RWANDA: 2004 chronology of events

Photo: IRIN

NAIROBI, 4 January 2005 (IRIN) - A selected chronology of events in Rwanda during 2004. January 8 Jan: The government of Rwanda begins investigations to unearth masterminds of the recent killings of survivors of the 1994 genocide. Full report 9 Jan: The government begins month-long food distribution to 7,000 families in the central drought-stricken district of Gashora, in Bugesera region. Full report 12 Jan: Genocide survivors flee southwestern province of Gikongoro for fear of becoming targets of killings in the area. Full report 12 Jan: The first 242 of some 25,000 Rwandan refugees living in Uganda return home. Full report 16 Jan: The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission completes the training of 45 trauma counsellors to handle trauma-related cases expected to increase when Gacaca courts start. Full report 18 Jan: Another 258 Rwandan refugees living in Uganda for nearly 10 years return home. Full report 19 Jan: The UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) hands down two life sentences to former minister for culture and higher education, Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda. Full report February 25 Feb: The ICTR sentences Samuel Imanishimwe, former military commander in the Rwandan armed forces, to 27 years in prison after convicting him of genocide and crimes against humanity. Full report 27 Feb: A Rwandan court sentences five people to death over the killing of a genocide survivor who was due to testify in the Gacaca justice system. Full report March 4 Mar: Rwanda appoints an ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Full report 5 Mar: A Rwandan court sentences nine people to death and another one to life imprisonment over the killing of a genocide survivor who had been due to testify under the Gacaca justice system. Full report 17 Mar: The government extends a 15 March deadline by one year for detainees to confess their role in the 1994 genocide. Full report 17 Mar: Italy and the ICTR sign an agreement to enforce sentences imposed by the court. Full report 22 Mar: At least 4,500 common-law prisoners are pardoned and released in a bid to decongest the nation's prisons. Full report 25 Mar: The first privately owned radio station since the genocide is launched. Full report 29 Mar: The UN refugee agency, UNCHR, says at least 1,000 Rwandan refugees have returned home from Uganda since January. Full report April 2 Apr: A census by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports finds that 937,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus died during the 1994 genocide. Full report 7 Apr: Events held to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Rwandan genocide. Full report 22 Apr: A senior military official denies reports that Rwanda is massing troops on its border with Burundi in anticipation of an attack by Hutu rebels based in DRC. Full report 25 Apr: The Rwandan government releases 4,225 prisoners upon completion of a one-month rehabilitation course. Full report 26 Apr: Rwanda reports it is deploying extra troops along its border with Burundi and the DRC in anticipation of possible attacks from Hutu rebels. Full report 27 Apr: Sweden and the ICTR sign an agreement on the enforcement of sentences imposed by the court. Full report May 13 May: President Kagame dissolves a district executive committee in the southwestern province of Gikongoro, where several killings of genocide survivors has occurred. Full report 26 May: Fighting breaks out in eastern DRC, in the town of Bukavu near the Rwandan border, between soldiers loyal to the Kinshasa government and renegade soldiers loyal to the former Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Goma (RCD-Goma). Full report June 6 Jun: Rwanda closes its border with DRC following accusations that its forces supported dissident Congolese soldiers in the capture of the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu, in South Kivu Province. Full report 7 Jun: Rwandan court sentences the country's former president, Pasteur Bizimungu, to 15 years in prison for embezzling state funds, disseminating literature to incite public violence and forming a militia group that threatened state security. Full report 15 Jun: DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame call for a "joint verification mechanism" to investigate activities on their borders and adhere to the terms of a 2002 Pretoria peace agreement. Full report 17 Jun: UNHCR begins repatriating Rwandan refugees from the Republic of Congo. Full report 18 Jun: Some 112 refugees who had fled into Rwanda following recent fighting in the eastern Congolese town of Bukavu register to return home. Full report 24 Jun: President Kagame launches nationwide the traditional court system known as Gacaca, to try tens of thousands of people suspected of taking part in the genocide. Full report July 5 Jul: Six officials from a Rwandan human rights organisation, the Rwandan League for Promotion and Defence of Human Rights, flee the country fearing arrest following a recommendation made by a parliamentary commission to disband their organisation for allegedly harbouring genocide ideas. Full report 6 Jul: The government integrates four former rebel commanders, who fled after the genocide, into the Rwanda Defence Force. Full report 13 Jul: The Rwandan government signs an agreement with the US army on "mutual support" in military logistics, supplies and services, a senior US military officer in Kigali says. Full report 20 Jul: A UN panel of experts accuses the Rwandan government of supporting dissidents in the DRC who seized the eastern town of Bukavu in June. Full report 20 Jul: Rwandan authorities sack 503 judges from the national court system and appoint 223 replacements in the first major judicial reshuffle. Full report August Aug 15: Two days after a massacre of 160 people in a refugee camp in Burundi, near the border with the DRC, Rwanda threatens to intervene again in the DRC to disarm Hutu rebels based there. Full report Aug 25: DRC, Rwanda and Uganda agree to disarm groups operating in their territories within a year. Full report September 10 Sep: Rwanda's prosecutor general, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, predicts a sharp rise in the number of suspects to go on trial for genocide. At present, 80,000 detainees are awaiting trial. Full report 22 Sep: Rwanda demobilises 1,389 members of its defence forces in a move aimed at cutting military spending. Full report October 12 Oct: Rwanda dismisses a recent report by the European Union criticising it for backing efforts to investigate and prosecute civil society organisations and individuals for alleged genocide ideologies. Full report 26 Oct: The foreign affairs ministers of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC agree to create a tripartite commission to ensure that agreements on peace and security in the region are implemented. Full report November 11 Nov: France says it is ready to cooperate with the government of Rwanda when it begins to investigate the role of the French in the genocide. Full report 11 Nov: Rwanda and Uganda agree to conduct joint security operations along their common border in a bid to curb cross-border crime. Full report 21 Nov: President Kagame calls for stronger action to disarm and repatriate thousands of Hutu rebels in eastern DRC, saying efforts at voluntarily disarmament had failed. Full report 24 Nov: Rwanda informs the UN that it might send its army across the border into DRC to attack Hutu rebels it says have become a direct threat to its national security. Full report 24 Nov: The UN Security Council warns Rwanda to refrain from carrying out its threat to strike at rebel bases in eastern DRC. Full report 29 Nov: With the possibility of Rwandan troop incursions into eastern DRC, Congolese President Kabila announces he will send some 10,000 more troops to the area. Full report December 7 Dec: With the threat of renewed regional conflict in the DRC, the African Union's Peace and Security Council announces it will seek a greater role in helping to disarm Rwandan armed groups based in eastern DRC. Full report 15 Dec: Rwanda's envoy to the Great Lakes region, Richard Sezibera, says four Rwandan military officers have been in eastern DRC since November as part of a new joint verification committee that includes Congolese and UN officials. Full report