Joseph Kavaruganda

Joseph Kavaruganda was born on 8 May 1935 in Tare, Ruanda-Urundi. He attended primary school in Tare, and then attended the Kigali Junior Seminary before studying law in Belgium, earning his Doctor of Philosophy in 1966. He returned to Rwanda in 1967 and took up work as a president of Caisse d'Épargne, a credit and savings institution. == Legal career ==

In 1974, Kavaruganda was appointed Prosecutor General of Rwanda. To assist with implementation of the Arusha Accords, the United Nations established the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda and dispatched an international peacekeeping force to the country. In early February 1994 members of the Interahamwe, a Hutu extremist militia, stoned Kavaruganda's car. The following day they stormed the Constitutional Court building, but Kavaruganda and his colleagues escaped through his office window. On 17 February UNAMIR commander Roméo Dallaire learned that an extremist group known as the Death Escadron was planning to assassinate Tutsi politician Lando Ndasingwa and Kavaruganda. In response, Daillaire sent peacekeepers to both men's homes to protect them. Kavaruganda, his wife Annonciata, and his two children still living with him felt reassured by their presence. == Death ==

On 6April 1994, when President Habyarimana's plane was shot down near Kigali Airport, killing him and triggering the start of the Rwandan genocide. Hutu extremists planned to eliminate moderate Hutu leaders across Kigali before killing Rwandan Tutsis. Kavaruganda's Kigali home was in a neighborhood where numerous government officials lived. Minister of Agriculture Frédéric Nzamurambaho, a moderate Hutu and a neighbor of Kavaruganda, telephoned him shortly after midnight on 7 April to inform him that all MRND members were being evacuated from the neighborhood. Kavaruganda then spoke briefly over the phone with his son, Jean-Marcel, who was in Brussels. Nzamurambaho called again to inform him that members of the Presidential Guard had sealed off the neighborhood, leaving only opposition party members in the area. At dawn gunfire erupted nearby and the family took shelter in their bathrooms. Some time thereafter one of the Ghanaian UN peacekeepers knocked on a window and told Kavaruganda, "There are military men here. They've come to take you away for safekeeping." Kavaruganda went to the front door where he was met by Captain Kabera of the Presidential Guard, while about 40 Rwandan soldiers stood in the front yard and the UN peacekeepers stood on the terrace. Kabera informed him that he had orders to take him to join the opposition politicians. Stalling for time, Kavaruganda insisted on getting dressed and locked the door. He then telephoned the Belgian UN contingent and Ghanaian and Bangladeshi UN outposts, telling him his family was under attack and he needed help. The UN personnel assured him that they would send reinforcements. While Kavaruganda waited for help, Jean-Marcel telephoned to say that he heard on Belgian radio that opposition party members in Kigali were being killed and urged his father to leave. While Kavaruganda explained that he was trapped, Kabera's men broke down the front door and began searching the house. They found his daughter, Julithe, and put a gun to her head and demanded to know where her father was. She cried to her father for help, and Kavaruganda revealed himself and insisted again on getting dressed. Kabera told him that there was no need to do so and that he had to leave right away. Kabera and the soldiers brought him outside to a waiting truck and drove away with him. The UN peacekeepers watched in the yard and did not resist. He was killed later that day. The remaining soldiers then harassed the family and looted their house before leaving. One of the Hutu-loyalist ministers evacuated during the night, Casimir Bizimungu, returned to the neighborhood soon thereafter to gather some things from his home. Annonciata begged him to take herself, her children, and a neighbor to the Canadian embassy, and he reluctantly did so. They were granted refuge there during the genocide. ==Footnotes==