Timeline

1897 Establishment of a German military protectorate over Rwanda.

1900 Foundation of the first Catholic Mission in Save by priests belonging to the Society of Missionaries of Africa.

1916 The Belgian troops chased away the few German officers and the country passed under Belgian military administration.

1922 Belgium receives the mandate from the League of Nations on the "Territories of Ruanda-Urundi"

1931 The ethnic designation is affixed to identity documents intended to identify able-bodied adult men with a view to collecting taxes and applying forced labour. King Musinga, hostile to evangelization, was deposed by the Belgian authorities. His son, Mutara Rudahigwa, ascended to the throne.

1946 Rwanda and Burundi come under Belgian supervision, with the United Nations taking over from the League of Nations.

1957 Publication of the Bahutu Manifesto, subtitled "Note on the social aspect of the indigenous racial question," signed by an elite Hutu party including Grégoire Kayibanda. This text recommends the maintenance of the ethnic mention on identity cards and advises the use of medicine in case of "miscegenation."

1959 (October) Grégoire Kayibanda founded the Party for the Emancipation of the Hutu people (the Parmehutu) which demanded the abolition of "Tutsi colonization" before the departure of the Belgians.

(November) "Hutu social revolution" which translates into the massacre of several hundred Tutsis. The violence mainly targets members of the "indigenous" administration, that is to say the chiefs and sub-chiefs, set up by the colonizer who then overthrew his initial alliance by now encouraging the "Hutu Revolution". Tens of thousands of Tutsi are taking the road to exile in neighboring countries.

1961 The monarchy is abolished by referendum.

1962 (1^er July) Rwanda gains independence under the presidency of Grégoire Kayibanda.

1963-1964 (December-January) Incursions by Tutsi exiles (nicknamed Inyenzi – cockroaches – due to their nocturnal attacks) from the south of the country unleash a fierce repression against the Tutsi in the interior. The massacres take a considerable scale in Gikongoro: between 10 and 20% of the Tutsi population of this prefecture are murdered by bands armed with spears and sticks, on order of the prefect. The violence then spread to the surrounding prefectures and killed between 10,000 and 14,000 people. In the newspaper’s edition Le Monde of 6 February 1964, the philosopher Bertrand Russel denounced a "most horrible and systematic massacre of men that has been witnessed since the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis in Europe." Tens of thousands of Tutsis are swelling the ranks of refugees.

1973 (February-March) Purges organized by "Committees of Public Safety" provoke new violence against the Tutsi, expelled from schools, university, seminaries and civil service. Huts were set on fire and about 200 people were murdered.

(July 5) Major-General Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu officer from the north of the country took power in a coup d'état.

1975 The National Revolutionary Movement for Development (MRND) was founded, and is the country’s only authorized party.

1987 Faced with the Habyarimana regime’s refusal to accept the right of return for Tutsi refugees, the latter – and their descendants – founded the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). This movement has an armed branch, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR). It also includes Hutu dissidents in power in Kigali.

1988-1989 Rwanda is facing a serious economic crisis following the collapse of coffee and tea prices on the international market.

1990 (1^er October) The RPF launched its first offensive in the east of the country, quickly suppressed by the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR), supported by Zairian, Belgian and especially French troops. In response, the Rwandan authorities throw thousands of people, a majority of whom are Tutsi, into prison on charges of "complicity" with the enemy.

1991 (June) Faced with the protest movement of civil society, President Habyarimana concedes a multiparty system.

1992 The militias Interahamwe, a movement of young people affiliated with the MRND, are created. These militias are joined in their fight against the "Tutsi enemy" by a racist party, the Coalition for the Defense of the Republic (CDR).

(March) The broadcast on national radio of a leaflet falsely attributing the assassination of Hutu by members of a party with a Tutsi dominant serves as a pretext for the outbreak of massacres in the region of Bugesera (south of Kigali). Militiamen, local authorities and civilians combine their forces.

1993 (August) The Arusha Accords were signed between President Habyarimana, the opposition parties and the RPF. They provide for the sharing of power and the fusion of armies.

(October) The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) commanded by Canadian General Roméo Dallaire begins its deployment.

1994 (April) On the evening of 6 April, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down. Elite units of the Rwandan army and militiamen crisscrossed Kigali. Colonel Bagosora convened a crisis committee during which he refused to hand over power to Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana as provided for in the constitution.

April 7 The Prime Minister was assassinated at her home by soldiers; Hutu political opponents were systematically murdered. The ten Belgian peacekeepers assigned to protect the Prime Minister are massacred at Camp Kigali by Rwandan soldiers. The FPR resumes the offensive.

8-9 April An interim government is formed and sworn in.

9-15 April Several Western powers, including Belgium and France, sent troops to Rwanda to ensure the evacuation of their nationals.

April 21 The United Nations Security Council reduced the size of the UN force from 2,500 to 270 men, a majority of whom were civilians.

1994 (May) The majority of victims were murdered.

June 22 France launches Operation Turquoise under the auspices of the United Nations. As the genocide is over, French forces form a glacis in the west of the country allowing extremist government cadres to flee to Zaire in the face of the advance of RPF troops.

4 July The RPF won the Battle of Kigali.

19 July The forces of genocide are in rout, having driven more than two million Hutu civilians into exile in Zaire and Tanzania. A new government of "National Union" is set up in Kigali, dominated by the FPR.