Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda

With an astonishing wildlife experience, Rwanda is home to different wildlife species but utmost the rare, endangered and closest human kin-the mountain gorilla

Capital:Kigali

Natural resources:Gold, cassiterite (tin ore), wolframite (tungsten ore), methane, hydropower, arable land

*In 1884-1885, Germany claimed Tanganika, Rwanda & Burundi.

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group.

When the Belgian colonists arrived in 1916, they produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity.

The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational opportunities than their neighbours.

Resentment among the Hutus gradually built up, culminating in a series of riots in 1959. More than 20,000 Tutsis were killed, and many more fled to the neighbouring countries of Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.

When Belgium relinquished power and granted Rwanda independence in 1962, the Hutus took their place. Over subsequent decades, the Tutsis were portrayed as the scapegoats for every crisis.

In Sept. 1998, a UN tribunal sentenced Jean Kambanda, a former prime minister of Rwanda, to life in prison for his part in the 1994 genocide. He became the first person in history to be convicted for the crime of genocide, first defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention after World War II.

A UN court in Dec. 2008 convicted Col Theoneste Bagosora, a Hutu extremist, of genocide for his involvement in the 1994 massacre of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. He is the highest-ranking military official charged in connection with the genocide.

Intore dancer

Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill
Great Blue Turaco

Mountain Gorilla