Pasteur Bizimungu (born 1950) was the President of Rwanda from July 19 1994 until March 23 2000.

Bizimungu, an ethnic Hutu, was born in Gisenyi prefecture, Rwanda, known as a stronghold of Hutu extremism.

Mr Bizimungu held several important positions in the Hutu regime which ruled Rwanda until 1994 - including the post of director general of the national electricity company, Electrogaz. In the 1980s he was believed to be close to Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana, but he had always distanced himself from the excesses of the Hutu regime.

In 1990, he was prompted to become a member of the then rebel RPF after his brother - a colonel in the former Hutu-dominated army - was assassinated, apparently on the orders of the ruling Hutu government. He joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi-dominated organization which was dissatisfied with the Hutu government of Juvenal Habyarimana. After Habyarimana's death and the installation of a more radical Hutu government which allowed a genocide to take place, the Rwandan Patriotic Front expanded its fight to take over Rwanda. It did take over the country in July 1994 and established a national unity government. The RPF leader, Tutsi Paul Kagame, was chosen vice-president, and Bizimunguwas chosen President so that the majority Hutus would still be highly represented in the government.

During Bizimungu's administration, many believed that Kagame had true control of the government. Bizimungu, as deputy leader of the RPF, eventually came into a conflict with Kagame amid growing differences with the government over its policies and what he saw as an unwarranted crackdown on dissent. He resigned in March 2000, and Kagame became president.

In May 2001, Bizimungu founded an opposition movement, the Party for Democracy and Renewal (PDR), known as Ubuyanja in the Kinyarwanda language. It was almost immediately banned by Kagame. The Rwandan government believed that it was a radical Hutu party. Bizimungu was arrested for continuing the operations of the party on April 19 2002, and charged with endangering the state, and placed under house arrest. In 2004 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to form a militia, inciting violence and embezzlement. As of October 2004, he is still in prison.