Rwanda Chronology | FRONTLINE | PBS

1918 Under the Treaty of Versailles the former Germancolony of Rwanda-Urundi is made a League of Nations protectorateto be governed by Belgium. The two territories (later tobecome Rwanda and Burundi) are administered separatelyunder two different Tutsi monarchs.

Both Germany and Belgium turned the traditional Hutu-Tutsi relationship into a class system. The minority Tutsi (14%) are favored over the Hutus (85%) and given privileges and western-style education. The Belgians used the Tutsi minority to enforce their rule.

1926Belgians introduce a system of ethnic identity cardsdifferentiating Hutus from Tutsis.

1957 PARMEHUTU (Party for the Emancipation of the Hutus) isformed while Rwanda is still under Belgian rule.

1959Hutus rebel against the Belgian colonial power and the Tutsi elite; 150,000 Tutsis flee to Burundi.

1960 Hutus win municipal elections organized by Belgian colonial rulers.

1961-62 Belgians withdraw. Rwanda and Burundi become two separate and independent countries.

A Hutu revolution in Rwanda installs a new president, Gregoire Kayibanda; fighting continues and thousands of Tutsis are forced to flee. In Burundi, Tutsis retain power.

1963Further massacre of Tutsis, this time in response tomilitary attack by exiled Tutsis in Burundi. Again morerefugees leave the country. It is estimated that by themid-1960s half of the Tutsi population is living outsideRwanda.

1967Renewed massacres of Tutsis.

1973 Purge of Tutsis from universities. Fresh outbreak ofkillings, again directed at Tutsi community.

The army chief of staff, General Juvenal Habyarimana,seizes power, pledging to restore order. He sets up a one-party state. A policy of ethnic quotas is entrenched in allpublic service employment. Tutsis are restricted to ninepercent of available jobs.

1975Habyarimana's political party, the National Revolutionary Movement for Development (Mouvement Revolutionnaire Nationalpour le Developpement, or MRND) is formed. Hutus from thepresident's home area of northern Rwanda are given overwhelming preferencein public service and military jobs. This pattern of exclusion of the Tutsiscontinues throughout the '70s and '80s.

1986In Uganda, Rwandan exiles are among the victorioustroops of Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army whotake power, overthrowing the dictator Milton Obote.The exiles then form the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),a Tutsi-dominated organization.

1989Coffee prices collapse, causing severe economichardship in Rwanda.

July 1990Under pressure from Western aid donors, Habyarimanaconcedes the principle of multi-party democracy.

Oct. 1990RPF guerillas invade Rwanda fromUganda. After fierce fighting in which French and Zaireantroops are called in to assist the government, a cease-fireis signed on March 29, 1991.

1990/91The Rwandan army begins to train and arm civilian militiasknown as interahamwe ("Those who stand together") For thenext three years Habyarimana stalls on the establishment ofa genuine multi-party system with power-sharing. Throughoutthis period thousands of Tutsis are killed in separatemassacres around the country. Opposition politicians andnewspapers are persecuted.

November 1992Prominent Hutu activist Dr. Leon Mugusera appeals toHutus to send the Tutsis "back to Ethiopia" via therivers.

February 1993 RPF launches a fresh offensive and the guerillas reach theoutskirts of Kigali. French forces are again called in tohelp the government side. Fighting continues for severalmonths.

August 1993Following months of negotiations,Habyarimana and the RPF sign a peace accord that allows forthe return of refugees and a coalition Hutu-RPF government. 2,500 U.N. troopsare deployed in Kigali to oversee the implementation of the accord.

Sept.1993-Mar.1994President Habyarimana stalls on setting up of power-sharinggovernment. Training of militias intensifies. Extremistradio station, Radio Mille Collines, begins broadcastingexhortations to attack the Tutsis. Human rights groups warnthe international community of impending calamity.

March 1994Many Rwandan human rights activists evacuate their families from Kigali believing massacres are imminent.

