INDEPTH: RWANDA
Genocide in Rwanda: Timeline of Events
CBC News Online | April 8, 2004
Oct. 1990
Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels cross border into Rwanda from their Uganda base. Rebel leader killed, attack repulsed.
July 12, 1992
Rwanda's Hutu-dominated government and RPF agree to peace deal in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania.
Feb. 8, 1993
Negotiations between two sides suspended after RPF breaches ceasefire.
March 7, 1993
Peace talks back on.
Aug. 4, 1993
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and RPF sign Arusha Peace Agreement. It stipulates a 22-month transitional government within 37 days, elections by 1995 and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.
Oct. 5, 1993
UN Security Council resolution 872 creates the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). It receives a six-month deployment.
December 1993 - April 1994
Transitional government for Rwanda fails to evolve.
April 6, 1994
President Habyarimana and Burundi's President Cyprien Ntaryamira killed when rocket strikes plane outside Kigali Airport. Sparks violence and refugee exodus; in two weeks more than one million refugees flee the country.
April 7, 1994
Presidential guards kill Rwandan Prime Minister Agathe Uwibiyiyimana (Madame Agathe).
April 14, 1994
Belgium withdraws troops.
April 21, 1994
UN Security Council votes to withdraw 90 per cent of UNAMIR peacekeepers from Rwanda. Roughly 270 troops remain.
May 17, 1004
UN Security Council resolution says "acts of genocide may have been committed."
June 22, 1994
UN Security Council authorizes member states to intervene. France and Senegal send troops to Rwanda.
July 1994
RPF take control of Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Drive Hutu-dominated RGF into Burundi, Tanzania and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). RPF declares unilateral ceasefire and establishes own government, naming Pasteur Bizimungu as president and Faustin Twagiramungu as prime minister.
Dec. 1997
Rwanda's first genocide trial under the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) opens in Arusha.
April 2000
Bizimungu resigns as president, citing differences with the RPF. He is replaced by Vice-President Paul Kagame. A Tutsi, Kagame was an RPF commander throughout the genocide.
August 25, 2003
Kagame elected president in Rwanda's first popular vote for president.
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Population: 7,810,056
Capital: Kigali
Government type: Republic
President: Paul Kagame
Ethnicity: 85% Hutu, 14% Tutsi
Major languages: Kinyarwanda, English and French are official languages. Swahili is also used.
Major religions: Catholic (56.5%), Protestant (26%), Adventist (11.1%), Muslim (4.6%)
Location: Land-locked nation in central Africa, bordering Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Area: 26,338 km sq.
Life expectancy: 39.33 years
Median age: 18.1 years
Natural resources: Gold, tin ore, tungsten ore, methane
Canadian imports from: Coffee ($700,000)
Canadian exports to: Electrical machinery ($800,000 and worn clothing $100,000)
Sources: CIA World Factbook and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
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