Timeline Rwanda
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Kinyarwanda is the language of Rwanda. 85% of
the people are Hutu but the government and military is dominated by
Tutsis.
(WSJ, 6/6/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1300s
Tutsis moved into territory traditionally under
Hutu and Twa control.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1600s A Tutsi king consolidated
power in central Rwanda. Minority Tutsis began to reign as feudal
overlords.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1890 Rwanda became part of
German East Africa.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1901 Feb 23, Britain and
Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa [later
Tanganyika, Rwanda and Burundi] and Nyasaland [later Malawi].
(HN, 2/23/98)(WUD, 1994, p.593,990)
1916 Belgians took over Rwanda.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1921 Mar 1, Rwanda was ceded to
England.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1959 The Tutsi rulers were
overthrown by the Hutu majority. Some 20,000 Tutsis were killed and
the Tutsi king was forced into exile. The Tutsis had been the feudal
rulers of Rwanda for centuries up to this time.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)(SSFC,
4/7/02, p.A19)
1962 Rwanda established
independence from Belgium with Gregoire Kayibanda, a Hutu, as
president. The Hutu majority leadership clung to giant money-losing
state enterprises, while the Tutsi minority established itself in
the private sector and made better livings. The United Nations trust
territory of Ruanda-Urundi in east-central Africa was divided into
the independent nations of Rwanda and Burundi. Prior to WWI the
kingdoms of Ruanda and Urundi were made part of German East Africa,
which was conquered by British and Belgian troops during WWI and
became a Belgian mandate in 1923.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A8)(HNQ, 11/4/99)(SSFC, 4/7/02,
p.A19)
1972 The Tutsi-led government
in Burundi killed some 100,000 Hutus.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1973 Juvenal Habyarimana, a
Tutsi, led a military coup that ousted Kayibanda as president.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1985 Dec 26, Dian Fossey (53),
American zoologist who had studied gorillas in the wild (Gorillas in
the Mist), was murdered in Rwanda. Her body was found the next day.
Wayne Richard McGuire, a doctoral candidate working with Fossey, was
later found guilty in absentia in Rwanda. A native tracker was also
charged and died in jail. McGuire claimed total innocence.
(AP, 12/27/01)(SFC, 3/15/05, p.A7)
1985 Dec 27, American
naturalist Dian Fossey, who had studied gorillas in the wild, was
found hacked to death at a research station in Rwanda.
(AP, 12/27/05)
1988 The film “Gorillas in the
Mist” was about gorilla researcher Dian Fossey who worked with the
mountain gorillas of Volcano Nat'l. Park in Rwanda.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.T3)
1989 In Rwanda a 130-foot
telecom tower was built on top of Mount Karisimbi, a 14,787-foot
volcano, in order to provide FM radio service.
(WSJ, 8/17/06, p.A7)
1990 Sep, Alphonse Marie
Nkubito, a moderate Hutu (d.1997), helped found the human rights
defense association.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1990 Oct, Tutsi exiles from
Uganda invaded Rwanda. There was an uprising led by mainly Tutsi
exiles in Uganda, known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),
against the 18-year-old regime of Juvenal Habyarimana.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1990 Oct, In Rwanda Fred
Rwigema was killed by a sniper. Paul Kagame returned from studying
at the US Army Command and General Staff College to lead the RPF.
(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1990 Mahele Lieko Bokoungo led
Zairian soldiers to back up the Hutu regime of Pres. Juvenal
Habyarimana of Rwanda.
(SFC, 12/20/96, p.B5)
1990-1993 Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana,
an ethnic Hutu, requested French troops to help block an ethnic
Tutsi exile force that was penetrating the country from Uganda.
French troops were present over the next 3 1/2 years.
(WSJ, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1991 Kabangu Kalunga, an
intelligence office under Congo’s Mobutu, was sent to fight
Tutsi-led rebels in Rwanda.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.C2)
1992 Jul, Callixte Mbarushimana
got job with U.N. Development Program as senior information
assistant in Rwanda.
(AP, 6/25/05)
1993 Aug 4, Rwandan Hutu's and
Tutsi's negotiated power-sharing agreement in Arusha, Tanzania. It
was viewed as a sellout by extremist leaders of the Hutu majority.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(MC, 8/4/02)
1993 Alphonse Marie Nkubito, a
moderate Hutu (d.1997), was seriously injured in a grenade attack on
his car. Supporters claimed the attack was by a government
assassination squad.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1993 Radio Milles Collines was
launched as a private radio station. The family of Hutu Pres.
Juvenal Habyarimana were the shareholders.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)
1994 Jan, Canadian Gen. Romeo
Dallaire was later reported to have faxed a warning to UN
headquarters that preparations for a mass killing were underway.
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.C14)
1994 cFeb, Felicien Kabuga, a
member of the elite Akazu Hutu group, imported thousands of hoes,
machetes and other garden implements to use as weapons to kill
ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
(SFC, 6/13/02, p.A14)
1994 cApr, Kofi Annan was the
head of UN Peacekeeping operations when the commander of UN forces
in Rwanda warned that the Kigali government was planning to
slaughter Tutsis. Annan’s office ordered Gen’l. Romeo Dallaire of
Canada not to protect the informant or to confiscate arms
stockpiles. Annan later claimed that he lacked the military might
and political backing to stop the slaughter of more than 500,000
people.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.9A)(USAT, 5/5/98, p.11A)
1994 Apr 6, The presidents of
Rwanda and Burundi were killed on a return trip from Tanzania in a
mysterious plane crash near Kigali, Rwanda; widespread violence
erupted in Rwanda over claims the plane had been shot down: Agatha
Uwilingiyimana, Rwanda’s and Africa’s 1st female PM, Cyprian
Niayamira (Ntaryamira), president of Burundi (1993-94) and Juvenal
Habyarimana, president of Rwanda (1973) were killed along with the
French aircrew. In Rwanda the Interhamwe, an extremist organization,
and the Rwandan armed forces, FAR, launched a massacre of Tutsis and
sympathizers that killed some 800,000. [see Aug 1, 1997] A French
report in 2004 concluded that Paul Kagame, Tutsi rebel leader, was
behind the crash. In 2010 a Rwandan government-commissioned inquiry
said Rwandan Hutu soldiers shot down the Hutu president's plane and
sparked the slaughter of more than 500,000 people. In 2012 a French
judge determined that the missile fire that brought down the plane
and sparked the Rwanda genocide came from a military camp, and not
Tutsi rebels. This finding supported the theory that Habyarimana was
killed by extremist members of his own ethnic Hutu camp.
(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)(AP,
4/6/99)(SFC, 2/11/04, p.A8)(AP, 1/12/10)(AFP, 1/11/12)
1994 Apr 6, Pastor Elizaphan
Ntakirutimana welcomed unarmed Tutsis into his church in Mugonero.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)
1994 Apr 7, Civil war erupted
in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of
the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi. Former Defense Minister
Colonel Theoneste Bagosora reportedly instigated the killing spree
by Hutu militia. Within twenty-four hours fighting resulted in the
deaths of Agathe Uwilingiyimana, the prime minister of Rwanda,
Joseph Kavaruganda, the president of the Supreme Court and hundreds
of others. In the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of
minority Tutsi and Hutu intellectuals were slaughtered. In Kibeho
thousands of Tutsis gathered in a church where they were bombed,
shot or hacked to death by Hutu soldiers and militiamen.
(AP, 4/7/99)(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)(SSFC, 4/7/02,
p.A19)(MC, 4/7/02)
1994 Apr 7, UN officer Colonel
Luc Marchal ordered troops to escort Rwandan prime minister Agathe
Uwilingyimana to a radio station in Kigali. The party was ambushed,
the troops hacked to death, and the prime minister was raped and
murdered. Augustin Ndindiliyimana, head of the Gendarmerie
Nationale, was later charged in the killing of 10 Belgian
peacekeepers charged with guarding Uwilingyimana and for his role in
the Tutsi extermination. Ndindiliyimana was arrested in Belgium in
2000.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.A16)
1994 Apr 7, In Rwanda Augustin
Bizimungu made a speech, several days before he was made army chief,
in the northern district of Mukingo, calling for the killing of
Tutsis. Bizimungu was arrested in Angola in 2002. In 2011 he
received a 30-year jail term for his role in the mass killing of
Tutsis.
(AP, 5/17/11)
1994 Apr 8, Jean Kambanda was
appointed prime minister of the interim government. He went on radio
and urged fellow Hutus to abuse, hurt and kill Tutsis and Hutu
moderates. He pleaded guilty in 1998 to charges that he incited the
slaughter of over 800,000 Rwandans.
(SFC, 5/2/98, p.A8)
1994 Apr 8, About this time the
commander of UN forces in Rwanda warned Kofi Annan, head of the UN
Peacekeeping operations, that the Kigali government was planning to
slaughter Tutsis. Annan’s office ordered Gen’l. Romeo Dallaire of
Canada not to protect the informant or to confiscate arms
stockpiles. Annan later claimed that he lacked the military might
and political backing to stop the slaughter of more than 500,000
people.
(USAT, 5/4/98, p.9A)(USAT, 5/5/98, p.11A)
1994 Apr 8-1994 Jun 20, In 2007
a prosecution indictment at the International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania said that during this period: “… at the
Holy Family parish, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka drew up a plan to
rape Tutsi women," and "designated several Tutsi civilians who were
kidnapped and murdered."
(AFP, 6/21/07)
1994 Apr 9, In Kigali a crowd
of neighbors tossed grenades and poured gasoline on the home of the
home of Thetime Nkaka and his pregnant wife Jeanette Mukantwali
(23). Matata Godefroid, a Hutu soldier, was later identified as the
ringleader. He was sentenced to life in prison in Jan 23, 2001.
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A6)
1994 Apr 12, The US Operations
Distant Runner and Support Hope began in Rwanda and ended Sep 30,
1994. They cost $147.8 billion.
(WSJ, 9/22/99, p.A8)
1994 Apr 13, In Rwanda two
Tutsi mothers and their four children were killed. In 2011 an
appeals court in The Netherlands sentenced Joseph Mpambara (43) to
life in prison for torture causing the deaths of the 2 mothers and 4
children. Mpambara had already been convicted on March 23, 2009.
(AFP, 7/7/11)
1994 Apr 14-1994 Apr 15, In
Rwanda Tutsi refugees, gathered in the Nyange church, were burned to
death or killed as they tried to flee. In 2006 Roman Catholic priest
Athanase Seromba was convicted of ordering militiamen to set fire to
the church and then bulldoze it. He was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2009 Gaspard Kanyarukiga, who was arrested in South Africa in
July 2004, pleaded innocent to the charges of killing around 2,000
Tutsis at the Nyange Church. Prosecutor Holo Makwaia said
Kanyarukiga had coaxed a reluctant bulldozer driver to crush those
sheltering in the church. In 2010 Kanyarukiga was found guilty of
ordering bulldozers to demolish the church.
(www.ictr.org/ENGLISH/cases/Kanyarukiga/indictment/index.pdf)(AP,
8/31/09)
1994 Apr 15, Valerie
Niyitegeka, a Tutsi woman whose family farmed near Mount Nyakizu,
fled with her husband, Appolloni and their six children as mobs of
Hutu men burned Tutsi houses. The father and children were soon
killed. In 2011 she testified in Kansas, USA, against Lazare
Kobagaya as the US government sought to revoke his US citizenship
for allegedly lying to immigration authorities about his involvement
in the Rwanda genocide. A US federal jury found Kobagaya lied on
immigration forms and deadlocked on his involvement in the genocide.
In August, 2011, charges against Kobagaya (84) were dismissed after
the government failed to prove he took part in the atrocities.
(AP, 5/6/11)(SFC, 6/1/11, p.A8)(SFC, 8/26/11,
p.A5)
1994 Apr 16, Pastor Elizaphan
Ntakirutimana allowed a well-armed convoy of Hutu officials and
militia to carry out a day-long massacre in Mugonero. Ntakirutimana
later fled to the US. He was arrested in Texas and faced extradition
back to Rwanda in 2000.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)
1994 Apr 16-1994 Apr 17, In
Rwanda at least 4,500 Tutsi, including women and children, were
slaughtered in the Kibuye Stadium. About 12,000 Tutsi were murdered
at Kibuye’s church, in the stadium, and in the surrounding
countryside.
(http://tinyurl.com/73bs8)
1994 Apr 22, In Butare gasoline
was used to set ablaze a building where 500 Tutsis were hiding. In
2001 Benedictine Sister Maria Kisito stood trial in Belgium for
providing the gasoline. 7,000 Tutsi's were slaughtered in stadium of
Kibuye, Rwanda.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)(MC, 4/22/02)
1994 Apr 25, Two Catholic Hutu
Sisters in Rwanda ordered frightened Tutsis out of their Benedictine
compound into the hands of Hutu soldiers. In 1997 Sisters Gertrude
(Consolata Mukangango) and Sister Maria Kisito (Juliene Makubutera),
having escaped to Belgium, were accused by witnesses of aiding Hutu
soldiers who slaughtered some 600 Tutsis. In 2001 Sister Gertrude
and Maria Kisito were convicted. Gertrude was sentenced to 15 years
in prison. Kisito was sentenced to 12 years. Two others were also
convicted and sentenced. Alphonse Higaniro was sentenced to 20 years
and Vincent Ntezimana was jailed for 12 years.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.A15)(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A12)(SFC,
6/8/01, p.A17)(SFC, 6/9/01, p.A5)
1994 Apr 25, Colonel Ephrem
Setako ordered the killings of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira military
camp in Ruhengeri prefecture. In 2010 Setako was convicted of crimes
against humanity and murder.
(Reuters, 2/25/10)
1994 Apr 29, Hundreds of
thousands of refugees fleeing the terror of ethnic massacres in
Rwanda were pouring into Tanzania.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1994 Apr 30, Some 100,000 men,
women and children fleeing ethnic slaughter in Rwanda crossed into
neighboring Tanzania. In Rwanda Tutsis were singled out, abducted
and massacred at a convent close to an army camp. In 2010 in
Tanzania the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda handed down
a life sentence to Ildephonse Hategekimana, a lieutenant from the
former Rwandan army, for ordering the massacre. He was found guilty
of genocide, murder and rape.
