exiled opposition party called the Democratic Forces for Resistance (). FRD was officially launched in April 1997. On 16 May 1998, Sendashonga, who had survived an earlier attempt on his life, was assassinated in
Nairobi
Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
. Twagiramungu denounced the murder and accused the Rwandan government of culpability. In 2001, a
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
n court found that the murder was political and blamed the Rwandan government.
In 1998, FRD invited four other exiled movements ( RDR, , and UNAR) to form the Union of Rwandan Democratic Forces (), which wanted to press for a new power-sharing agreement along the lines of the Arusha Accords, and Twagiramungu was slated to be its president from 1998 to 2002. RNLM and UNAR were both old monarchist parties, seen to represent
Tutsi
The Tutsi ( ), also called Watusi, Watutsi or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi ( ...
interests, but they soon abandoned the alliance. As president of UFDR, Twagiramungu reportedly worked as if he was alone, creating "a party within a party", and was distanced even from the majority of his own party, the FRD. He was also unpopular with the old guard of the RDR "because of his leading role in the Rwandan opposition to
Juvénal Habyarimana
Juvénal Habyarimana (; ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who was the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, his assassination in 1994. H ...
's government and his position in the moderate section of the MDR." Twagiramungu resigned from the presidency in December 2001 and "essentially detached himself from the opposition movements".
On 10 December 2002, Twagiramungu announced that he would be a candidate in the Rwandan presidential election of 2003. Running on a platform of
full employment
Full employment is an economic situation in which there is no cyclical or deficient-demand unemployment. Full employment does not entail the disappearance of all unemployment, as other kinds of unemployment, namely structural and frictional, may ...
, regional security, and progressive taxation, he accused the government of attempting to silence his views. He was forced to stand as an independent as his political party, the MDR, was banned. In the final count, he placed second (out of three) with 3.62 percent of the vote. He did not accept the result, claiming that Paul Kagame was leading the country towards a one-party system. The elections were widely condemned as fraudulent by outside observers. Twagiramungu left Rwanda immediately after the election, fearing arrest.
In 2010, Twagiramungu founded a "new political trend" called the Rwandan Dream Initiative (RDI). In early 2014, RDI teamed up with three other parties ( PS-Imberakuri, and FDLR) to form the Coalition of Political Parties for Change (CPC). The inclusion of FDLR was a point of controversy. The coalition was reportedly falling apart before the end of the year.
On 4 April 2014, only two days after Kagame had visited
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, Twagiramungu was informed by Belgian police and state security that his life was in danger, and his house was provided with police protection for four days. ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' reported that "there is mounting evidence that Mr. Kagame's agents are involved in organized efforts to kill exiled dissidents".
Twagiramungu died in Brussels on 2 December 2023, at age 78.