(Reuters) - Rwanda on April 6 observes the 13th anniversary of the 1994 genocide, which saw 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed in 100 days by the Hutu-led government and ethnic militias.
Here are some key details:
* In 1990, rebels of the Tutsi-dominated Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded northern Rwanda from neighboring Uganda. The RPF’s success, prompted President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, to speed up political reforms to legalize opposition parties.
* In August 1993, Rwanda and the RPF signed a deal to end years of civil war, allowing for power-sharing and refugees’ return. But President Habyarimana was slow in implementing it. A Transitional government failed to take off. Each side accused other of blocking its formation.
* April 6, 1994 - Habyarimana and neighboring Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira were killed in a rocket attack on their plane.
-- The next day presidential guards killed moderate Hutu Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiwimana who had tried to calm tensions.
-- Habyarimana’s death triggered a 100-day orgy of violence, perpetrated mainly by Hutus against Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800,000 people are killed. RPF starts new offensive.
* RPF seized control of Rwanda after driving the 40,000-strong Hutu army and more than 2 million civilian Hutus into exile in Burundi, Tanzania and the former Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo.
* In July 1994 a new government was sworn in with Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu, named president and RPF commander Paul Kagame as vice-president. Kagame was elected president in April 2000.
* In December 1996 Rwanda’s first genocide trial opened under the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
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