(AP, 4/30/99)(AFP, 12/6/10)
1994 Apr, In Rwanda a convoy
attacked Tutsis who were seeking refuge on a hill a few days after
the genocide began. About 1,000 people were killed and the convoy
later returned to attack survivors. In 2008 Protais Zigiranyirazo
(70), the brother-in-law of former President Juvenal Habyarimana,
was convicted of leading the convoy and the massacre. In 2009 a UN
appeals court in Tanzania overturned the conviction.
(AP, 11/16/09)
1994 Apr, Jean-Damascene
Bizimana, Rwanda’s UN ambassador, blamed the killings in Rwanda
first on public anguish over the president's death, then on the
Tutsi-led RPF. He also called on the UN Security Council to persuade
the Tutsis to agree to a comprehensive cease-fire. Weeks later, he
wrote to the UN secretary general blaming the Tutsi "war machine"
for "large-scale massacres." At the end of the summer Bizimana ended
his tenure as ambassador and moved to Alabama. In 2010 Rwanda’s
government began an investigation of Bizimana (51) for possible
prosecution.
(AP, 4/24/10)
1994 Apr-1994 Jun, According to
later witness statements later Callixte Mbarushimana, a UN employee
in Rwanda, allegedly killed two people himself and ordered slayings
of 31 others.
(AP, 6/25/05)
1994 Apr-1994 Jul, Some
500,000-1 million people in Rwanda, were killed by Hutu extremists.
Most of them were minority Tutsis and opponents of the ruling Hutu
majority.
(SFEC, 1/15/1995, A-10)
1994 Apr-1994 Aug, The Rwanda
Patriotic Front (RPF) under Paul Kagame killed some 25-45,000 people
during this period. They then pursued the genocidaires into Zaire
where they killed some 200,000 more and in the process overthrew the
government of Zaire.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.26)
1994 Apr-1994 Aug, Hutus
slaughtered more some 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, in Rwanda and
fled to refugee camps in Zaire. In 2005 Jean Hatzfeld, French
journalist, authored “Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak.”
(SFC, 10/22/96, p.B1)(SSFC, 6/26/05, p.C3)
1994 May 11, In Rwanda Colonel
Ephrem Setako ordered the killings of 10 Tutsis at Mukamira military
camp in Ruhengeri prefecture. In 2010 Setako was convicted of crimes
against humanity and murder.
(Reuters, 2/25/10)
1994 May 17, The U.N. Security
Council approved a peacekeeping force and an arms embargo for
violence-racked Rwanda. By June, 1994, 800,000 died there despite
the presence of a small UN mission.
(AP, 5/17/99)
1994 Jun 5, In central Rwanda
13 Catholic clerics, including three bishops, were murdered at a
church. 3 Catholic bishops, including Kigali Archbishop Vincent
Nsengiyumva, were among the clerics murdered. In 2008 two army
officers pleaded guilty to their role in the murders. In 2008 a
military court in Kigali jailed two Rwandan army captains for 8
years for the killings during the 1994 genocide, but acquitted their
superiors of involvement in the slaughter.
(AFP, 6/18/08)(AFP, 10/24/08)
1994 Jun 23, French marines and
Foreign Legionnaires headed into Rwanda to try to stem the country's
ethnic slaughter.
(AP, 6/23/99)
1994 Jul 4, Rwandan Tutsi
rebels seized control of most of their country's capital, Kigali,
and continued advancing on areas held by the Hutu-led government.
(AP, 7/4/99)
1994 Jul 14, A tidal wave of
Hutu refugees from Rwanda's civil war flooded across the border into
Zaire, swamping relief organizations.
(AP, 7/14/99)
1994 Jul 17, Hutus left Rwanda
for refugee camps in Zaire.
(SFEC, 11/19/96, p.A16)
1994 Jul 18, In Rwanda the
Tutsi rebel movement (RPF) under Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame took
power. It promised to rebuild the courts and execute the guilty for
the slaughter of an estimated 500-800 thousand Tutsis. Two million
refugees, mostly Hutus, fled to refugee camps in Zaire and Tanzania.
Kagame studied at the US Army Command and General Staff College at
Fort Leavenworth in 1990. In 2005 Jean Hatzfeld, French journalist,
authored “Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak.”
(SFC, 417/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 8/9/96, p.A10)(SFC,
10/22/96, p.B1)(WSJ, 11/15/96, p.A16)(AP, 7/18/99)(SSFC, 6/26/05,
p.C3)
1994 Jul 24, Rwandan refugees
began trickling home after Zaire reopened the border between the two
countries; meanwhile, the first wave of a U.S. airlift arrived.
(AP, 7/24/99)
1994 Jul 30, The first U.S.
troops landed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali to secure the airport
for an expanded international aid effort.
(AP, 7/30/99)
1994 Jul 4, Troops under Tutsi
rebel leader Paul Kagame took power. Kagame studied at the US Army
Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1990.
(SFC, 8/9/96, p.A10)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A19)
1994 Jul, Eleven UN
peacekeepers were killed and the UN pulled out most of its 2,500
peacekeepers. In 1996 Colonel Theoneste Bagosora, a former army
officer in Rwanda, was arrested for the murders in Cameroon on a
warrant issued by Belgium.
(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-9)
1994 Jul-1995 Aug, Alphonse
Marie Nkubito, a moderate Hutu (d.1997), served as justice minister
under the insurgent Tutsi government.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1994 Nov 8, The UN Security
Council established the Int’l. Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
to prosecute those responsible for the Rwanda genocide. By 2004 18
people were convicted. In 2004 Sylvestre Gacumbitsi, a former
Rwandan mayor, was convicted for his role in the slaughter and
sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Tribunal_for_Rwanda)(SSFC,
4/7/02, p.A19)(SFC, 6/18/04, p.A3)
1994 Belgian peacekeepers in
Rwanda retreated during the massacre.
(SFC, 6/15/99, p.C4)
1994 Valerie Bemeriki, a radio
announcer for Radio Milles Collines, urged Hutus to slaughter ethnic
Tutsis. Bemeriki was arrested in 1999.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A10)
1994 Juvenal Kajelijeli helped
orchestrate massacres in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. In 2003 the former mayor
was convicted by a UN tribunal in Tanzania and sentenced to life in
prison.
(SFC, 12/2/03, p.A3)
1994 Georges Henry Joseph
Ruggiu, a Belgian-born radio journalist, encouraged the slaughter of
Tutsis. In 2000 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison by the Un
tribunal.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A18)
1994 Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu,
was named president by the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)
1994 Alfred Musema, a tea
factory boss, led murderous attacks on Tutsis. In 2000 the genocide
tribunal ordered him to spend life in prison.
(WSJ, 1/28/00, p.A1)
1994 Simeon Nchamihigo was
later accused of helping to orchestrate the Tutsi genocide. He was
arrested in 2001 in Tanzania.
(SFC, 5/21/01, p.A10)
1994 4,000 people, mostly
Tutsis, were massacred in Kibuye. The mass grave was opened by UN
war crimes investigators.
(WSJ, 1/22/96, p.A-1)
1994 In 2002 the government put
the death toll for the ethnic slaughter at 1,074,017 with Tutsis as
94% of the dead.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.A1)
1994-1996 Philip Gourevitch in 1998 published “We
Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our
Families.” The book covered the Rwanda Civil War along with
background information.
(WSJ, 9/22/98, p.A20)
1995 Apr 22, In Africa, Rwandan
government troops killed thousands of Hutu refugees in Kibeho. The
Tutsi-led government troops cleared a huge refugee camp that they
said was full of Hutu extremists. Human rights officials said that
at least 4,000 Hutus were killed, many shot, and many trampled.
Tutsi officers involved received only token punishments.
(SFC, 4/8/99, p.C3)(HN, 4/22/99)(SFC, 4/8/02,
p.A6)
1995 The ethnic war of 1994
killed more than 500,000 people. Four African leaders meet with
Jimmy Carter in Cairo to discuss the return of 2 mil refugees to
Rwanda.
(WSJ, 11/28/95, p.A-1)
1995 Dec. A UN Tribunal issued
its first indictments against eight people in Rwanda for the
slaughter Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 slaughter at Kibuye.
(WSJ, 12/13/95, p.A-1)
1996 Apr, Pres. Pasteur
Bizimingu laid the first brick of a memorial to genocide victims in
Kigali. About 55,000 war-scarred children were still searching for
parents that most would never find. A couple hundred children mostly
between 14 and 17 have been imprisoned for genocide.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)
1996 May 29, Hundreds of Tutsis
crossed into Rwanda fleeing the fighting in Zaire. Thousands of
displaced Tutsis are behind them in the Masisi and Rutshuru regions
of northeastern Zaire.
(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A9)
1996 Jun 29, A Hutu rebel group
in Rwanda, People in Arms for the Liberation of Rwanda (PALIR), has
offered a $1,000 bounty for the head of every American killed in
Rwanda. A $1,500 bounty was offered for US Ambassador Robert
Gribbin. The group was unheard of until earlier this month.
(SFC, 6/30/96, B7)
1996 Jul 9-10, The Tutsi
dominated army carried out an operation against Hutu
insurgents in Karago and Giciye villages and 62 people were killed.
The area was the home of the late Hutu president Juvenal
Habyarimana.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A12)
1996 Jul 17-1996 Aug 30, US
Special Forces trained Rwandan army soldiers in small-unit leader
training, rifle marksmanship, first aid, land navigation and
tactical skills.
(SFC, 8/16/97, p.A11)
1996 Aug 12, In Rwanda the
Tutsi-led parliament passed a law allowing for trials of some 80,000
people on charges of genocide in the deaths of 500,000 people in
1994.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 27, Pastor Elizaphan
Ntakirutimana (73) was charged with ordering the slaughter of
hundreds of Tutsis in Kibuye in 1994. It was charged that he had
arranged that they seek refuge in his Seventh Day Adventist Church,
whereupon he called in Hutus to kill them.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A11)
1996 Sep, In South Africa the
government disclosed that it was sending arms worth $18 million of
to Rwanda.
(SFC, 11/8/96, p.A16)
1996 Oct 20, Some 300 Congolese
Hutu peasants were bludgeoned to death by Rwandan troops in
Musekera. Details were not made public until 2010 by the local
Observation Center for Human Rights and Social Assistance.
(AP, 10/10/10)
1996 Oct 30, Rwandan commandos
crossed into eastern Zaire to aid the Tutsi rebels there. Zaire had
about 50,000 troops, but they were poorly trained, poorly armed,
poorly led and notoriously poorly disciplined. Rwanda had about
54,000 soldiers in a well-disciplined army.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.A10)
1996 Nov 1, In Zaire Tutsi
rebels and Rwandan forces besieged Goma in a battle for control of
the regional capital and its airport. In Kinshasa some 10,000
university students demanded war with Rwanda and Burundi.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.A8)
1996 Nov 16, Thousands of
refugees went home in a column that stretched 28 miles.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A1)
1996 Nov 18, Rwandan troops
descended on the Chimanga refugee camp in eastern Zaire (later
CongoDRC) and opened fire killing some 500 refugees.
(Econ, 9/4/10, p.51)(http://tinyurl.com/29j5mmv)
1996 Nov 21, The Banyarwanda
means “people of Rwanda” and includes the Banyamylenge and anyone
else in eastern Zaire whose origins were in Rwanda. The Bangilima
and the Mai-Mai are Zairian militias with a strong background in
witchcraft. The Interhamwe are former Rwandan Hutu militiamen who
played a role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 11/21/96, p.C6)
1996 Dec 11, The government
published a list of 1,946 suspects ineligible for any punishment
less than the firing squad for the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 14, Rwandan refugees,
who previously refused to return home, began re-entering Rwanda
after 2 1/2 years in Tanzania.
(AP, 12/14/02)
1996 Dec 15, Tens of thousands
Hutu refugees were forced out from Tanzania and made their way back
to Rwanda.
(SFC, 12/16/96, p.A16)
1996 Dec 24, In Rwanda 2,000
returning Hutu refugees were arrested for participating in the 1994
genocide. They joined 85,000 already held in prisons intended for no
more than 20,000.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A11)
1996 Dec 27, The first trial
was held in connection with the 1994 genocide. Deo Bizimana was
accused of killing 20 people and ordering the massacre of thousands
of others.
(SFC, 12/28/96, p.A12)
1996 Rwanda’s Paul Kagame
dressed up an invasion of Zaire as an indigenous revolt and
installed Laurent Kabila at its helm. Zimbabwe paid $5 million to
help finance the Kabila regime in Congo.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.38)
1997 Jan 3, Two Hutu men were
sentenced to death for their role in the 1994 genocide.
(SFC, 1/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 5, A mother and father
and 7 children were murdered. The mother had testified against the
former mayor of Taba, Jean-Paul Akayesu, for the murder of some
2,000 villagers.
(SFC, 1/17/96, p.A13)
1997 Jan 22, Gunmen killed at
least 20 civilians. In Kigali a special court sentenced 2 Hutu men
to be executed for their roles in the 1994 mass killings.
(WSJ, 1/23/97, p.A12)
1997 Jan 23, The army struck at
Hutu insurgents and killed at least 310 in the northwest area. Hutu
rebels were suspected of killing more than 50 people including 3
Spanish aid workers.
(SFC, 1/24/97, p.A14)
1997 Feb 4, Gunmen killed 2
human-rights monitors 180 miles southeast of Kigali. Five UN
employees were killed.
(WSJ, 2/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/5/97, p.A9)
1997 Feb 13, Alphonse Marie
Nkubito, a moderate Hutu (42), died of unspecified natural causes.
(SFC, 2/21/97, p.A26)
1997 Feb 15, In Zaire Rwandan
soldiers killed about 200 refugees near the town of Kigulube.
(AP, 10/1/10)
1997 Mar 3, Dozens of bodies
were found in Ruhengeri, the day after unidentified men killed three
people including a tax collector. The UN accused Rwandan troops of
killing at least 137 villagers in reprisal for the slaying of the
official.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.A17)
1997 Apr 4, A Rwandan court
sentenced 2 people to death for their part in the 1994 genocide.
Edouard Nyipegika and Jean Habimana were sentenced in Butare. A
dozen people have been sentenced to death so far.
(SFC, 4/5/97, p.A11)
1997 May-Jun, Some 2,300 Rwanda
civilians, mostly refugees from the former Zaire, were killed in
operations by the Tutsi-led army against Hutu rebels.
