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tutsis migrate into what is now rwanda, which was already inhabited by the twa and hutu peoples.one half of Rwanda's 7.5 million population was forced to flee their homes., 2.4 million refugees fled to neighboring countries.
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tutsi king kigeri rwabugiri establishes a unified state with a centralised military structure, he ruled from 1853 to 1895.first King in Rwanda's to come into contact with Europeans.He established an army equipped with guns
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rwanda proclaimed a republic from Belgium on July 1, 1962,Rwanda saw the first European presence, when German Von Goetzen visited the country in 1894
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Tutsi President Gregoire Kayibanda ousted in military coup led by Juvenal Habyarimana. Thousands of Tutsi students are murdered.
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held on December 17, 1978. only the National Revolutionary Movement for Development and its Chairman could run for president
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habyarimana declared that those who had been expelled in 1982 would not be allowed to repatriate. this led to rising militancy in the uganda-based refugee community, in 1988 the tutsi refugees declared their right to return.
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some 50,000 hutu refugees flee to rwanda from burundi following ethnic violence there. an estimated 150,000 people were killed fromthe violnce in burundan.
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In 1990 the country was invaded by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a group largely composed of exiled Tutsis, which signed a peace agreement with the government in 1992
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habyarimana was elected presiden three times between 1978 and 1988, although each time he was the only candidate, however under significant pressure from both rwandan civil society and international organization, habyarimana finally consented to a more open, multiparty democracy.
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in April, Habyarimana and the Burundian president are killed after their plane is shot down over Kigali,RPF launches a major offensive, extremist Hutu militia and elements of the Rwandan military begin the systematic massacre of Tutsis. Within 100 days around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus are killed,Hutu militias flee to Zaire, taking with them around 2 million Hutu refugees.
