The only known woman who fought fiercely within the Government and strongly opposed Habyarimana (while others did so from within the RPF, such as Inyumba and others), was Madame Agathe Uwilingiyimana.
Madame Uwilingiyimana entered politics in 1992 through an opposition party. In April 1992, the then Prime Minister Dismas Nsengiyaremye appointed Madame Agathe as the Minister of Education (1992–1993).
Madame Agathe was against arrogance and brought significant reform to the Ministry of Education.
As Minister of Education, one of her first actions was to abolish the discriminatory policy of “ethnic and regional quotas” in school admissions — where school placements were allocated based on regions — and replaced it with a merit-based system, where students were admitted based on individual academic performance. Habyarimana was not pleased with this move, and the policy was never fully implemented.
Madame Agathe later became Prime Minister in a coalition government composed of multiple political parties (1993–1994).
She served as Prime Minister up until the time the Arusha Accords were to be implemented, and she exerted pressure on Habyarimana to honor those agreements.
According to the Arusha Accords, the MRND party was allocated the Presidency, five ministerial posts, and eleven parliamentary seats. The RPF was also given five ministerial positions — including Deputy Prime Minister — and eleven parliamentary seats.
Other parties such as PSD, MDR, and PL were allocated positions including Speaker and Deputy Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister, as well as other ministers. Apart from the CDR party, all other parties received 11 ministers and 37 parliamentary seats.
Habyarimana refused to swear in these officials because the CDR party was not included, and CDR did not accept the Arusha Accords.
Madame Agathe was killed at the onset of the Genocide against the Tutsi because of her progressive ideas. She was not necessarily killed for being a Tutsi, but rather because of her noble thoughts and her opposition to ethnic discrimination. Since the Genocide had been pre-planned, anyone who stood in the way was eliminated.
During these 100 days of remembrance marking the 31st commemoration of the Genocide against the Tutsi, I will continue sharing these historical stories.
Tomorrow, I will begin sharing how the operation to stop the genocide across the country was launched. Stay with me here at
@bienvenudo@uwiringiyimana