(WSJ, 8/8/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun, Tourism to the he
Volcanoes National Park, home of the mountain gorillas, was closed
due to the civil war.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.D2)
1997 Jul 14, In Rwanda weekend
clashes between the army and Hutu rebels left more than 170 people
dead.
(SFC, 7/18/97, p.A11)
1997 Aug 1, A UN report from
this day was made public in 2000 and cited Tutsi informants claiming
that they helped to shoot down the airplane carrying Rwandan Pres.
Juvanal Habyarimana on Apr 6, 1994.
(SFC, 3/2/00, p.A14)
1997 Aug 22, At least 120
people were killed at the Mudende camp near Mutura. The slain were
thought to have been Tutsis and were killed by “infiltrators,” rival
rebel Hutus.
(SFC, 8/23/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 3, UN officials
reported that Congo has ordered int’l. refugee agencies to leave
part of eastern Congo and was expelling Rwandans who have fled there
to escape fighting in Rwanda.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A10)
1997 Oct 14, Assailants killed
37 people and wounded 14 in the Mutura commune northwest of Kigali.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.E3)
1997 Nov 17, At least 27
civilians were killed by suspected rebels in Mukamara. Nearly 300
people were killed when Hutu rebels attacked a prison in the
northwest at Giciye. 200 rebels, 88 prisoners and 2 soldiers died in
the clash.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.D3)
1997 Dec 2, Hutu rebels
attacked a prison and released 103 jailed comrades at the Rwerere
prison near the Congo border.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1997 Dec 3, Hutu rebels
attacked a prison and released 507 jailed comrades in Bulinga.
(SFC, 12/4/97, p.C4)
1997 Dec 10, In Rwanda Hutu
guerrillas, known as Interhamwe, attacked the Mudende Tutsi refugee
camp and killed at least 231 [327] people and wounded over 200
others just hours before the arrival of US Sec. of State Madeleine
Albright, who came to promote peace.
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B3)(SFC,12/190/97, p.B6)
1998 Jan 13, The government
reported that 9 Roman Catholic nuns were killed last week by Hutu
rebels near the Congo border.
(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)
1998 Jan 19, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels killed 35 brewery workers and wounded 25 near Gisenyi.
(WSJ, 1/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Feb 4, Hutu rebels
slaughtered 33 people in the Ruhemgeri region.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Feb 6, Hutu rebels hacked
to death 48 civilians in the village of Biyahe in the Gisenyi
region.
(SFC, 2/9/98, p.A12)
1998 Mar 25, Pres. Clinton
visited Rwanda. Shaken by horror stories from the worst genocide
since World War II, President Clinton grimly acknowledged during his
Africa tour that "we did not act quickly enough" to stop the
slaughter of up to 1 million Rwandans four years earlier.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(AP, 3/25/99)
1998 Apr 9, Attackers thought
to be Hutu rebels killed 28 people and wounded 36 in a refugee camp.
Soldiers intervened and killed 20 rebels. The UN Security Council
voted this same day to investigate illegal arms sales to Rwanda.
(SFC, 4/10/98, p.A17)
1998 Apr 22, Rwandan officials
announced a public execution of dozens of defendants connected with
the 1994 genocide to be conducted by firing squad.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A13)
1998 Apr 24, Rwanda executed 22
people by firing squad.
(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A1)
1998 May 1, Former Rwandan
Prime Minister Jean Kambanda pleaded guilty to charges stemming from
the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Tutsis. Kambanda was later
sentenced to life in prison, but has since disavowed his guilty
plea.
(AP, 5/1/03)
1998 May 12, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels killed 17 people, 14 in the town of Taba and 3 others in
Kayenzi. Another 10 were wounded in the attacks.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.D3)
1998 May 16, Rwanda’s former
interior minister Seth Sendashonga (b.1951), a Hutu, was shot dead
in Nairobi, Kenya.
(Econ, 6/26/10,
p.49)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Sendashonga)
1998 May 26, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels killed at least 94 civilians and wounded 67 outside Gisenyi.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A16)
1998 Jun 17, Hutu rebels killed
at least 25 and wounded 62 Tutsis at a camp for displaced people
north of Kigali.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.A20)
1998 Jul 12, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels hacked, shot or burned to death 34 people who had gathered in
a hotel to watch the soccer finals.
(SFC, 7/14/98, p.A8)
1998 Jul 23, The army said that
it had killed a top rebel commander. Colonel Leonard Nkundiye was
killed along with at least 50 rebels on the Congo border.
(SFC, 7/24/98, p.D2)
1998 Aug 3, In Rwanda Hutu
rebels massacred at least 104 civilians over the weekend.
(SFC, 8/4/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 12, Rwanda protested a
Congo crackdown on ethnic Tutsis and charged that Kabila was arming
Rwandan Hutus to put down a Tutsi-led revolt along the border. The
revolt in Congo was believed to be masterminded by Rwandan Major
Gen’l. Paul Kagame.
(WSJ, 8/13/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1998 Aug 21, Zimbabwe sent 600
troops to support Pres. Kabila in the Congo. Rwanda called for a
cease fire and warned that it would intervene if the troops from
Zimbabwe were not withdrawn.
(SFC, 8/22/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 2, In Rwanda
prosecutors held Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former Hutu village mayor,
guilty of 9 counts genocide. He was later sentenced to life in
prison and 80 years for other violations.
(SFC, 9/3/98, p.A14)(SFC, 10/3/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 4, Former Rwandan
Prime Minister Jean Kambanda was sentenced to life in prison for his
role in the 1994 killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
(SFC, 9/5/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 6, Vice Pres. Paul
Kagame admitted to helping rebel forces in Congo.
(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A12)
1998 Rwanda’s population at
this time was about 7.5-7.8 million.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/17/98, p.A10)
1999 Mar 22, In Congo Mai Mai
warriors hired by Rwanda were reported to have killed 100 people.
Rwanda denied the report.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 24, In Congo a
massacre of 250 people in the Kivu region was reported. The slayings
by Rwandan troops appeared to be in retaliation for earlier attacks
by Congolese Mai Mai tribesmen.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A10)
1999 Mar 29, Rwanda began
voting in local elections. Candidates were not allowed to run as
representatives of any ethnic or political group due to continued
Hutu-Tutsi hostility.
(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 30, Tanzania arrested
a former Rwanda army officer suspected in the killing of 10 Belgian
peacekeepers in 1994. The officer was freed Mar 29 by a UN war
crimes tribunal.
(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 14, In Rwanda Bishop
Augustin Misago was put under "preventive detention" pending charges
that he refused to shelter Tutsis in 1994 and ordered 19 schoolgirls
expelled from the high school in Kibeho. The girls were killed.
(SFC, 4/15/99, p.C16)
1999 Apr 28, In eastern Congo
Gov. Kanyamuhanga Gafunzi ordered 100,000 Rwandan refugees in Kivu
province to go home within 15 days for supporting Hutu rebels.
(SFC, 4/29/99, p.D8)
1999 May 28, Rwanda declared a
unilateral cease-fire in Congo where it was backing rebels to oust
Pres. Kabila.
(SFC, 5/29/99, p.A11)
1999 Jun 8, In Rwanda Charles
Muligande, head of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, said that Tutsi
dominated government had extended its mandate to rule for another 4
years.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.C3)
1999 Jul 2, In Rwanda a court
sentenced 9 people to death and 16 others to life in prison on
charges related to genocide in 1994.
(SFC, 7/3/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 15, The Volcanoes
National Park, home of some 300 mountain gorillas, was scheduled to
reopen following a 2 year closure due to the civil war.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.D2)
1999 Aug 17, Rwanda and Uganda
agreed to an immediate truce to 4 days of fighting in Kisangani,
Congo.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 7, Rwanda reported
that army troops and Congolese allies had killed over 200 Rwandan
Hutu rebels over a weeklong operation along the border where 4,000
Hutu rebels had been based.
(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A11)
1999 Nov 6, Rwanda suspended
cooperation with a UN tribunal following a decision (Nov 3) by the
Int'l. Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to release Jean-Bosco
Barayagwiza, a former Foreign Ministry official, who was held in
Tanzania.
(SFEC, 11/7/99, p.A30)
1999 Nov 9, In Tanzania Mikaeli
Muhimana, an ex-Rwandan official in Kibuye, was arrested in Dar es
Salaam for his role in the 1994 slaughter of Tutsis.
(SFC, 11/10/99, p.A13)
1999 Dec 6, In Tanzania a UN
court convicted Georges Rutaganda on 3 of 8 charges of genocide
against Tutsis committed when he was vice president of the
Interhamwe death squads in Rwanda in 1994.
(SFC, 12/7/99, p.B2)
1999 Rosamond Halsey Carr
authored "Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda." The memoir
was written with Ann Howard Halsey.
(SFEC, 12/12/99, p.T8)
1999 Historian Alison Des
Forges (1942-2009), prominent human rights advocate, documented the
1994 genocide in Rwanda in her book “Leave None to Tell the Story:
Genocide in Rwanda.”
(Econ, 2/21/09,
p.88)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alison_Des_Forges)
1999 Rwanda got its first
dial-up connection to the Internet. It relied on expensive satellite
links.
(WSJ, 8/17/06, p.A7)
1999-2003 Carla Del Ponte, a Swiss prosecutor,
served as chief prosecutor of the Rwandan tribunal based in
Tanzania.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.89)
2000 Mar 23, In Rwanda Pres.
Pasteur Bizimungu resigned following a month long debate on ethnic
tensions and corruption. In 2004 Bizimungu was sentenced to 15 years
for inciting violence after a falling out with Kagame.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.D3)(WSJ, 6/8/04, p.A1)
2000 Apr 2, In Rwanda Tutsi
leader Paul Kagame was nominated as president.
(WSJ, 4/3/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 17, In Rwanda Paul
Kagami was elected the country’s first Tutsi president.
(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Apr 19, In southern Congo
6 Rwandan army officers and 4 Russian crew members were killed when
their Antonov-8 aircraft crashed on takeoff at Pepa.
(SFC, 4/21/00, p.A20)(WSJ, 4/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 22, Paul Kagami became
president and appealed for an end to ethnic strife.
(WSJ, 4/24/00, p.A1)
2000 May 2, Health Minister
Ezechias Rwabuhihi reported that some 500,000 Rwandans were infected
with the AIDS virus, 6% of the population.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A18)
2000 May 5, In Congo Ugandan
and Rwandan troops clashed at Kisangani and at least 10 civilians
were killed and 100 wounded.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 7, Pres. Kagami
announced that Rwanda was prepared to quickly implement a phased
withdrawal from Congo.
(SFC, 5/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 11, In Congo Rwandan
troops drove Ugandan forces from Kisangani to end a week of
indiscriminate shelling.
(SFC, 6/12/00, p.A13)
2000 Sep 8, In Dongo 51
civilians were killed by retreating government troops.
Ugandan-backed Congolese rebels later discovered the bodies.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A12)
2000 It was estimated that
Rwanda made $20 million per month mining coltan in Congo DRC. The
mineral is used in the manufacture of capacitors for electronic
equipment.
(www.american.edu/ted/ice/congo-coltan.htm)
2000 The Democratic Forces for
the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) was formed after the Kinshasa-based
Hutu command and the Kivu-based Army for the Liberation of Rwanda
(ALiR) agreed to merge.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Forces_for_the_Liberation_of_Rwanda)
2001 Feb 27, Rwanda began
pulling back troops from a front-line Congo town.
(WSJ, 2/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 6, Local elections
were held for the 1st time since the 1994 mass slaughter of Tutsis.
(WSJ, 3/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 11, The UN detained
Callixte Mbarushimana after Rwanda filed arrest warrant on basis of
story in The Sunday Times of London detailing some accusations
against him.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2001 Jun 5, Soldiers fanned out
across Virunga National Park to protect endangered mountain
gorillas. 2 were recently killed and eaten by Hutu militiamen. Only
355 members of the group live in the wild.
(SFC, 6/6/01, p.C14)
2001 Jun 6, Government troops
attacked Hutu militiamen crossing into the country from Congo at
Matura and 150 were killed.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A18)
2002 Jan 1, Rwanda adopted a
new flag and national anthem in a bid for reconciliation.
(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 17, The volcano Mount
Nyiragongo erupted near Goma, Congo, and rivers of lava destroyed 14
villages. Goma was devastated and some 400,000 people fled their
homes. At least 50 people were killed and many sought refuge in
Rwanda.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A8)(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(SSFC,
1/20/02, p.A16)
2002 Jan 21, Thousands of
Congolese left Rwanda to return to Goma after receiving scant help.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A3)
2002 Apr, Rwandan opposition
leader Charles Ntakirutinka was arrested shortly after forming the
Democratic Party for Renewal party. He was jailed on charges of
"inciting civil disobedience" and "association with criminal
elements" after a trial condemned by rights groups as unfair. He was
released in 2012.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2002 Jul 22, Congolese and
Rwandan leaders said that they've reached an agreement to end a
four-year war in Congo, a fight that has defied resolution as it
drew in eight African countries and claimed more than two million
lives.
(AP, 7/22/02)
2002 Jul 30, The leaders of
Congo and Rwanda signed a peace agreement, proclaiming it a key step
in efforts to end a war that has embroiled six African nations and
left 2.5 million people dead.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Aug 13, Angola reported
the capture of Augustin Bizimungu, a key figure in the 1994
Rwandan genocide.
(SFC, 8/14/02, p.A13)
2002 Sep 17, Rwanda began
withdrawing troops from eastern Congo as part of an agreement signed
with the Congolese government to end the four-year civil war in
Africa's third-largest nation.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2002 Oct 1, Rwanda began
pulling out 6,000 troops from a Congo border province, the latest
stage in a withdrawal of all its forces that it hopes to complete by
week's end.
(AP, 10/1/02)
2002 Oct 5, Rwanda withdrew its
last troops from neighboring Congo, with some 1,100 soldiers
marching in single file out of the war-ravaged country.
(AP, 10/5/02)
2002 Oct 21, A UN panel accused
criminal groups linked to the armies of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and
Congo of plundering Congo's riches, and called on the United Nations
to impose financial restrictions on 29 companies and 54 individuals.
