caption predecessor successor death_date birth_place death_place religion nationality party birth_date order term_start spouse image article_title term_end name
habyarimana in 1980 grégoire kayibanda théodore sindikubwabo 6 april 1994 ruanda-urundi kigali , rwanda roman catholicism rwandan mrnd 8 march 1937 president of rwanda july 5 , 1973 agathe habyarimana juvénal , usa - 1980 -rrb- . jpg habyarimana -lrb- andrews air force base , maryland juvénal habyarimana
 april 6 , 1994 juvénal habyarimana
juvénal habyarimana

juvénal habyarimana -lrb- march 8 , 1937 -- april 6 , 1994 -rrb- was the third president of the republic of rwanda , the post he held longer than any other president to date , from 1973 until 1994 .
he was nicknamed `` kinani '' , a kinyarwanda word meaning `` invincible '' .
habyarimana was a dictatorial leader , and electoral fraud was suspected for his unopposed re-elections : 98.99 % of 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 order 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 , the great majority of rwandans remained in circumstances of extreme poverty .
on april 6 , 1994 , he was killed when his airplane , also carrying the president of neighbouring burundi , cyprien ntaryamira , was shot down close to kigali international airport .
his assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the rwandan genocide .