April 6, 1994President Habyarimana and the president of Burundi,Cyprien Ntaryamira, are killed when Habyarimana's planeis shot down near Kigali Airport. Extremists, suspecting that the president isfinally about to implement the Arusha Peace Accords, are believed to be behind the attack. That night the killing begins.

April 7, 1994The Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and the interahamwe set up roadblocks and go fromhouse to house killing Tutsis and moderate Hutu politicians. Thousands die onthe first day. U.N. forces stand by while the slaughter goes on. They areforbidden to intervene, as this would breach their "monitoring" mandate.

April 8, 1994The RPF launches a major offensive to end the genocide andrescue 600 of its troops surrounded in Kigali. The troopshad been based in the city as part of the Arusha Accords.

April 21, 1994The U.N. cuts its forces from 2,500 to 250following the murder of ten Belgian soldiers assigned toguard the moderate Hutu prime minister, AgatheUwiliyingimana. The prime minister is killed and theBelgians are disarmed, tortured, and shot and hacked todeath. They had been told not to resist violently by the U.N.force commander, as this would have breached their mandate.

April 30, 1994The U.N. Security Council spends eight hours discussing theRwandan crisis. The resolution condemning the killingomits the word "genocide." Had the term been used, the U.N.would have been legally obliged to act to "prevent andpunish" the perpetrators. Meanwhile, tens of thousandsof refugees flee into Tanzania, Burundi and Zaire. In oneday 250,000 Rwandans, mainly Hutus fleeing the advance ofthe RPF, cross the border into Tanzania.

May 17, 1994As the slaughter of the Tutsis continues the U.N.agrees to send 6,800 troops and policemen to Rwanda withpowers to defend civilians. A Security Councilresolution says "acts of genocide may have been committed."Deployment of the mainly AfricanU.N. forces is delayed because of arguments over who will paythe bill and provide the equipment. The United States argues with the U.N.over the cost of providing heavy armoured vehicles for the peacekeepingforces.

June 22, 1994With still no sign of U.N. deployment, the Security Councilauthorizes the deployment of French forces in south-westRwanda. They create a "safe area" in territory controlledby the government. Killings of Tutsis continue in thesafe area, although some are protected by the French.The United States government eventually uses the word"genocide."

July 1994 The RPF captures Kigali. The Hutu governmentflees to Zaire, followed by a tide of refugees. TheFrench end their mission and are replaced by Ethiopian U.N.troops. The RPF sets up an interim government of nationalunity in Kigali. A cholera epidemic sweeps the refugee camps in Zaire, killingthousands. Different U.N. agencies clash over reports that RPF troops havecarried out a series of reprisal killings in Rwanda. Several hundred civiliansare said to have been executed. Meanwhile the killing of Tutsiscontinues in refugee camps.

August 1994New Rwandan government agrees to trials before an international tribunal established by the U.N. SecurityCouncil.

November 1994U.N. Security Council establishes an international tribunalthat will oversee prosecution of suspects involvedin genocide.

Jan. 5-10 1995U.N. begins process towards finalizing plans with Zaireand Tanzania that will lead to the return of one and ahalf million Hutus to Rwanda over the next five months.U.N. Security Council refuses to dispatch an internationalforce to police refugee camps.

Feb. 19, 1995Western governments, including the U.S. ($60 million), pledge$600 million in aid to Rwanda.

Feb. 27, 1995U.N. Security Council urges all states to arrest peoplesuspected of involvement in the Rwandan genocide.

Mid-May 1995Tensions increase between the United Nations and theRwandan government; the government growing resentful ofthe lack of international financial aid

June 10, 1995U.N. Security Council unanimously agrees to cut by more thanhalf the number of U.N. troops in Rwanda after a directrequest from the Rwandan government to withdraw U.N. forces.

July 1995More than 720,000 Hutu refugees around Goma refuse toreturn to Rwanda.