(AP, 10/21/02)
2003 Jan 28, Rwanda began
releasing 19,000 genocide suspects and former rebels in an effort to
ease intense overcrowding in the country's prisons and foster
national reconciliation.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 May 26, Rwandans voted in
the country's first constitutional referendum. It was overwhelmingly
endorsed.
(AP, 5/28/03)
2003 Aug 1, In Rwanda the
largest trial so far seeking justice for the 1994 genocide ended. A
tribunal convicted 100 people of rape, torture, murder and crimes
against humanity.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 25, In Rwanda voters
lined up before dawn to vote in the country's first real
presidential election. Incumbent President Paul Kagame scored an
overwhelming election win.
(AP, 8/26/03)
2003 Sep 12, In Rwanda Paul
Kagame took the oath of office as the nation's first popularly
elected president since the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 29, Rwandans began
casting ballots at the start of three days of voting in the nation's
first genuine multiparty legislative elections since independence
from Belgium in 1962.
(AP, 9/29/03)
2003 Oct 1, In Rwanda the
ruling party of President Paul Kagame won nearly three-fourths of
the vote the multiparty legislative elections since independence
from Belgium in 1962.
(AP, 10/1/03)
2003 Nov 14, Maj. Gen. Paul
Rwarakabije, the leader of a rebel group that includes fighters who
participated in Rwanda's 1994 genocide surrendered to Rwandan
government forces.
(AP, 11/15/03)
2003 Dec 3, A UN tribunal
convicted and sentenced a radio news director and a newspaper editor
to life imprisonment for their role in promoting the 1994 Rwandan
genocide.
(AP, 12/4/03)
2003 Greg Wyler (33), a
American tech entrepreneur, started his own Rwandan Internet service
provider and named it Terracom.
(WSJ, 8/17/06, p.A7)
2004 Jan 22, In Tanzania Judge
William Sekule said the tribunal found Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda (51),
former minister for culture and higher education, guilty of genocide
and extermination for his role the 1994 Rwanda genocide. He was
acquitted of eight other charges of crimes against humanity.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Mar 27, Rwanda reported
plans to release at least 30,000 suspects who have confessed to
participating in the 1994 genocide, letting them be tried in
community courts rather than by the country's overburdened judicial
system.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Apr 25, Clashes between
Congolese troops and Rwandan insurgents in eastern Congo killed at
least 61 people over the weekend.
(AP, 4/26/04)
2004 May 6, Hundreds of Rwandan
rebels attacked Kingi village in volatile eastern Congo, sparking a
two-hour battle in which at least five Congolese soldiers and
insurgents were killed.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 Jun 11, Two crowded boats
collided on a lake straddling the Congo-Rwanda border on and one of
them capsized, with some 80 people believed trapped aboard.
(AP, 6/11/04)
2004 Jun, Rwanda’s parliament
banned the last independent human rights organization.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.40)
2004 Jul 3, Rwanda reopened its
border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, further reducing
tension between the two countries.
(AFP, 7/3/04)
2004 Jul 15, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced former
finance minister Emmanuel Ndindabahizi to life imprisonment for his
role in the east African country's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 21, Rwanda officials
said 500 judges were fired and 223 new ones appointed in a reform
move to improve the judiciary.
(SFC, 7/22/04, p.A3)
2004 Jun 21, Ephrem Nkezabera
(52), a former Rwandan banker, was arrested in Brussels and held on
charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the 1994 Rwandan
massacre.
(AP, 7/30/04)
2004 Aug 13, The first elements
of a 300-strong African Union protection force left Kigali, Rwanda,
for Sudan's troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Oct 30, Rwandan troops
arrived in Sudan's remote Darfur region to join Nigerian soldiers
monitoring a shaky cease-fire in the country's troubled west.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Nov 18, The UN Security
Council opened an extraordinary two-day session in Nairobi, the
first outside its New York headquarters in 14 years. Sudan topped
the agenda. Great Lakes regional foreign ministers approved a pact
for greater cross-border cooperation and confidence-building. It was
due to be adopted at a summit in Dar es Salaam.
(AP, 11/18/04)(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Nov 19, UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan urged leaders of Africa's blood-soaked Great
Lakes region to implement a peace plan that could herald a "new era"
for millions of Africans.
(AP, 11/19/04)
2004 Nov 24, The UN mission
said Rwanda has warned it will launch an attack "very soon" on
Rwandan Hutu rebels sheltering in eastern Congo.
(AP, 11/24/04)
2004 Nov 26, Rwanda said it was
ready to hold talks with Democratic Republic of Congo Pres. Joseph
Kabila to defuse growing tensions over Rwandan rebels based in
eastern Congo.
(Reuters, 11/27/04)
2004 Nov 29, Congo said it will
send up to 10,000 soldiers to its eastern province of North Kivu to
prevent rebels and Rwandan forces from launching cross border
attacks.
(AP, 11/30/04)
2004 Nov 29, Rwandan troops
attacked a town in eastern Congo. The next day a Congolese commander
said at least 19 civilians were killed.
(Reuters, 11/30/04)
2004 Nov 30, Congo-based
Rwandan rebels, under threat of imminent attack by Rwanda, repeated
an allegation that Rwandan troops had crossed the border in recent
days to seize the vast country's mineral-rich east.
(AP, 11/30/04)
2004 Dec 22-26, Government
troops in eastern Congo battled Rwandan militiamen in growing
violence between the former allies from the country's bloody
1998-2002 war.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 The film Hotel Rwanda was
directed by Terry George. It was based on the story of Paul
Rusesabagina, who managed the Hotel des Mille Collines during the
1994 Rwanda genocide. The hotel in Kigali was one of the few places
where nobody was killed. Rusesabagina later criticized the
government of Pres. Kagame for limiting opposition. Rusesabagina
then faced attacks in Rwanda for profiting from the genocide.
(WSJ, 12/5/06,
p.A14)(www.imdb.com/title/tt0395169/)
2005 Jan 14, A Rwanda official
estimated 1 million Rwandans, an eighth of the population, are
expected to be tried in traditional "gacaca" village courts for
alleged participation in the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 1/16/05)
2005 Feb 17, In Rwanda cabinet
ministers from 11 African nations gathered to flesh out details of a
deal intended to end a cycle of wars, rebellions, dictatorships and
poverty in central Africa's Great Lakes region.
(AP, 2/17/05)
2005 Mar 10, In Kigali, Rwanda,
a nine-judge community court handed down its first conviction of a
Rwandan accused of killings in the 1994 genocide, as authorities set
in motion a system of trials designed to speed the task of deciding
the guilt or innocence of the 63,000 people accused of taking part
in the government-orchestrated slaughter.
(AP, 3/11/05)
2005 Mar 14, The U.N. tribunal
for Rwanda sentenced Vincent Rutaganira, a former local leader, to
six years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a charge of
extermination by omission under a plea bargain with prosecutors.
(Reuters, 3/14/05)
2005 Mar 29, It was reported
that China’s influence in Africa was expanding rapidly. Chinese
projects included the rebuilding of Nigeria’s railroad network; the
paving of roads in Rwanda; ownership of copper mines in Zambia;
timber operations in Equatorial Guinea; and supermarket operations
in Lesotho.
(WSJ, 3/29/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 31, A Rwandan Hutu
militia group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda,
denounced the Hutu-orchestrated 1994 genocide in the African country
and announced it was stopping its fighting in the region.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Apr 27, A UN tribunal in
Tanzania sentenced Mika Muhimana, a former local government official
in western Rwanda, to imprisonment for the rest of his life for
shooting to death and raping mostly Tutsi victims during the 1994
genocide.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 May 18, A UN report said
Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in eastern Congo have killed, raped,
or kidnapped more than 900 civilians over the past year.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 Jun 13, Burundi began
forced repatriation of thousands of Rwandan refugees, who feared
reprisals at home. The UN condemned the action.
(WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 28, Canada’s Supreme
Court said there is well-founded evidence that Rwandan exile Leon
Mugesera helped to incite the massacre of ethnic rivals in his
homeland and should be kicked out of Canada.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, Two Rwandan
businessmen were found guilty of war crimes by a 12-person jury in
Brussels for their role in the killings of thousands during their
country's 1994 genocide. Beer trader Etienne Nzabonimana, 53, was
found guilty on 56 counts, and his half brother, Samuel
Ndashyikirwa, 43, was found guilty on 23 counts of aiding and
abetting the slaughter of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in their home
region of Kibungo.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jul 20, Wenceslas
Munyeshyaka, a former priest of the Holy Family parish in the
Rwandan capital Kigali, was charged in a sealed indictment with
genocide, rape, assassination and extermination, the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania. The charges were
made public in 2007.
(AFP, 6/21/07)
2005 Jul 29, Thousands of
Rwandan prisoners began streaming out of jail, following a
government decision to free 36,000 inmates, the majority of whom
have confessed to taking part in the country's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/29/05)
2005 Sep 6, Rwanda said Maj.
Gen. Laurent Munyakazi has been arrested on suspicion of playing a
key role in the 1994 genocide in which more than half a million
Tutsis and moderates from the Hutu majority were killed.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 6, Father Guy Theunis,
a Belgian priest, was arrested in Rwanda on suspicion of involvement
in the 1994 genocide. Judicial sources said Theunis was accused of
republishing extracts of items from an extremist magazine known as
"Kangura" which they said incited hatred and violence.
(AP, 9/8/05)
2005 Sep 11, A Rwandan
community court charged Guy Theunis (60), a Belgian missionary, with
inciting and planning the 1994 genocide that left more than half a
million people dead.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 25, Some 774 Rwandans
convicted by community courts for their role in the 1994 genocide
began excavating stones for road construction as punishment for
their role in the killings of more than a half-million people in
this small central African nation. The convicts were tried by the
newly established community courts, known as Gacaca. At least
760,000 Rwandans were accused of committing crimes during the
genocide.
(AP, 9/25/05)
2005 Oct 9, A Rwandan militia
killed 15 civilians with machetes and knives in a nighttime raid on
two villages in Congo's mountainous east.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2005 Oct 19, Canadian police
arrested a Rwandan man who is living in Toronto, charging him with
crimes against humanity during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
(Reuters, 10/19/05)
2005 Oct 31, Hundreds of
government troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers began flushing heavily
armed Rwandan rebels from eastern Congo, destroying insurgent camps
and sending smoke rising above the restive region.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct, Greg Wyler, a
American tech entrepreneur, purchased Rwanda’s telecom monopoly,
Rwandatel, with a bid of $20 million. Wyler’s tenure as owner of
Rwanda’s national telephone company ended in 2007. He then founded
O3b Networks, based on the island of Jersey, to address the high
cost of internet access in developing
countries.
(WSJ, 8/17/06, p.A7)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.77)
2005 Nov 8, Callixte
Kalimanzira (52), a suspected leader of Rwanda's 1994 genocide,
surrendered in Tanzania to the international court trying the
architects of the slaughter.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 14, In Tanzania
Calixte Kalimanzira, a man who served as Rwanda's interior minister
during the slaughter of more than half a million people in 1994,
pleaded not guilty to three counts of genocide and crimes against
humanity.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 17, Paul Bisengimana,
former Rwandan mayor, pleaded guilty to charges of murder and
extermination related to the 1994 genocide of more than half a
million Rwandans. He was accused of participating in the killing of
several thousand people who had sought refuge in a church. He
changed his previous plea of not guilty after striking a deal with
prosecutors under which they dropped 10 other charges.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Dec 7, A UN court in
Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's genocide convicted Paul
Bisengimana, former mayor of Gikoro, for abetting the 1994
slaughter, but dropped three counts including genocide.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 13, A UN tribunal
convicted former Lt. Col. Aloys Simba, a retired Rwandan army
officer, of genocide and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for
participating in the slaughter of ethnic minority Tutsi.
(AP, 12/13/05)
2005 Dec 22, A decomposed body
discovered in a Brussels canal a week ago was reported to be that of
Juvenal Uwilingiyimana, a Rwandan former minister indicted by a UN
tribunal on charges of genocide.
(AFP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 23, A French military
tribunal opened an investigation into allegations that French
peacekeepers facilitated attacks on ethnic minority Tutsis during
the 1994 genocide of more than half a million Rwandans.
(AP, 12/23/05)
2006 Jan 5, The UN said around
2,000 Rwandan Hutu refugees have arrived in Burundi in the past
month, many saying they feel insecure in Rwanda or are being refused
permission to cultivate their land.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Feb 28, US coffee giant
Starbucks Corp said it planned to begin selling Rwandan specialty
coffee in 5,000 outlets across the US from next month.
(Reuters, 2/28/06)
2006 Mar 27, “Shooting Dogs,” a
new film on Rwanda's genocide, reduced many survivors to tears at
its premiere in Kigali. The film's title refers to the way UN troops
shot dogs eating the corpses that littered the streets of the
Rwandan capital. The next day President Paul Kagame said the movie
would help to ensure memories of the mass murder were kept alive.
(Reuters, 3/28/06)
2006 Apr 1, Three explorers
from Britain and New Zealand claimed to be the first to have
traveled the Nile from its mouth to its "true source" deep in
Rwanda's lush Nyungwe rainforest.
(Reuters, 4/1/06)
2006 May 1, Rwandan Hutu rebels
attacked a village and an army camp in a raid that left 7 residents
dead. Congolese troops killed six rebels during an attack at an army
camp that also claimed the lives of a soldier and his wife.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 8, Rwandan President
Paul Kagame said he was considering a plea for clemency from Pasteur
Bizimungu, the nation's first post-genocide president (1994-2000).
Bizimungu was in jail for crimes including inciting ethnic violence
and embezzling state funds.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 Aug 7, Dutch police
arrested a Rwandan immigrant, identified as Joseph M. (38), and
charged him with war crimes and torture for his alleged role in the
1994 genocide that tore apart his home country.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Sep 20, The UN's
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) acquitted former
Rwandan education minister Andre Rwamakuba of murder and incitement
charges related to the country's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 29, Rosamund Carr, a
New Jersey fashion designer who lived a colorful and tragic life for
more than a half century in tumultuous central Africa, died in
Rwanda. In 1999 she authored her memoir "Land of a Thousand Hills -
My Life in Rwanda."
