The 1973 Rwandan coup d'état, also known as the Coup d'état of 5 July (french: Coup d'état du 5 Juillet), was a

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such ...

staged by

Juvénal Habyarimana Juvénal Habyarimana (, ; 8 March 19376 April 1994) was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda, from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed ''Kinani'', a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible". An ethn ...

against incumbent president

Grégoire Kayibanda Grégoire Kayibanda (1 May 192415 December 1976) was a Rwandan politician and revolutionary who was the first elected List of Presidents of Rwanda, President of Rwanda from 1962 to 1973. An ethnic Hutu, he was a pioneer of the Rwandan Revolutio ...

in the

Republic of Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. The coup took place on 5 July 1973 and was considered by many as a betrayal.

Background

While still under Belgian rule in the 1950s and early 1960s, resentment towards colonial rule and the ethnic

Tutsi The Tutsi (), or Abatutsi (), are an ethnic group of the African Great Lakes region. They are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group and the second largest of three main ethnic groups in Rwanda and Burundi (the other two being the largest Bantu ethnic grou ...

elite among the

Hutu The Hutu (), also known as the Abahutu, are a Bantu ethnic or social group which is native to the African Great Lakes region. They mainly live in Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they form one of the prin ...

had increased, and led to the formation of the political party

Parmehutu The Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (french: Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu, Parmehutu), also known as the Republican Democratic Movement – Parmehutu (''Mouvement démocratique républicain – Parmehutu'', MDR-Parmehutu), w ...

in 1957, with aims to overthrow the monarchy and gain identical rights ("emancipation") for the Hutus. This was achieved following the 1961

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

and

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

, but the absence of effective Tutsi opposition led to regional tensions between Hutu politicians. The central and southern politicians were opposed by those from the north. In the months prior to Habyarimana's coup, the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

(mainly composed by northern soldiers) had intensified persecution of ethnic

through the formation of

vigilante committees to ensure enforcement of the required ethnic quotas requested by Habyarimana. Kayibanda refused this policy of quotas and was then described by the Army as a 'weak' leader. Fake rumors and documents were produced by the Army against the President and Rwanda became isolated economically and diplomatically, especially from neighbouring

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

(then under the rule of

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

) which housed large numbers of Tutsi. This situation was regarded by the majority of the population as a betrayal from Habyarimana. Indeed, prior to the coup Habyarimana, who served as Army Chief of Staff, was also a friend of president Kayibanda.

The coup d'état

On the morning of 5 July 1973,

with AML-60 armored cars and infantry from the Rwandan National guard, took over the government and put then-president

under house arrest. The next morning after the coup Habyarimana announced the

Committee for Peace and National Union A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

. The coup was completely successful and resulted in no lives lost however 56 people were arrested. After the coup, all 56 people that were arrested including former president Grégoire Kayibanda starved to death while in prison.

Aftermath

Immediately after seizing power, Habyarimana established a

totalitarian dictatorship Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...

and outlawed all political parties, but in 1974 created his own, the '' Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement'' (MRND), as the country's only legally-allowed party. While the coup itself was bloodless, fifty-six people – mostly former leaders – were killed by the security services between 1974 and 1977, with Kayibanda dying in detention in 1976, probably of starvation.

Notes

References

External links

Renversement du gouvernement de Grégoire Kayibanda au Rwanda, 1973
at

Université de Sherbrooke The University of Sherbrooke ( French: Université de Sherbrooke) (UdS) is a large public French-language university in Quebec, Canada with campuses located in Sherbrooke and Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal approximately west of Sherbrooke. It ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1973 Rwandan coup d'etat Rwandan coup d'etat Military coups in Rwanda 1973 in Rwanda July 1973 events in Africa 1970s coups d'état and coup attempts