::Catholic Church encourages Kayibanda to form political parties to advocate for Hutu interests

::Tutsi king dies under suspicious circumstances; many believe Belgians were involved in his death

::November: Hutu began peasant revolt, wanted political representation

::Hutu overthrow of the monarchy; subsequent civil war between Hutus and Tutsis costs 150,000 lives Hutu victory leads to mass exodus of Tutsis

::January: Belgians allow Hutu coup in Gitarama, all-Hutu provisional government comes to power

::Massacres of Tutsi continue

::September: Rwandans vote to end monarchy, republic officially established

::10,000-100,000 Tutsi killed and up to 500,000 forced beyond the border into neighboring countries preceding independence

::July 1: Rwanda gains independence from Belgian colonial rule (85 per cent of population Hutu)

::Hutu rulers establish ethnic quotas: limit Tutsi access to education and employment

::Hutu President Habyarimana seizes power in military coup, establishes a military government (one-party state)

::Habyarimana encouraged discrimination between the Hutu and Tutsi

::Widespread massacres of Tutsi ensue

::October 1: Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), rebel group formed by children of exiles from 1959 Start a civil war to overthrow the one-party Hutu state headed by Habyarimana

::Government promised to reform constitution, allowing other parties to participate

::March 29: RPF and Government of Rwanda sign ceasefire agreement

::Government of Rwanda ridiculed the document immediately after signing; war intensified

::April: five political parties formed the coalition government until legitimate elections could be held

::September: power-sharing agreement signed

::January: agreement renounced by RPF

::French, Belgian, and Zairean troops helped Rwandan army to repel the RPF

::February: forces withdrew

::August 4: Habyarimana and RPF signed Arusha Accord to end civil war, transitional government to include RPF put in place

::October: UNAMIR is created by the UN to assist a peaceful transition, later try to intervene and stop the killing

::December: RPF sends force of 600 men to Kigali as part of the Arusha Accord

::April 6: rocket hitting Habyarimana’s plane blamed on RPF by the government; fighting began again in a few weeks (later reported by Le Monde that current president Paul Kagame gave direct orders for the rocket attack)

::April 7: Rwandan genocide begins

::Propaganda convinced Hutus that it was their moral duty to kill Tutsis (killing referred to as “communal work,” chopping up male victims as “bush clearing,” killing women and children as “pulling out the roots of bad weed”)

::Hutu civilians told to murder their Tutsi neighbors; in ten weeks, 500,000-a million Tutsis were killed (UN inadequate in preventing the atrocities)

::April-July: an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus killed

::RPF resumed the civil war, gradually conquered most of the country, forcing two to three million Hutus, of about seven million, to flee to neighboring Tanzania and Zaire

::July 4: RPF took control of Kigali

::July 18: genocide and civil war officially ended

::January: growing war between Rwandan army and Hutu guerilla bands, Hutu extremists embarked on wave of Tutsi killings, seemingly to wipe out those likely to testify against them in the war crimes tribunal

::August: several hundred Hutu militiamen massacred 130 sleeping Tutsi refugees in a camp run by UN refugee agencies

::December: Hutu rebels attacked Tutsi refugee camp in northwestern Rwanda, killing 271 refugees