(AFP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 31, France's Defense
Minister ordered that 105 secret intelligence reports be handed over
to a judge investigating allegations that Paris helped Rwanda's
former Hutu government massacre ethnic Tutsis in a 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 11/2/06)
2006 Nov 9, In Rwanda
Theophister Mukakibibi, a Catholic nun, was sentenced to 30 years in
jail for helping militias kill hundreds of people hiding in a
hospital during the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 16, A Rwandan military
court sentenced Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic
Rwandan priest living in exile in France, to life in prison for rape
and helping extremist militias during the country's 1994 genocide.
Also convicted and sentenced to life in prison was former Rwandan
army general Laurent Munyakazi, who commanded the military in the
capital's Nyarugenge district.
(AFP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 19, It was reported
that Terracom was building a fiber optic network throughout
Rwanda’s 11,000 square miles. An Internet connection in Kigali
was now available for $70 per month, down from $1500 5 years ago.
(SSFC, 11/19/06, p.G6)
2006 Nov 20, French prosecutors
approved international arrest warrants for 9 Rwandan officials in
connection with the 1994 attack that killed Rwanda's president,
triggering the central African country's genocide. Magistrate
Jean-Louis Bruguiere also said there was evidence that "Paul Kagame
and members of his military staff devised the operation" to destroy
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane.
(Reuters, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 22, Rwanda’s Pres.
Kagame dismissed French accusations as "rubbish," and instead said a
trial should be opened against France, which he accuses of abetting
the 100-day 1994 genocide in which minority Tutsis and moderate
Hutus were targeted by Hutu extremists.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 23, Thousands of
Rwandans took to the streets of Kigali to denounce France's alleged
complicity in the 1994 genocide and a French judge's call for the
prosecution of President Paul Kagame.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, Rwanda cut
diplomatic ties with France and gave France's ambassador to Rwanda
24 hours to leave the central African country. This was in response
to a French judge’s call for President Paul Kagame to stand trial
over the 1994 killing of a former leader, sparking the genocide of
800,000 people.
(Reuters, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 30, The East African
Community (EAC) said Rwanda and Burundi have been accepted as
members, expanding the regional economic bloc to five nations. The
EAC previously grouped Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which hoped to
transform the region into a political federation.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 5, British PM Tony
Blair and Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed economic reform
and how to reconcile the people of the landlocked African state
still scarred by the 1994 genocide. They also talked about the
conflict in the western Darfur region of Sudan, where Rwanda has
troops on the ground as part of the African Union force.
(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 11, Two Rwandan
ex-soldiers told a panel probing alleged French complicity in the
1994 massacres that France armed and trained members of the
Interahamwe militia, a radical militia blamed for most of the
killings in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 12, In Rwanda an
ex-Interahamwe member said that he had participated in transporting
weapons from a French military plane in the former Zaire, now
Democratic Republic of Congo, to the north Rwanda province of
Gisenyi during the 1994 genocide. Witness #4 told a Rwandan
commission that French troops raped women fleeing militia gangs
during the African country's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 12/12/06)(Reuters, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 13, A UN court trying
leaders of Rwanda's 1994 genocide jailed a former Catholic priest
for 15 years for ordering bulldozers to level a church, sparking the
death of 2,000 people hiding inside.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 14, In Tanzania Joseph
Nzabirinda (49), a former youth organizer accused in Rwanda's 1994
genocide, pleaded guilty to one count of murder before a UN war
crimes court, becoming only the seventh defendant to admit his
guilt. Amnesty International expressed serious concern that the
court has been one-sided in its prosecutions and decried its
proposed transfer of cases to the Rwandan judicial system.
(AFP, 12/14/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Kenya 11
African heads of state attending the 2nd International Conference on
the Great Lakes Region signed a landmark $2 billion
(1.5-billion-euro) security and development pact to forestall fresh
violence in the area.
(AFP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 28, Four men accused
of organizing and participating in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 were
arrested in Britain on warrants issued by the Rwandan government.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 The International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) convicted Tharcisse Muvunyi for genocide.
In 2008 the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) overturned the convictions and quashed a 25 year
prison sentence. The court said Muvunyi would be re-tried for
inciting the public to commit genocide, based on a speech he made in
Gikore Trade Centre in Butare.
(AP, 8/29/08)
2007 Jan 19, Rwanda's
government said it has approved plans to scrap the death penalty, in
a step which could remove a major obstacle to the transfer back home
of defendants facing trial over the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 26, Martin Ngoga,
Rwanda’s chief prosecutor, said Rwanda will release another 8,000
prisoners convicted or awaiting trial over the central African
nation's 1994 genocide, raising fears among survivors of a fresh
round of bloodletting.
(Reuters, 1/26/07)
2007 Feb 15, President Paul
Kagame said in an interview published in The Times that Rwanda wants
to join the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping of former British
colonies, in what will be seen as a rebuke to France.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 19, Rwanda released
8,000 prisoners accused of involvement in the country's 1994
genocide, prompting anger from survivors of the slaughter who fear
new ethnic killings.
(AP, 2/19/07)
2007 Feb 20, Congo’s army and
UN officials said days of clashes between the army and Rwandan and
Congolese militias in eastern Congo have killed at least 23
combatants and forced thousands to flee.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 26, The World Vision
humanitarian group said that more than 50% of children in refugee
camps around Africa's volatile Great Lakes area have experienced
some form of sexual abuse. The data, collected in camps in the
Burundi, Congo (DRC), Tanzania, northern Uganda and Rwanda, said
widespread poverty made children vulnerable to abuses.
(AFP, 2/27/07)
2007 Apr 6, Pasteur Bizimungu,
Rwanda's first post-genocide leader, walked free from prison after a
surprise presidential pardon of his convictions that included
inciting ethnic tension.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 13, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) ordered that
Michel Bagaragaza, the former head of Rwanda's national tea
industry, be tried by a court in the Netherlands. He was accused of
involvement in Rwanda’s 1994 mass slaughter. In Sep, 2009,
Bagaragaza (64) pleaded guilty to complicity in the slaughter. In
Nov he was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
(AFP, 4/13/07)(AP, 9/17/09)(AP, 11/5/09)
2007 Apr 18, Burundi, Rwanda,
the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda adopted a joint military
strategy to fight rebel groups operating in the war-scarred Great
Lakes region.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Rwanda filed a
case against France at the UN's highest court in The Hague over a
French request that President Paul Kagame be tried by the Rwanda war
crimes tribunal.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 19, Former Rwandan
army major Bernard Ntuyahaga went on trial in Brussels, charged with
the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and the Rwandan prime minister
in 1994.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 24, Rwandan media said
that a former Belgian army officer in the UN mission to Rwanda
(Minuar) has accused French soldiers of training extremist Hutus
responsible for the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 May 21, In Tanzania the
appeals court of the UN-backed Rwandan genocide tribunal upheld a
life sentence for Mika Muhimana (57), convicted on multiple counts
of rape and murder. Muhimana, a Hutu, was accused of involvement in
the rape of nearly 30 women from the minority Tutsi tribe during
Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 27, A Rwandan genocide
court handed a 19-year prison sentence to Francois-Xavier Byuma, a
member of the Rwandan League for the Promotion and Defense of Human
Rights, for participating in the country's 1994 mass murder.
(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 27, In eastern Congo
Rwandan rebels attacked villagers with machetes, spears and hammers,
killing 17, wounding 28 and taking up to a dozen hostages.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 31, Rwanda said a law
abolishing the death penalty would come into force at the end of
July, six months after the government first announced plans to scrap
capital punishment.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 5, Rwanda said it will
withdraw from the Economic Community of Central African States
(CEEAC) because it hampers Kigali's membership in other regional
blocs.
(AFP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 20, Isaac Kamali, who
appears on Rwanda's most wanted list submitted to Interpol, was
detained at Philadelphia airport.
(Reuters, 6/22/07)
2007 Jul 5, A Belgian court
sentenced Bernard Ntuyahaga (55), a former Rwandan army major, to 20
years in prison on for the murder of 10 Belgian peacekeepers and an
undetermined number of Rwandan civilians at the start of the 1994
genocide.
(Reuters, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 11, Rwanda’s state-run
radio said the Senate has approved the abolition of the death
penalty, a key step demanded by the international community to
transfer genocide suspects to Rwandan courts.
(AFP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 13, UN officials said
they are investigating allegations that Indian peacekeepers in Congo
traded food and even military intelligence with Rwandan Hutu rebels
in return for gold.
(Reuters, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 20, The WTO said
Rwanda plans to import a generic HIV/AIDS medicine made in Canada,
making it the first country to test a World Trade Organization
waiver on drug patents.
(Reuters, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 20, Two suspects in
the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a priest and a prefect, were arrested in
France on a warrant from an international court investigating the
massacres. Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, a Roman Catholic priest in
Normandy, and Laurent Bucyibaruta, a former prefect, were jailed
before possible extradition to Tanzania where the UN International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is based.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 24, Human Rights Watch
said Rwandan police have killed at least 20 detainees in custody
since November.
(AFP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul, Rwanda and Burundi
became members of the East African Community (EAC), which included
Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Aug 1, A French court
ruled that indictments for Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and another man,
Laurent Bucyibaruta, violated the presumption of innocence. Rwanda
had sought the extradition of the 2 men for their roles in the
country's 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 23, Rwanda's exiled
opposition groups dismissed as insulting the appointment of General
Kerenzi Karake, a Rwandan general, as deputy chief of a planned
peace force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
(AFP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 28, Africa's Great
Lakes nations (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and
Uganda) vowed to eliminate rebel groups roaming their territory and
spurring insecurity in the continent's most volatile region.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Sep 5, Rwanda's President
Paul Kagame said that his country was no longer interested in
joining the southern African grouping SADC in order to avoid
"overlapping" roles with other blocs.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 14, Rwanda’s
government said floods killed 15 people and left about 1,000 people
homeless after 2 days of torrential downpours in the hills of
northern Rwanda.
(Reuters, 9/14/07)
2007 Sep 17, German police
arrested Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Rwandan minister, wanted by
the International Tribunal on genocide charges related to Rwanda’s
1994 conflict. He was charged with genocide and crimes against
humanity in October 2008 and pleaded not guilty. In 2009 prosecutor
Wallace Kapaya said he has proof Ngirabatware stole money donated by
the World Bank and IMF as well as cash from lenders including
Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Belgium and Canada to buy
weapons and transport for the extremist Hutu militia known as the
Interahamwe. Ngirabatware is the son-in-law of Felician Kabuga,
Rwanda's most wanted genocide suspect.
(AP, 9/20/07)(AP, 9/23/09)
2007 Oct 10, The criminal court
in Rwanda’s southern Rusizi district handed down a life sentence to
Emmanuel Bagambiki, now living in Belgium, who was governor of
Cyangugu during the 1994 genocide. The International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) had acquitted him on war crimes and
genocide charges in February 2004, confirming the ruling on appeal
in February 2006.
(AFP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 29, African leaders
and technology experts met in Rwanda to discuss plans to boost the
continent's development by securing universal Internet access by
2012.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Nov 14, A French court
approved the handover to a UN court of Dominique Ntawukuriryayo
(65), a Rwandan 1994 genocide suspect accused of coordinating the
massacre of up to 25,000 people in one incident.
(Reuters, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an
accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free, quota
free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice, from
January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a
decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was
resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create
an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and
Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.52)
2007 Nov 16, Rwandan
investigators probing alleged French involvement in the country's
1994 genocide handed their report to President Paul Kagame, but
officials refused to divulge details.
(Reuters, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 14, The EU reached an
accord with the East African Community (EAC) states of Burundi,
Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. They will enjoy duty free,
quota free access to the EU for all products, except sugar and rice,
from January 1. Originally established in 1967, the EAC collapsed a
decade later amid diverging economic philosophies. It was
resurrected in 2000 as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda agreed to create
an EU-style common market for their 90 million citizens. Rwanda and
Burundi became members in July this year.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 21, The UN Security
Council welcomed a deal signed by Congo and Rwanda to forcibly
disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels in Congo in an effort to reduce tensions
between the central African neighbors.
(Reuters, 11/21/07)
2007 Dec 1, US coffee giant
Starbucks announced plans to build a regional support centre in
Rwanda for farmers in east Africa, where the industry has faced
difficulty despite recent price spikes.
(AFP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 7, A UN court in
Tanzania trying masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide sentenced
Francois Karera, a former provincial governor, to life imprisonment
for his role in the killings, including helping soldiers kill
refugees in a church.
(Reuters, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 13, Marie-Therese
Kampire, who taught politics at Rwanda's National University, was
found guilty by a traditional "gacaca" court. The former university
teacher was given a 19-year prison sentence for her role in the
murder of a colleague's wife during the Rwanda genocide.
(AFP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 20, Radio Rwanda
reported that the Belgian government has this month given Rwanda
39.5 million euros (56.6 million dollars), mainly to help its small
former colony with power supplies, health and education.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2008 Jan 9, French legal
plaintiffs said police have arrested Marcel Bivugabagabo (53), a
former officer in the Rwandan army accused of taking part in the
1994 genocide. Bivugabagabo was commander of the Ruhengeri sector in
western Rwanda from April to July 1994.
(AFP, 1/9/08)
2008 Feb 3, Two strong
earthquake shook the African Great Lakes region, killing at least 37
people in Rwanda and six in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 2/3/08)(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, In Rwanda Theoneste
Niyitegeka, a doctor and one-time possible presidential candidate,
was sentenced to 15 years in jail for his role in the country's 1994
genocide.
(AFP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 8, In Rwanda members
of the Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) of Parliament voted in
favor of a controversial new law aimed at stopping "genocide
ideology," a term for the outlook that perpetrators of genocide
foster to fan divisive hate campaigns between different groups of
Rwandans. Parliament adopted the law in June.
(www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp1_375_Rwanda)(http://tinyurl.com/dnxogn)
2008 Feb 18, Callixte
Nzabonimana (55), Rwanda’s former youth and sport minister, was
arrested in the town of Kigoma, Tanzania. He faced trial for
participating in the 1994 genocide. The trial of Nzabonimana,
described by prosecutors as "the Butcher of Gitarama," began at the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Tanzania on Nov
9, 2009.
(Reuters, 2/19/08)(AFP, 11/9/09)
2008 Feb 19, President George
W. Bush paid somber homage to the estimated 800,000 killed in
Rwanda's 1994 genocide and urged global action to end the bloodshed
in Sudan's Darfur region "once and for all."
