Juvénal Habyarimana (March 8, 1937 – April 6, 1994) was President of the Republic of Rwanda from 1973 until 1994. During his 20-year dictatorship he favored his own ethnic group, the Hutus, and supported the Hutu majority in neighboring Burundi against the Tutsi government. On April 6, 1994, he was killed when his airplane, also carrying the President of 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.
Jean Kambanda
Jean Kambanda (born October 19, 1955) was the Prime Minister in the caretaker government of Rwanda from the start of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He is the only head of government to plead guilty to genocide, in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into effect in 1951.
Théoneste Bagosora
Colonel Théoneste Bagosora (born August 16, 1941) is a former Rwandan military officer. He is chiefly known for his role in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.Bagosora was responsible for establishing paramilitary ‘self-defense’ units, the Interahamwe, that would operate in every commune in the country. These groups were to act in concert with the local police, militias, and military authorities. Bagosora was also responsible for distributing arms and machetes throughout Rwanda.
Augustin Bizimungu
Augustin Bizimungu (born 28 August 1952) is a former general in the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR). In 1994, he briefly served as chief of staff of the army. During this time, he trained the soldiers and guerrillas who carried out the Rwandan Genocide.
Cyprien Ntaryamira
Cyprien Ntaryamira (6 March 1955 - 6 April 1994), was President of Burundi from 5 February 1994 until his death when his plane was shot down on 6 April 1994. The deaths touched off the Rwandan Genocide.
Faustin Twagiramungu
Faustin Twagiramungu (born 1945 in Cyangugu province) is an ethnic Hutu politician in Rwanda. He was prime minister from 1994 until his resignation in 1995, the first head of government appointed after the Rwandese Patriotic Front captured Kigali. He then exiled himself to Belgium for nearly a decade.
Bernard Ntuyahaga
Major Bernard Ntuyahaga, Rwandan Armed Forces, (probably born in 1952) was convicted by a Belgian court in the murders of ten United Nations peacekeepers at the start of the Rwandan Genocide.
Pierantonio Costa
Pierantonio Costa (1939 - living) is an Italian businessman, diplomat and a rescuer of many lives during the Rwandan genocide.During the Rwandan genocide, Pierantonio Costa was the Italian Consul in Kigali. From 6 April to 21 July 1994, Costa first saved Italians and Westerners, then he moved to his brother's property in Burundi and from there he travelled a lot across Rwanda in an unfaltering effort to rescue the people. For this purpose he used his diplomatic role, his network of frienships and acquaintances and his own money (more than 3 million dollars) to get exit permits for those who asked him for help.By the end of the genocide he had rescued 2,000 people, including 375 children. He was awarded a gold medal for civil value by the Italian government and received a similar decoration from the Belgian authorities. This is how he described his deeds: “In the midst of so much violence and suffering, I just did what I had to do. That’s all”.
Antonia Locatelli
Antonia Locatelli (1938-1992) had been an Italian volunteer in Rwanda since 1972. In 1992 she eyewitnessed the massacres of the Tutsis taking place in the Bugesera region, South of Kigali, soon after a radio had incited to manhunting. She tried to save 300-400 Tutsis, and thus phoned up the Belgian embassy, RF1 Radio and the BBC. She was murdered the day afterwards by a group of interahamwe militians who had arrived from Kigali specifically for the purpose. She nonetheless had managed to inform the world.
Jacqueline Mukansonera
Jacqueline Mukansonera (born 1963) is an ethnic Hutu from Rwanda who didn't hesitate to save Tutsi Yolande Mukagasana from genocide in 1994. Yolande turned to her at the hospital where she worked as a nurse. She was one of the first targets of the Hutu violence because she was seen as a member of the Tutsi intelligentsia. Jacqueline Mukansonera concealed her in her kitchen for 11 days. The two women didn't speak to each other during those days out of fear of discovery. Jacqueline meanwhile bribed a policeman and provided her guest with false Hutu documents. Jacqueline risked her life to save Yolande, thus proving that there is room for personal responsibility even in the midst of the most awful and extreme violence.
Paul Rusesabagina
Paul Rusesabagina (born June 15, 1954) is a Rwandan who has been internationally honoured for saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide. He was the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines before he became the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda. During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rusesabagina used his influence and connections as temporary manager of the 'Mille Collines' to shelter 1,268 Tutsis and moderate Hutus from being slaughtered by the Interahamwe militia.Rusesabagina's efforts were the basis of the Academy Award nominated film Hotel Rwanda (2004).
Carl Wilkens
Carl Wilkens (1957—) is the Director of World Outside My Shoes. He is the former head of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency International in Rwanda. In 1994, he was the only one out of 257 Americans who chose to remain in the country after the genocide began.The first three weeks were spent in his house, but when there was a possibility to go out and do anything to people, who were slaughtered every day, sometimes just meters away, he gave his all to help them. It was Wilkens who saved about 400 people from Gisimba Orphanage.Vatier Orphanage and Nyamirambo Adventist Church was run by a Frenchman, Mark Vatier, and before April 1994 its main goal was to take care of 16 HIV-positive orphans. But during the genocide it was a hiding place for about 100 children. They did not have drinking water and were running out of food and it was just then that Wilkens appeared, bringing most needed supplies. None of the children spoke English nor did Carl speak Kinyarwanda, so at first children who did not know his name called him: ADRA SOS (it was written on his car). When the situation became critical (there was fighting going on between RPF and Hutu army in the area where orphanage was situated), again Wilkens tried to relocate survivors to Saint Michel Cathedral. His obstinacy allowed him to do it once again. People from the orphanage were safe. He did the same for 12 survivors from Adventist Church in Nyamirambo. They were transported to the safe haven in Hôtel des Mille Collines. When the units of Rwandan Patriotic Front took over Kigali on June 4, 1994, it was not still the end of service for Wilkens. Asked by RPF's officials, he helped distributing water, food and supplies for Kiaglis inhabitants.
Information taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faustin_Twagiramungu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ntuyahaga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierantonio_Costa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Locatelli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Mukansonera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Rusesabagina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wilkens
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