President Habyarimana's son pays tribute to his late father

In a powerful and deeply personal statement shared on Twitter, Jean-Luc Habyarimana, son of the late Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, marks the 31st anniversary of the tragic events of April 6, 1994.

That evening, his father and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed in a plane attack that ignited a dark chapter in Rwandan and regional history. Jean-Luc’s message honors his father’s memory, mourns the stolen grief of victims' families, and boldly calls for truth and justice long denied.

Below is his full message:

"April 6, 1994: Your Memory, Our Strength!

31 years without you. And yet, everything still echoes as if it were yesterday. On April 6, 1994, at 8:30 p.m., your plane was shot down above our family residence in Kigali.

That day, two sitting Heads of State my father, Juvénal Habyarimana, and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira were cowardly assassinated, along with their close aides and the flight crew. All of them were fathers, and since that day, their loved ones have endured a mourning that was stolen from them. This terrorist act plunged not only Rwanda, but the entire Great Lakes region of Africa into darkness, a darkness we have never truly emerged from.

That evening, I lost my father. I was barely 18 years old, and I saw the unimaginable with my own eyes. Our little sister was only 14. Today, as a father myself, I realize even more deeply what that moment must have meant for him: that sudden thought for his children, for his people, for the Rwanda he loved and dreamed of uniting, so much so that he ultimately sacrificed his own life for it.

He was a statesman, a father of the nation, whose commitment to peace and stability was sincere, courageous, and profound. And yet, 31 years later, the people of the Great Lakes are still waiting for that peace. Worse still, those who orchestrated this attack, Kagame and the RPF, continue, with complete impunity, to spread death, terror, and destruction in the Democratic Republic of Congo and throughout the region.

READ ALSO | April 6 How Paul Kagame Sparked the Rwandan Genocide to Seize Power

Two heads of state were assassinated. And to this day, no serious investigation has ever been conducted. Why? Because the perpetrators are protected. Because the truth is inconvenient. Yet, the truth is known. Rwandans know. Congolese know. Burundians know. Western embassies know. The facts are clear: Paul Kagame is the mastermind behind this foundational crime of his regime, the crime that opened the gates of apocalypse in Rwanda.

We will no longer argue with the cynics who dare suggest that these missiles, clearly identified as part of the Ugandan arsenal, could have been fired by a wife who slept beside her husband each night. This absurd story no longer fools anyone. Likewise, we will no longer ask anyone for permission to mourn our dead.

April 6 belongs to all of us, the families of the victims. It belongs to all Rwandans. Not just to those who claim a monopoly on suffering in order to better hide their own crimes. This month of April must stop being a tool of propaganda and become once again a time for shared remembrance. This system of memorial apartheid must come to an end, to make way for a new era, one of truth, justice, and sincere mourning.

I have a special thought for the millions of forgotten victims of this long tragedy, especially our Congolese brothers and sisters, so often abandoned despite their hospitality. Their suffering today is a direct extension of the unpunished crime of April 6, 1994.

But this message is not just one of pain. It also carries hope. Because I remain convinced that my father’s legacy, his vision of a peaceful, reconciled, and sovereign Rwanda, will rise again. The beginning of this fourth decade must mark the end of forced silence, and the emergence of a generation that will no longer negotiate either its memory or its dignity."