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb, A senior Spanish
judge issued arrest warrants against 40 Rwandan army officers,
including 11 generals, for genocide and crimes against humanity
related to events that took place between 1994 and 2000.
(AFP, 9/1/11)
2008 Mar 4, The Rwandan
government and the UN signed a deal allowing detainees sentenced by
the UN-backed court on the Rwanda genocide to be jailed in Rwanda.
(AFP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 8, Rwandan President
Paul Kagame announced a major cabinet reshuffle which saw the
appointment of seven new ministers.
(AFP, 3/8/08)
2008 Mar 12, A UN tribunal
extended the sentence of Rwandan Roman Catholic priest Athanase
Serombawar to life in prison after upholding his war crimes
conviction for ordering militiamen to burn and bulldoze a church
with 1,500 people inside during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He was
originally sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Apr 11, In Rwanda a
grenade thrown by an unknown attacker killed a policeman guarding
the Gisozi genocide museum in Kigali, in a rare attack in the
central African nation still mourning the 1994 ethnic slaughter.
(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 May 6, Kenya froze the
assets of businessman Felicien Kabuga, the most wanted suspect in
Rwanda's genocide, saying it would stop him avoiding capture or
helping other fugitives. The US government has offered a $5 million
bounty for Kabuga's capture.
(Reuters, 5/6/08)(AP, 9/23/09)
2008 May 15, A body
representing genocide survivors said Generosa Mukanyonga (90), a
Rwandan genocide survivor, was stabbed and burned to death by a gang
that included four assailants who had confessed to taking part in
the 1994 slaughter.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)
2008 May 26, A small faction of
Rwandan Hutu rebels in east Democratic Republic of Congo pledged to
lay down their guns and return home, but the main rebel movement
refused and rejected the ceremony as a sham.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 Jun 6, A judge at City of
Westminster Magistrates Court said 4 men: Vincent Bajinya, also
known as Doctor Vincent Brown, Charles Munyaneza, Celestin
Ugirashebuja and Emmanuel Nteziryayo, should be sent back to Rwanda
for trial for their involvement in the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 11, The Rwandan army
arrested four officers, including a brigadier general, over the
murder of 13 senior Catholic clergy during the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 17, Two out of four
Rwandan army officers being tried for their presumed role in the
1994 murder of 13 priests pleaded guilty at their first appearance
in a Kigali court. The officers were accused of war crimes relating
to the murder June 5, 1994, of 13 Catholic clerics, including three
bishops.
(AFP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 21, In Rwanda 20 baby
gorillas were "baptized" in a ceremony seen as a way to raise
awareness of the threats facing the endangered species. The babies
were represented by 20 figurines in the ceremony, attended by
Rwanda's first lady Jeannette Kagame, on the edge of Volcano
national park. The ceremony was the 4th of its kind in Rwanda in as
many years.
(AFP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Germany war
crimes suspect Callixte Mbarushimana, a former UN employee wanted
for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, was arrested in
Frankfurt.
(AFP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In Sudan about two
hundred gunmen on horseback and in SUVs ambushed peacekeepers from a
joint UN-African Union force in the Darfur region. Five Rwandan
soldiers and two police officers, one from Ghana and the other from
Uganda, were killed in fierce gunbattles that lasted more than two
hours.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 16, The United States
signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with
countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade,
Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern
Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho,
Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and
Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which
includes Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 29, A UN court trying
the masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide said that its mandate had
been extended by a year until 2009.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Aug 5, Rwanda formally
accused senior French officials of involvement in its 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 6, France accused
Rwanda of making "unacceptable accusations" by alleging Paris played
an active role in the 1994 genocide, but said it was still
determined to mend damaged ties with Kigali.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 16, In Rwanda Jozefina
Zaninka (75), a woman who lost nearly all her family in the 1994
genocide, was murdered, in the latest of several killings of
survivors of the slaughter. Some 167 survivors of the genocide have
been murdered between 1995 and mid-May 2008.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Sep 15, Rwandan voters
went to the polls for parliamentary elections contested only by
movements allied to the ruling party of Pres. Paul Kagame. His
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) won 42 of 53 contested seats in a
proclaimed turnout of 98.5%.
(AP, 9/15/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.61)
2008 Sep 18, Rwanda became the
first country in the world where women outnumber men in parliament,
according to provisional results announced at the close of a
four-day legislative vote.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 24, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) sentenced Simeon
Nchamihigo, Rwanda’s former deputy prosecutor, to life in prison for
his role in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(Reuters, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep, Rwanda’s population
at this time was about 10 million.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.61)
2008 Oct 10, The UN urged Congo
and Rwanda to hold talks to avoid a war after Kinshasa accused its
eastern neighbor of sending troops over the border to back Congolese
rebels.
(Reuters, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 29, Congolese rebel
forces advanced on the eastern city of Goma, threatening to
overwhelm government troops and a 17,000-strong UN force deployed to
halt a return to all-out war. The Congolese army said troops from
Rwanda have crossed the nearby border and attacked its soldiers in
support of a minority Tutsi rebellion. Congolese rebels declared a
ceasefire after a four-day push to the gates of Goma that threatened
to drag Congo back to all-out war, but heavy gunfire resumed near
the eastern city after dark.
(Reuters, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Nov 9, Rose Kabuye, Rwanda
Pres. Kagame's chief of protocol, was arrested at Frankfurt airport
on an international warrant issued in 2006 by French anti-terrorism
judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.
(AFP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 11, Rwanda expelled
the German ambassador and Pres. Kagame declared that Germany
violated his country's sovereignty when it arrested one of his aides
in connection with an attack that set off Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 19, Germany extradited
to France Rose Kabuye (47), chief of protocol to Rwandan President
Paul Kagame, over an assassination triggering the 1994 genocide,
amid mass anti-European protests in Kigali. Some European
investigators feared that Kabuye deliberately delivered herself to
German authorities so her lawyers could gain access to the case
files prepared against her and other Kagame allies.
(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 20, Britain called on
Rwandan President Paul Kagame to use his "influence" over Congolese
rebels led by general Laurent Nkunda to end to violence in eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/20/08)
2008 Dec 2, In Tanzania Simon
Bikindi, Rwandan singer-songwriter, was sentenced to 15 years in
prison by the Tanzania-based UN war crimes court for inciting the
killings of ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide. In 2010 a court
upheld his 15 year sentence. The time Bikindi has already spent in
prison since his arrest in July 2001 will be deducted from the 15
years.
(AFP, 12/2/08)(AFP, 3/18/10)
2008 Dec 12, A UN Security
Council panel said that Rwanda and Congo are fighting a proxy war by
aiding each other's enemies, a conclusion that could lead to
additional UN sanctions over the conflict in the central African
region. A UN report cited an advisor to Rwandan President Paul
Kagame and a member of the Congolese opposition, both wealthy
businessmen, as key financial backers of rebels in eastern DR Congo.
(AP, 12/12/08)(AFP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 18, Theoneste Bagosora
(67), a former Rwandan army colonel, was convicted of genocide and
sentenced to life in prison, the most significant verdict of a UN
tribunal set up to bring the killers to justice. The 1994 genocide
saw government troops, Hutu militia and ordinary villagers spurred
on by hate messages broadcast on the radio going from village to
village, butchering men, women and children.
(AP, 12/18/08)
2008 Stephen Kinzer authored “A
Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It,” the
story of Paul Kagame and Rwanda.
(Econ, 8/23/08, p.73)
2009 Jan 15, The US Air Force
began airlifting heavy machinery to Rwandan troops serving in an
international mission in Darfur, the first time the new US Africa
Command has undertaken a large-scale peacekeeper support operation.
(AP, 1/15/09)
2009 Jan 19, Rwanda said it was
restoring relations with Germany after a diplomatic spat between the
two countries over Berlin's arrest of a top Rwandan official for
complicity in the 1994 genocide. A Rwandan court passed a life
sentence on Agnes Ntamabyariro, a former justice minister accused of
ordering the killing of Jean Baptiste Habyarimana, a Tutsi official
who opposed Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
(AP, 1/19/09)(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 20, Hundreds of
Rwandan troops rolled into the Democratic Republic of Congo to join
Congolese forces hunting Rwandan rebels operating there since 1994.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 22, Congolese and
Rwandan troops advanced on the headquarters of Tutsi rebel leader,
Laurent Nkunda, as Kinshasa used its neighbor to smother a rebellion
in eastern DR Congo. Rwanda arrested Congo rebel leader Laurent
Nkunda after he fled a joint operation launched by the armies of the
two nations.
(AP, 1/22/09)(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 26, The armies of
Congo and Rwanda, battling together against Rwandan Hutu militiamen
in eastern Congo, clashed with fighters trying to retake a village
and killed 4 of them.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Maryland
Goucher College President Sanford Ungar told faculty and students in
an e-mail that Professor Leopold Munyakazi (59) was removed from
teaching after officials learned he had been indicted in 2006 on
genocide charges in Rwanda.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 12, A commuter plane,
Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J., coming in for
a landing nose-dived into a house in suburban Buffalo, sparking a
fiery explosion that killed all 49 people aboard and a person in the
home. It was the nation's first fatal crash of a commercial airliner
in 2 1/2 years. Historian Alison Des Forges (66), prominent human
rights advocate who documented genocide in Rwanda, was among the
victims of the crash.
(AP, 2/13/09)(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 25, Rwandan troops
began pulling out of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a
controversial joint operation with Congolese troops against Rwandan
Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 27, A UN tribunal in
Tanzania convicted a former Rwandan military chaplain of attempted
rape and genocide for crimes that included killing people who had
sought refuge in a seminary. The three-judge panel sentenced
Emmanuel Rukundo (50) to 25 years in prison. Rukundo will only serve
17 and half years because the judges gave him credit for the seven
and a half years he has already spent in detention.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 23, In the Netherlands
Joseph Mpambara (40), a Hutu man, was convicted and sentenced to 20
years in prison for the slaying of two Tutsi mothers and at least
four of their children during Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The Hague
District Court acquitted Mpambara of involvement in the massacre of
hundreds of other Tutsis who had sought shelter in a church. He was
also acquitted of raping four women and killing one of them in a
separate incident.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Apr 5, Rwanda's ambassador
said the bodies of nearly 11,000 Rwandan genocide victims that
floated more than 100 miles downriver and were placed in makeshift
graves in Uganda will receive proper reburial.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr, UN special
investigator Philip Alston said on October 15 that Congolese
soldiers had killed 50 Rwandan Hutu refugees and abducted and raped
around 40 women during an April attack on a refugee camp in eastern
DR Congo.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 May 22, A Canadian court
found Desire Munyaneza (42), a Rwandan man, guilty of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the 1994
Rwanda genocide, making him the first person convicted under
Canada's war crimes act. Munyaneza arrived in Canada in 1997 and
unsuccessfully tried to claim refugee status. Police subsequently
launched an investigation and arrested him in 2005. On Oct 29
Munyaneza was sentenced to 25 years in prison before becoming
eligible for parole.
(Reuters, 5/22/09)(Reuters, 10/29/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Tanzania a UN
court, trying alleged masterminds of Rwanda's 1994 genocide,
sentenced former interior minister Callixte Kalimanzira (56) to 30
years in prison for tricking thousands of people to hide on a hill,
only to watch them get slaughtered by militias.
(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 26, In Rwanda Aloys
Nsekarije, former Rwandan foreign minister and business tycoon, was
acquitted by a court over involvement in the country's 1994
genocide.
(AFP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jul 1, Switzerland said it
had refused a request to extradite a Rwandan national wanted in his
own country for alleged genocide and war crimes. Other European
countries have also refused extradition requests arguing that
suspects cannot at present receive a fair trial in the country.
(AFP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 9, The UN passed a
resolution extending the lifetime of the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda to next year. The latest extension is the second
for the Tanzania-based court which had originally been scheduled
wind up its lower court cases by December 2008, but had its life
extended to December 2009.
(AFP, 7/9/09)
2009 Jul 9, The Swedish
government said it will expel Sylvere Ahorugeze (53) within three
weeks, fulfilling a request from authorities in Rwanda and marking
the first time an EU nation has sent back a suspect to face charges
in the 1994 genocide.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Tanzania
Tharcisse Renzaho, the former prefect of Rwandan capital Kigali, was
sentenced to life for genocide-related crimes by the UN-backed war
crimes court trying masterminds of the country's 1994 massacre.
(AFP, 7/14/09)
2009 Aug 6, DR Congo President
Joseph Kabila met his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame in the
lakeside city of Goma for the first official bilateral talks between
the neighboring states in 13 years.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 11, Authorities in the
Democratic Republic of Congo arrested Gregoire Ndahimana, a former
Rwandan mayor, for his alleged role in the 1994 genocide. Measures
were taken for him to be transferred to the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
(AFP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 12, World Bank
President Robert Zoellick pledged to boost development aid to Rwanda
to help the rebuild the country ripped apart by genocide.
(Reuters, 8/12/09)
2009 Sep 3, Rwanda's state
radio reported that Alfred Mukezamfura, former speaker of
parliament, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for inciting
hatred during the 1994 genocide in which some 800,000 people died.
Mukezamfura fled the country in March to Belgium where he has sought
asylum.
(AFP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 26, In Rwanda at least
four people were killed and 52 injured when an unidentified man
lobbed a grenade into a crowd at a village market. Police suspect it
was an act of sabotage to sow terror in rural districts.
(AFP, 9/27/09)
2009 Oct 5, Police in Uganda
arrested Idelphonse Nizeyimana, one of the most wanted suspects from
Rwanda's 1994 genocide. The former army captain and senior
intelligence officer and others prepared lists of Tutsi
intellectuals and those in authority before handing the lists to
troops and militia who then killed them.
(Reuters, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 13, A report by a
coalition of 84 organizations said more than 1,000 civilians have
been killed and nearly 900,000 displaced in eastern Congo by Rwandan
Hutu militiamen and Congolese forces since January.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 24, In Rwanda 10
people were locked up in an underground passage which was blocked by
a big amount of (fallen) residue in Nyakabingo. 7 were rescued by
local people who dug another quick entrance. 3 remained inside. A
week earlier, 3 other miners were crushed to death in a cassiterite
and coltan mine in Rutongo, northern Rwanda.
