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)
The population in 1998 was ~7.5 (7.8) million.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)(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. 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.
(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)
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 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 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.
(www.ictr.org/ENGLISH/cases/Kanyarukiga/indictment/index.pdf)(AP,
8/31/09)
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 29, Hundreds of thousands
of refugees fleeing the terror of ethnic massacres in Rwanda were
pouring into Tanzania.
(AP, 4/29/99)
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-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 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 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 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 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 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 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 neighbouring 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 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.
(AFP, 12/2/08)
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)
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