Timeline of events in Rwanda since 1994 genocide

April 6 1994 – Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira killed in a rocket attack on their plane. Habyarimana’s death triggers 100-day orgy of violence, perpetrated mainly by Hutus against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800 000 people are killed. The Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) starts new offensive.

April 7 1994 – Presidential guards kill moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiwimana, who had tried to calm tensions.
July 1994 – RPF seizes control of Rwanda after driving 40 000-strong Hutu army and two million civilian Hutus into exile in Burundi, Tanzania and Zaire (later Democratic Republic of Congo).
August 1996 – Rwandan troops, disguised as Zairean rebels, launch invasion of Zaire. Thousands of civilians are killed while hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees return to Rwanda.
December 27 1996 – Rwanda’s first genocide trial opens under the the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
June 1997 – Rwandan strongman Paul Kagame admits his troops invaded Zaire and helped install Laurent Kabila as new president there.
August 1998 – Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda take up arms against Congolese President Laurent Kabila.
March 23 2000 – Hutu President Pasteur Bizimungu resigns after falling out with his Tutsi-dominated ruling party.
April 17 2000 – Vice-President Kagame is elected president by members of parliament and ministers.
July 30 2002 – The presidents of Rwanda and the DRC sign a peace pact aimed at ending years of atrocities.
August 25 2003 – Rwanda holds its first elections since the 1994 massacres. Kagame wins. The opposition rejects the result.
November 20 2004 – Leaders from 11 Great Lakes countries, including Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC, sign the Dar-es Salaam Declaration, pledging to end the genocide and hunger that have killed three million over the previous 10 years.
January 14 2005 – Rwanda says 1 million of its citizens – an eighth of the population – are expected to face charges in traditional or ‘gacaca’ village courts. The hearings begin three days later.
November 24 2006 – Rwanda breaks off diplomatic ties with France in protest at a French judge’s call for Kagame to stand trial over the killing of Habyarimana.
January 23 2009 – Rwanda arrests Tutsi Congolese warlord Laurent Nkunda. The UN had accused elements of Kagame’s regime of backing his 5-year rebellion. His detention is seen as part of a peace deal between the arch foes.
November 29 2009 – The Commonwealth admits French-speaking Rwanda as its 54th member. On the same day, France and Rwanda agree to restore diplomatic relations.
February 25 2010 – President Nicolas Sarkozy says France made serious errors of judgment over the 1994 genocide. – Nampa-Reuters

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