August 1995 U.N. Security Council lifts arms embargo until September 1,1996.

Sept. 20, 1995At a Mass in Nairobi, Pope John Paul II urges an endto the bloodshed in Rwanda and Burundi.

Dec. 12, 1995United Nations Tribunal for Rwanda announces first indictments against eight suspects; charges them withgenocide and crimes against humanity.

Dec. 13, 1995U.N. Security Council extends its peacekeeping missionfor three more months and agrees to reduce the number oftroops.

Nov. 1996 Mass repatriation from Zaire begins; the Rwandan governmentorders a moratorium on arrests of suspected genocide perpetrators.

December 1996Trials begin for Hutus involved in 1994 genocide.

Mid-Dec. 1996Tanzania closes refugee camps and repatriates Rwandans,bringing the total to over one million.

January 10, 1997 First case in the Rwandan genocide trials comes before theInternational Criminal Tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania. The case isagainst Jean Paul Akayesu, a local government official accused of ordering mass killings in his area.

January 17, 1997In a Rwanda court, Francois Bizimutima becomes the third Hutuconvicted and sentenced to death for his role ingenocide.

January 13-17, 1997A woman who testified against Jean Paul Akayesu is murdered alongwith her husband and seven children by Hutu extremists.

January 22, 1997Over 300 are killed in an attempt by the Rwandan army to captureHutu insurgents responsible for killings in Northwestern Rwanda,including the murder of the three Spanish aid workers. U.N. officialsstate many victims are recently returned refugees who witnessed the1994 genocide and are potential trial witnesses.

February 2, 1997In Gikongoro, Rwanda, Venuste Niyonzima is the first man triedlocally for crimes against humanity in his own village. A U.N. Human Rights official in Rwanda expresses "serious concern" over thelack of lawyers and adequate defense for those accused of participationin the 1994 genocide.Canadian priest, Guy Pinard, a witness to the1994 genocide, is murdered by Hutu terrorists while saying mass.

February 4, 1997Five human rights observers are killed in an ambush in Cyangugu,Rwanda. The murders are viewed as an effort by Hutu terrorists to getforeign observers out of the country. All human rights observers in Cyangugu, Kibuye, and Gisenyi are withdrawn by the U.N. to Kigali.

February 12, 1997United Nations watchdog agency criticizes the management of theRwandan genocide trials.

February 14, 1997United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan asks the five permanentsecurity council members to look into reports that the Zairean army isproviding arms to Rwandan Hutus in an Eastern Zaire refugee camp.

February 14, 1997Vincent Nkezazaganwa, a Rwandan Supreme Court Justice, is gunneddown by uniformed gunmen at his house. Frodouald Karamina, leader of a Hutu extremist political movement, is sentenced to death forhis involvement in the genocide. Karamina is believed to be one of theleaders and organizers of the genocide, having coined the slogan "HutuPower" and made many racist radio broadcasts urging mass murder.Karamina expressed no remorse for the part he had played in thegenocide. Karamina was born a Tutsi and assimilated himself as aHutu only later in life.

February 19-20, 1997Four prominent Rwandans accused of genocide appear in court for thefirst time.

February 23, 1997Israel Nemeyimana is the first defendant in the genocide trials to befound not guilty. Authorities state there was a lack of evidence andwitnesses.

February 26, 1997Citing mismanagement and inefficiency, U.N. Secretary-General KofiAnnan fires the chief administrator Andronico Adede, and deputyprosecutor Honore Rakoromoanana in the Rwanda criminal trials.Agwu Okali of Nigeria is appointed new chief minister. By this date,the court has indicted 21 suspects.

February 28, 1997Virginia Mukankusi is sentenced to death for her participation in thegenocide.

December 1999A leader of a Hutu militia that helped lead the genocide, businessman Georges Rutaganda, is found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and sentenced to life in prison. He is the sixth person found guilty since the tribunal began hearings in Arusha, Tanzania.

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