(Reuters, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 28, In Rwanda Dismas
Mukeshabatware, a member of Radio Rwanda's renowned Indamutsa
theatre troupe, was sentenced on charges of murdering a woman and
her three children in 1994 in the southern town of Butare. On Dec 16
he was acquitted on appeal.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Nov 3, Rwanda said it has
urged the UN to list the Rwandan Hutu rebel group operating in
eastern Congo as a terrorist organization.
(AFP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 12, In Rwanda a
passenger plane with a recent history of technical problems crashed
into an airport VIP lounge Kigali, killing one passenger. The
CRJ-100 aircraft was leased from Kenya's Jetlink.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 17, A judge in
Tanzania said the prosecution failed to prove its case against
Father Hormisdas Nsengimana (55). He was alleged to have been at the
center of a group of Hutu extremists that planned and carried out
targeted attacks in Nyanza in 1994. Nsengimana was head of College
Christ-Roi, a prestigious Catholic school in the southern Rwandan
town. Judge Eric Mose ordered his immediate release from the UN
detention facility in Arusha. He had been imprisoned for seven years
since his 2002 arrest in Cameroon.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 17, Two leading
Rwandan Hutu rebels were arrested in Germany on suspicion of crimes
against humanity and war crimes this year and in 2008 in DR Congo.
The pair, Ignace Murwanashyaka (46) and Straton Musoni (48) are the
leader and deputy leader respectively of the Democratic Liberation
Forces of Rwanda. The FDLR is estimated to have 5,000 to 6,000
fighters, many of whom took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
before crossing into the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.
(AFP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 20, In Tanzania
members of the East Africa Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda,
Tanzania, Uganda) signed a common market agreement in Arusha,
headquarters of the EAC.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/21/content_12513712.htm)
2009 Nov 25, A United Nations
report confirmed that one of Africa's most brutal rebel movements
relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25
countries including in the US and Europe who facilitate arms
trafficking, money transfers and day-to-day operational support. The
findings are a scathing indictment of how little has been done by
the international community to cut off logistical support to the
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic
Hutu militia which has wreaked havoc in Congo.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, In Rwanda Janvier
Murenzi, a former presidential financial director, was fined 1.8
million dollars and jailed for four years for illegal enrichment as
Kigali cracks down on corruption.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nov 29, France and Rwanda
agreed to restore diplomatic ties three years after they were cut
off amid tensions over a French judicial investigation.
(AP, 11/29/09)
2009 Nov 29, Rwanda was
admitted to the Commonwealth as its 54th member during a summit in
Trinidad.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8384930.stm)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the
Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3
months had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and
used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of
illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the
wildlife authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 1, Ephraim Nkezabera
(57), a former Rwandan bank director, was sentenced to 30 years in
prison by a Belgian court which found him guilty of war crimes
including murder, attempted murder and rape during the 1994
genocide. Nkezabera was not present in court and did not attend the
trial, which started just over three weeks ago, because of ill
health. He was arrested in June 2004 by the Belgian authorities
while visiting a family member in Belgium.
(Reuters, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 4, In Sudan gunmen
killed three Rwandan soldiers in an ambush in the northern town of
Saraf Umra in the western Darfur region.
(AP, 12/5/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Sudan's Darfur
region 2 Rwandan peacekeepers were shot dead and one wounded, in the
second deadly attack on their contingent in 24 hours. The next day a
former Darfur rebel group captured 3 gunmen who allegedly killed the
5 Rwandan peacekeepers.
(Reuters, 12/5/09)(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 12, Rwanda held
elections. President Paul Kagame was reelected with a crushing
majority to head the Rwandan Patriotic Front party that has been in
power since 1994.
(AFP, 12/13/09)
2009 Dec 14, In Rwanda Valerie
Bemeriki, a former journalist, was sentenced to life in prison for
her role in inciting genocide, in the latest of a series of trials
for the 1994 slaughter.
(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Gerard Prunier authored
“Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of
a Continental Catastrophe.”
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.88)
2010 Jan 7, Rwanda and France
pledged to improve ties after a lengthy freeze in diplomatic
relations triggered by a French judge issuing arrest warrants for
top aides to President Paul Kagame.
(AFP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Rwanda the
latest feature film on the 1994 Rwanda genocide premiered in Kigali.
Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw shot "Le jour ou Dieu est parti
en voyage" (The Day God Stayed Away) over two months -- June to
August 2008 -- partly in Kigali, partly in the southwestern province
of Cyangugu. It shows in excruciating detail what day-to-day life
must have been like for those who survived beyond the first days of
the killing.
(AFP, 1/24/10)
2010 Feb 6, In Rwanda Joseph
Ntawangundi, an aide to the leader of the Unified Democratic Party
(FDU), was arrested on a 2007 arrest warrant. He had been convicted
in absentia for genocide by one of the grassroots courts known as
gacaca in eastern Ngoma province. The FDU protested that
Ntawangundi, sentence to 19 years in prison, was not in the country
during the 1994 genocide that left some 800,000 dead. In March he
sentenced to 17 years in prison for genocide in a retrial by a local
court.
(AFP, 2/8/10)(AFP, 3/25/10)
2010 Feb 11, In Tanzania a UN
tribunal found former Rwandan Lt. Col. Tharcisse Muvunyi guilty of
exhorting a crowd to kill Tutsis and destroy their homes during the
1994 genocide that ripped through the Central African nation. He was
sentenced to 15 years in prison.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 15, Congo’s Radio
Okapi, a UN-run station, said Rwandan Hutu rebels have killed at
least 27 people in eastern Congo already this month.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 18, Rwanda state radio
said a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, Peday Ntihanabayo, has been
sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in Rwanda's 1994
genocide by a grass-roots gacaca appeals court.
(AFP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 19, In Rwanda 3
grenade attacks in Kigali killed 1 person and injured 30. Another
person died overnight from injuries in the attack.
(AP, 2/20/10)(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 20, Rwandan police
arrested 3 suspects in connection with three Feb 19 grenade attacks
in Kigali that left two people dead.
(AFP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Rwanda French
Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy visited with pres. Paul Kagame too cement
improved diplomatic relations following years of acrimony,
recriminations and diplomatic standoffs over events surrounding the
1994 genocide. He said France made serious errors of judgment over
the genocide, and those responsible for the killings should be found
and punished, including any who might be residing in France.
(Reuters, 2/25/10)(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 25, In Arusha,
Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
found lieutenant colonel Ephrem Setako (60) guilty of genocide,
crimes against humanity and murder. "The Chamber found that Setako
ordered the killings on 25 April 1994 of 30 to 40 Tutsis at Mukamira
military camp in Ruhengeri prefecture and around 10 other Tutsis
there on 11 May 1994."
(Reuters, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 28, A UN-backed
military operation against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo was launched. The operation will involve 18
battalions from the Congolese FARDC army in a series of targeted
attacks throughout north and south Kivu provinces in Congo's
conflict-racked east.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 2, French authorities
arrested Agathe Habyarimana, the widow of the former Rwandan
president killed in a plane crash, on a Rwandan warrant issued on
genocide-related charges. She was soon freed on bail. The crash is
widely considered the event that sparked the east African country's
1994 genocide. In 2004 France rejected her request for political
asylum, alleging she was at the heart of the regime responsible for
the genocide.
(AP, 3/2/10)(Econ, 3/6/10, p.65)
2010 Mar 4, In Rwanda 2 grenade
blasts wounded 16 people in the capital, in the second wave of
grenade attacks to hit Kigali in two weeks. On March 6 authorities
said Deo Mushayidi, a former member of the then rebel group Rwandan
Patriotic Front that ended the 1994 genocide, was arrested in
neighboring Burundi. The government has also accused two former
senior army officers now exiled in South Africa of being behind the
attacks.
(AP, 3/5/10)(AFP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 10, Rwanda told Carina
Tertsakian, a Human Rights Watch researcher, that her work permit
had been revoked. On April 23, she was given 24 hours to leave the
country.
(AP, 5/21/10)
2010 Mar 10, A UN official said
90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in eastern Congo during a
two-week Congolese army operation conducted with the support of UN
peacekeepers.
(AP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 17, The Congolese army
said more than 600 Rwandan Hutu rebels have been killed or captured
since January in an operation backed by the UN mission to the
country.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Apr 20, Rwanda’s army
announced that 2 senior generals have been arrested over accusations
of corruption and misconduct.
(AFP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 21, Rwandan opposition
leader and presidential hopeful Victoire Ingabire was arrested on
charges of denying the 1994 genocide and "collaborating with a
terrorist organization." Ingabire was handed conditional freedom the
next day, but was barred from travelling out of the capital city,
Kigali.
(AP, 4/21/10)(AFP, 4/22/10)
2010 May 10, In Rwanda Bernard
Hategekimana (aka Mukingo), the former managing editor of a Rwandan
newspaper was sentenced by a gacaca court to life in prison after
being convicted for his role in inciting the country's 1994
genocide.
(AFP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 14, Four African
countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda) signed a new treaty
on the equitable sharing of the Nile waters despite strong
opposition from Egypt and Sudan, who have the lion's share of the
river waters. The new agreement, the Nile Basin Cooperative
Framework, is to replace a 1959 accord between Egypt and Sudan that
gives them control of more than 90 percent of the water flow.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned at the weekend
that Cairo's water rights were a "red line" and threatened legal
action if a partial deal is reached.
(AFP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 15, In Rwanda 2 people
were killed and 27 others wounded during two separate grenade
attacks in the capital Kigali.
(AFP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 26, In France Eugene
Rwamucyo, a Rwandan doctor accused of participation in the 1994
Tutsi genocide, was arrested. He was dismissed from his hospital
post in northern France last month, and was wanted by Kigali for
allegedly planning and carrying out atrocities in the Butare region
of southern Rwanda.
(AFP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, Rwandan
authorities arrested Minnesota lawyer Peter Erlinder (62) over
allegations of denying the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people
were slaughtered. Under a 2003 law, persons condemned for denying or
grossly minimizing genocide, attempting to justify genocide or
destroy evidence related to it are liable to a minimum of 10 years
and a maximum of 20 in prison. In April Erlinder filed a lawsuit in
the US alleging that current Rwandan President Paul Kagame ordered
the shooting down of a plane carrying then-leader Juvenal
Habyarimana, an event that triggered the bloodshed 16 years ago.
Erlinder was released on medical grounds on June 19 and returned
home on June 22. Erlinder said he has never denied there was a
genocide in Rwanda, but did dispute the conventional story line of
what happened.
(Reuters, 5/28/10)(AP, 6/2/10)(AP, 6/20/10)(AP,
6/22/10)
2010 Jun 5, Rwanda hosted UN
World Environment Day with a ceremony to name 11 endangered baby
mountain gorillas in which Internet users worldwide were for the
first time able to take part.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 11, A Finnish court
sentenced former Rwandan pastor, Francois Bazaramba, to life
imprisonment for committing genocide against the Tutsi minority in
his home country in 1994.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 19, In South Africa
exiled Rwandan Lt.-General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa was shot and
wounded in what his wife called a Rwandan-backed assassination
attempt, a charge the Kigali government dismissed as "preposterous."
In 2011 six accused men, three Rwandans and three Tanzanians, stood
trial for the shooting.
(Reuters, 6/19/10)(AFP, 7/1/11)
2010 Jun 24, In Rwanda
journalist Jean-Leonard Rugambage, the acting editor of Umuvugizi, a
banned local-language newspaper, was shot dead in Kigali. Didace
Nduguyangu and Antoine Karemera were arrested the day after the
killing. On Oct 29 Rwanda’s High Court sentenced both of them to
life in prison.
(AFP, 6/25/10)(AFP, 10/31/10)
2010 Jun 29, Congolese Gen.
Amuli Bahigwa said the army has killed 80 rebels from neighboring
Rwanda and Uganda who crossed into volatile eastern Congo. Bahigwa
said the army killed the rebels in an operation that started June 1.
He said four soldiers were killed and that Ugandan rebels killed
eight civilians.
(AP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jul 1, The international
court in Tanzania investigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide said it has
sentenced Yussuf Munyakazi (75), a father of 13, to 25 years in jail
for killing thousands of people. He was found guilty of "genocide
and extermination" involving Tutsis who had sought refuge in
Catholic churches.
(AFP, 7/1/10)
2010 Jul 8, Rwandan authorities
arrested Agnes Uwimana, director of Umurabyo, a privately
owned newspaper, on charges of incitement, denial of the 1994
genocide and contempt of the head of state.
(AFP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 13, Tanzanian lawyer
Jwani Mwaikusa was shot in Dar es Salaam. He was a defense lawyer
for a UN tribunal that tries suspects in Rwanda's 1994 genocide.
Police said his nephew and a neighbor were also killed.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 14, In Rwanda Andre
Kagwa Rwisereka, deputy president of the opposition Rwandan
Democratic Green Party, was found nearly decapitated and dumped by a
river. He was last seen a day earlier walking out of a bar in a
southern district.
(AFP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 20, Uganda's
government defended the forced repatriation of 1,700 Rwandan
refugees, action that the UN refugee agency condemned for being
heavy-handed. Two people died while trying to escape the roundup.
The Rwandans were forced out of Uganda on July 14 because they had
no refugee status and had become a security risk.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 22, Burundi was
labeled as the most corrupt country in East Africa in a survey by
Transparency International. Rwanda was found to be the least corrupt
among the five countries in the region.
(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Jul 30, In eastern
CongoDRC rebels from the Mai Mai militia and Rwandan Hutu FDLR
occupied Luvungi town one day after beginning an attack there. Over
the next 4 days they gang-raped scores of women. The rebels
withdrew voluntarily on Aug 4. Later reports said there were over
240 victims of rape.
(AP, 8/23/10)(Reuters, 9/1/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Rwanda the
French-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused Kigali of
"flouting democracy" ahead of elections as Rwanda's regulatory body
suspended some 30 media organizations.
(AFP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 3, In Arusha,
Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR),
found Dominique Ntawukulilyayo (68) guilty of genocide and sentenced
him to 25 years of imprisonment. Prosecutors said Ntawukulilyayo in
1994 had transported soldiers to a hill where thousands of refugee
Tutsis had gathered after he promised to feed and protect them. The
soldiers joined other assailants in an attack, leaving possibly
thousands of Tutsis dead.
