Timeline
Timeline
29 April 1994
The United Nations authorise the Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs of the genocidal government to travel to New York to the Security Council.
More than 5000 Tutsi held in Cyangugu stadium are killed by soldiers and militia. Thousands of Tutsi are still stranded and trapped in churches, hotels and schools in Kigali.
The UN Security Council debates for 8 hours on the use of the term “genocide” in relation to Rwanda. The United Kingdom and the United States resist use of the term.
Between 28 and 29 April, approximately 250 000 people flee from Rwanda into Tanzania.
28 April 1994
Christine Shelley, spokeswoman for the US State Department, refuses to use the word genocide when addressing journalists, indicating that the use of such a term has many implications. Oxfam issues a press release stating that the killing in Rwanda amounts to genocide. Human Rights Watch criticizes the French Government for receiving the Rwandan Interim Government officials Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza and Jerome Bicamumpaka. The President of the International Federation of Human Rights in France, Daniel Jacob, says that 5000 people trapped inside Hotel des Mille Collines in the center of Kigali have written a letter to him appealing to the international community for urgent help.
27 April 1994
Foreign Affairs Minister, Jérôme Bicamumpaka, and CDR representative, Jean Bosco Barayagwiza, are received in France at the Elysée and the Ministry of Defense. Belgium and the United had refused to issue them the visas.
In the southern town of Muyaga, 4,000 Tutsi are massacred by the Rwandan army and Hutu civilians. The world news is dominated by the election of Nelson Mandela as president in South Africa’s first post-apartheid elections.
26 April 1994
Finance Minister for the Interim Government, Emmanuel Ndindabahizi, provides weapons, encouragement and Interahamwe support to Hutu civilians surrounding Tutsi refugees gathered on Gitwa Hill in Kibuye. After resisting attacks for two days, thousands of women, children and elderly people are killed with grenades, machetes and clubs.
25 April 1994
The International Civil Aviation Organization board meets to discuss a Belgian request for an investigation into President Habyarimana’s plane crash. The board denies the request, stating that because it was a Rwandan aircraft flying over Rwandan territory, the crash does not “fall within the remit of the international convention of the ICAO.”
24 April 1994
Horrific murders are orchestrated against 30,000 Tutsi gathered at Kabuye Hill, near Ndora Commune, in Butare Prefecture. Government officials in the prefecture play a key role in organizing and conducting the killings. Doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières see Interahamwe and soldiers of the Presidential Guard murder 170 Tutsi patients and staff at Butare Hospital. A Médecins Sans Frontières official says that from the border in Burundi he managed to count 30 dead bodies in only five minutes, floating on the Akanyaru River between Rwanda and Burundi. RPF forces start evacuating refugees to safe zones in Byumba and Gahini.
23 April 1994
In a statement broadcast on Radio Rwanda, Colonel Augustin Bizimungu declares that the massacres are a continuation of those that characterized the 1959 revolution. The RPF declares a unilateral ceasefire to take effect from Monday 25 April at midnight.
22 April 1994
The Red Cross declares that it has never seen “a human tragedy of the scale of these massacres“. More than 7,000 Tutsi are murdered at Gatwaro-Kibuye stadium. Interahamwe and members of the army assassinate the sub-prefect of Butare Zéphanie Nyilinkwaya and 14 members of his family. At Sovu convent, 6,500 people are killed with guns, machetes and clubs. A further 500 are trapped in a garage and burnt to death, using petrol supplied by nuns.
21 April 1994
Following Security Council Resolution 912, the UNAMIR force is reduced from 2,500 to 270. Interahamwe militia and other armed people kill 22,000 Tutsi in Gikongoro. Between 20,000 and 30,000 Tutsi are killed in former Nyaruhengeri (at Kansi and Kibilizi), in Muganza (at Mugombwa Catholic Church, Muganza Hills) and in Kibayi (at Kabuga and Magi) communes in Butare Prefecture. The UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 912 withdrawing most of the UNAMIR troops, cutting the force from 2,500 to 270. Alison De Forges of Human Rights Watch says in an interview on the Voice of America that the people responsible for the massacres taking place in Rwanda should be brought to justice. She says the massacres were planned long ago by President Habyarimana and his confidants, including Colonel Bagosora, Colonel Augustin Bizimungu and Captain Simbikangwa. De Forges lashes out at the international journalists who maintain that the problem in Rwanda is based on nothing other than ethnicity.
20 April 1994
UN Secretary-General Bouros-Boutros Ghali speaks of “Hutu killing Tutsi and Tutsi killing Hutu” and calls for a cease-fire between the genocidaires and the RPF (who were fighting to stop genocide), causing confusion as to whether this was a mere civil war or not. Genocide begins in Butare with the killing of academics and prominent people in the town. Among them is Rosalie Gicanda, the widow of Mwami Mutara who died mysteriously in July 1959. Her murder upsets Tutsi and moderate Hutus. UNAMIR reports that 45 are dead and 114 injured from the Government forces shelling of Amahoro Stadium.