Jean-Damascène Bizimana

Jean-Damascène Bizimana is a Rwandan diplomat and the former ambassador of Rwanda to the United Nations.

Bizimana was the last ambassador to the UN of the government of Juvénal Habyarimana. At the time of Habyarimana's assassination, Bizimana held a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council. He was close to many of the leaders of the Hutu Power movement, and has therefore been accused by some, such as General Roméo Dallaire, of aiding the Rwandan Genocide by publicizing Hutu Power propaganda to the West, and passing confidential Security Council intelligence to his government.

In an interview several years later, Michael Barnett, a diplomat with the United States mission spoke of the level of frustration at Bizimana's statements by those who were aware of what was happening in Rwanda. "Nobody said, 'Why don't you get out of the room?' There was never a real moment in which they dressed him down, because if you did, you would be breaking the rules of the club."

In 2010 researcher David L. Bosco discovered that Bizimana and his family had settled in Opelika, Alabama, where he had become a naturalized citizen and taken a job as a quality-control manager for a plastic products manufacturer.