(Reuters, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 9, Rwandans voted in
large numbers after a presidential election campaign that rights
groups said was marred by repression and violence against critics of
incumbent Paul Kagame, who is expected to win by a landslide. The
bush war veteran won 93 percent of the vote in more than a third of
country's districts.
(Reuters, 8/9/10)(Reuters, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 11, In Rwanda a
grenade attack shook Kigali wounding at least seven people as Pres.
Paul Kagame was declared winner of a much-criticized election devoid
of real opposition. Two people later died of injuries sustained in
the grenade blast.
(AFP, 8/12/10)(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 18, In Germany a
former Rwandan mayor living in Germany was charged for allegedly
organizing massacres and inciting killings during the African
country's 1994 genocide. Prosecutors alleged that the former Hutu
mayor, identified as Onesphore R. (53), called for pogroms against
the Tutsi minority on three occasions. Prosecutors asserted that the
man ordered and coordinated three massacres between April 11 and 15,
1994, in which at least 3,730 Tutsis were killed.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 26, Interpol said
police have seized about 10 metric tons of counterfeit medicines and
arrested 80 people in a sweep across eastern Africa. Authorities
across Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar took
part in the bust.
(Reuters, 8/26/10)
2010 Sep 15, A French court
rejected Kigali's request to extradite Rwandan doctor Eugene
Rwamucyo, who is suspected of involvement in the 1994 genocide,
sparking Rwanda's ire.
(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 17, A Rwandan court
sentenced an opposition leader to life in prison for recruiting
rebels to fight President Paul Kagame's government. Deo Mushayidi, a
former ruling party member, was also convicted of obtaining a
passport through fraud and spreading rumors to incite civil
disobedience for which he received shorter terms.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 17, Spain approved a
request to ask that South Africa extradite former Rwandan army chief
Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, who is wanted on charges of genocide and
for the murder of four Spaniards in Rwanda in the 1990s. Nyamwasa
fled to South Africa in February after abandoning his post as
Rwanda's envoy to India. Four months later he was shot in the
stomach outside his home in an upmarket Johannesburg suburb.
(AFP, 9/18/10)
2010 Oct 1, The UN released its
545-page report into mass killings in Congo over a ten-year period.
Rwanda and Uganda insisted the $3 million report is flawed and could
harm security in Africa's volatile Great Lakes region.
(AP, 10/1/10)
2010 Oct 11, Callixte
Mbarushimana, a Rwandan leader of the FDLR rebel group, was arrested
in Paris on charges of leading rebels accused of mass rapes and
killings in Congo. The International Criminal Court said he is
charged with 11 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes,
including killings, rape, persecution based on gender and extensive
destruction of property committed by the FDLR during most of 2009.
(AP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 22, In China Kigali
and Beijing agreed to enhance their military cooperation during a
visit to China by Rwandan Defence Minister James Kaberebe. Kaberebe
held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, as part of
a five-day visit to China.
(AFP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 30, In eastern Rwanda
11 miners died in an accident at a tin mine in the Rwamagana
district.
(AFP, 10/31/10)
2010 Nov 1, In Tanzania Gasper
Kanyarukiga, a former Rwandan businessman, was found guilty of
ordering bulldozers in 1994 to demolish the Nyange Church where
2,000 Tutsis had sought shelter. Judge Taghrid Hikmet said he
intentionally participated in the genocidal act and sentenced him to
30 years in prison.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 3, A Paris appeals
court said Callixte Mbarushimana could be extradited to the court in
the Hague, Netherlands, but only on condition that he not be later
sent to Rwanda. Rwanda has the death penalty, which France opposes.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 17, In eastern Congo
Rwandan Hutu rebels attacked a truck, killing at least three people
and wounding several others. UN-run Radio Okapi earlier reported the
rebels killed 21 people in the attack in the heavily forested
Walikale territory, but a UN spokeswoman said peacekeepers on patrol
in the area confirmed only three dead.
(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 19, In the Republic of
Congo 8 countries signed a convention to limit the spread of weapons
in central Africa, but three countries opted out. Angola, Cameroon,
the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, The Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe all
signed. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda did not sign.
(AFP, 11/20/10)
2010 Dec 1, The UN named 3
Rwandan rebel leaders and a Congolese military officer, suspected of
recruiting child soldiers and other abuses, on its worldwide travel
ban and assets freeze aimed at stemming widespread violence in
Congo.
(AP, 12/2/10)
2010 Dec 6, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda handed down a life
sentence to Ildephonse Hategekimana, a lieutenant from the former
Rwandan army, after finding him guilty of genocide, murder and rape
in the 1994 massacre of Tutsis.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 8, German prosecutors
filed war crimes charges against two Rwandan men suspected of
issuing orders to a mostly ethnic Hutu militia involved in killings
of Congolese civilians. Ignace Murwanashyaka (47) and Straton Musoni
(49) were charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and
membership in a foreign terrorist group. Murwanashyaka allegedly
served as FDLR's president from 2001 and Musoni served as vice
president from 2004, and the pair controlled the militia group from
Germany.
(AP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 16, Lawyers said a
French judge has filed preliminary charges against six people close
to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda over the 1994 assassination of
the country's then-president in a missile attack on his plane. Among
the six people in question are ranking Rwandan army officers,
including James Kabarebe, who has been Rwanda's defense minister
since April, Charles Kayonga and Jackson Nkurunziza. The remaining
three were identified as Jacob Tumwine, Sam Kaka and Franck Nziza.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 21, A French judge
charged exiled Rwandan Hutu rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana (47)
over his alleged role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The former
"executive secretary" of the Hutu guerrilla FDLR, who had been
living in France as a computer technician, was charged with crimes
against humanity.
(AFP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 31, Rwandan police
said they are working with counterparts in Dhaka to deport 64
Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking, after the arrest in Kigali
of their suspected trafficker. Abdul Sattar Miah was arrested Dec 27
in a hotel in Kigali, in possession of the passports of his presumed
victims.
(AFP, 12/31/10)
2010 Some 100,000 Twa pygmies
remained in the Great Lakes region of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and
CongoDRC. Most of them were barred from their ancestral forests
including the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which was turned into a
national park in 1991.
(Econ, 9/25/10, SR p.11)
2011 Jan 14, A Rwandan military
court handed jail terms of between 20 and 24 years to four former
comrades-in-arms of Pres. Paul Kagame, tried in absentia for
threatening state security. They had accused Kagame of being
authoritarian, corrupt and driving the country back towards a
conflict on the same scale as the 1994 massacres. On Jan 16 all
four dismissed as politically motivated the heavy jail terms,
and accused Kagame of misusing justice to target his foes.
(AFP, 1/14/11)(AFP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 18, Rwanda said police
will begin cracking down on those degrading the environment as part
of their widened jurisdiction to shore up ecological protection.
(AFP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 22, The Rwandan army
said its former chief of staff and an ex-spy chief, both exiled in
South Africa, have formed a rebel group operating in neighboring
Democratic Republic of Congo. Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa and Patrick
Karegeya and two other former top officials, also in exile, were
last week sentenced to heavy jail terms for threatening state
security.
(AFP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 25, Rwandan rebel
Callixte Mbarushimana (47) arrived in the Hague, Netherlands, after
a Paris appeals court ruling in November approved the transfer to
the International Criminal Court. He was charged with 11 counts of
crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape,
persecution based on gender, and extensive destruction of property
by the Hutu FDLR in 2009.
(AP, 1/25/11)(AFP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 26, Two Rwandan
opposition parties said that they have formed a joint strategy to
fight the "dictatorship, discrimination and marginalization" of
Pres. Paul Kagame's government.
(AFP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 28, In Rwanda a
grenade attack killed two people and wounded at least 28 in Kigali
during the evening rush hour.
(Reuters, 1/29/11)
2011 Feb 4, In Rwanda
journalists Agnes Nkusi Uwimana and Saidaiti Mukakibibi, were
sentenced to 17 and 7 years respectively for publicly criticizing
the government in published articles. On April 5, 2012, the supreme
court cleared Nkusi of genocide denial and promoting ethnic
divisions, but upheld her convictions for defamation for insulting
President Kagame and inciting public disorder. Her total sentence
was reduced to four years from 17. The court upheld Mukabibibi's
conviction for inciting civil disobedience but reduced her sentence
from seven years to three years.
(AP, 2/12/11)(http://rwandinfo.com/eng/)(AFP,
4/5/12)
2011 Feb 11, Rwanda's High
Court sentenced opposition leader Bernard Ntaganda, the founder of
the PS-Imberakuri party, to four years in prison and fined three
others opposition figures in a trial that an international human
rights body said was politically motivated.
(AP, 2/12/11)
2011 Mar 29, The International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda handed a life sentence to Jean-Baptiste
Gatete, a former women's ministry official. The tribunal concluded
he had retained influence in that region and was responsible for the
massacres of at least hundreds of Tutsis in three places in the
east: Rwankuba, Kiziguro parish and Mukarange parish.
(AFP, 3/29/11)
2011 May 7, In Rwanda a bus
crash outside the capital of Kigali left 16 passengers dead.
(AFP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 17, In Tanzania the
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced Maj. Gen.
Augustin Bizimungu to 30 years in prison for ordering killings
during the 1994 genocide. Three other top officers were also
sentenced. Bizimungu was captured in Angola in 2002. The ICTR also
convicted the head of the paramilitary police at the time, Augustin
Ndindiliyimana, of genocide crimes but ordered his release as he had
already spent 11 years in jail.
(AP, 5/17/11)(AFP, 5/17/11)
2011 Jul 29, President Yoweri
Museveni of Uganda began a four-day visit to neighboring Rwanda and
met with his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame upon arrival. Media in
both countries had reported that relations were strained over
reports that Ugandan security operatives had met with two former
senior Rwandan military officers who now oppose Kagame.
(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 11, A Rwanda court
acquitted former university lecturer and botanist Runyinya
Barabwiriza, a one-time adviser to killed president Juvenal
Habyarimana, after he spent 16 years in jail on accusations of
planning the 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 28, In Rwanda the
publisher of the fortnightly Ishema, Fidele Gakire, decided in
consultation with his editorial committee, to suspend publication of
the newspaper for one month, declaring that he is subject to serious
threats over an article about Pres. Paul Kagame.
(AFP, 8/31/11)
2011 Sep 30, Two former Rwandan
ministers were jailed for 30 years by the International Criminal
Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for involvement in the country's 1994
genocide. Former public service minister Prosper Mugiraneza and his
then trade counterpart Justin Mugenzi were convicted of complicity
to commit genocide and incitement to commit genocide. The
Tanzania-based tribunal acquitted 2 other ministers charged with
similar offences due to lack of evidence.
(AFP, 9/30/11)
2011 Nov 17, The Tanzania-based
International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) handed down a
15-year jail term for genocide to Gregory Ndahimana (59), a Rwandan
former mayor, who in 1994 failed to stop police bulldozing a church,
burying nearly 2,000 people sheltered inside.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Dec 14, The Tanzania-based
UN tribunal said it has overturned several convictions against
former Rwandan Ministry of Defense director Col. Theoneste Bagosora.
The court reduced his life sentence to 35 years. Bagosora had been
sentenced in 2008 at the age of 67. The court also reduced the life
sentence of former military commander Anatole Nsengiyumva to 15
years and released him for time served.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 16, Judges of the
International Criminal Court at The Hague decided not to charge
Rwandan rebel leader Callixte Mbarushimana (48) for crimes committed
in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ordered his release.
Mbarushimana faced 13 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity allegedly committed in DR Congo's Kivu provinces in 2009.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 16, A court in Paris
charged Sosthene Munyemana, a Rwandan doctor living in France, on
suspicion he took part in the country's 1994 genocide.
(AFP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 21, The UN tribunal
for Rwanda handed life sentences to Matthieu Ngirumpatse and Edouard
Karemera, former heads of the ex-ruling party, for genocide crimes
committed in 1994.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 21, Marie-Claire
Mukeshimana (43), a Rwandan woman convicted in absentia by a court
in her country for her role in the 1994 genocide, arrived in Kigali
after being extradited from the US. She was sentenced in 2009 to 19
years in prison for complicity in the killing of several children
who had sought refuge at a convent in southern Rwanda.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 23, The International
Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague freed Rwandan rebel Callixte
Mbarushimana and returned him to France after dismissing murder and
rape charges against him. He spent 11 months in detention and was
the first war crimes suspect to be arrested and freed without trial
since the court began work in 2002.
(AP, 12/23/11)
2012 Jan 1, In CongoDRC 8
people died and 44 were wounded when a hand grenade exploded during
an attempted jail break at the main prison in Bukavu, Sud-Kivu
province. At least 18 people were killed in the town of Luyuyu in an
attack by Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/2/12)(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 3, In CongoDRC at
least 8 people were killed in the town of Ngolombe in an attack by
Rwandan Hutu rebels.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 18, Rwanda's military
said it has suspended and put under house arrest four top military
officers over allegations of business dealings with civilians in
Congo.
(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 24, Canada deported a
Rwandan man charged with crimes against humanity. Leon Mugesera, who
lost a 16-year battle to stay in Canada, will face charges of
inciting murder, extermination and genocide.
(Reuters, 1/24/12)
2012 Jan 27, The Rwandan
government said it will increase the cost of a permit to track the
endangered mountain gorillas, the country's main tourist attraction,
to $750 from $500 starting June 1. The permit allows visitors to
spend around one hour observing the primates, estimated to total
just 790 worldwide.
(AP, 1/27/12)
2012 Feb 24, The Tanzania-based
UN-backed tribunal for Rwanda referred fugitive suspect Fulgence
Kayishema's case to Kigali, the second such handover after initially
refusing to do so on account that Rwandan courts could not guarantee
fair trials.
(AFP, 2/24/12)
2012 Mar 1, Rwandan opposition
leader Charles Ntakirutinka vowed to remain critical President Paul
Kagame's government as he walked free at the end of a 10-year prison
sentence for incitement.
(AFP, 3/1/12)
2012 Mar 15, In New Hampshire a
federal judge declared a mistrial in the case of Beatrice
Munyenyezi, a Rwanda woman who became a citizen in 2003. She was
accused of lying to obtain her citizenship by denying her role in
the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
(SFC, 3/16/12, p.A8)
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