Yearbook 1999
Rwanda. Visit Countryaah official website to get information about the capital city of Rwanda. The United Nations Tribunal in Tanzania issued two life sentences for participation in the 1994 genocide. Georges Rutaganda, one of the top leaders of the Interahamwé hutumilis, was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity. He participated in in the murders of thousands of Tutsis who sought protection at the Kigali University of Technology. Former governor Clément Kayishema had, according to witnesses, paid for the severed heads of educated Tutsis, had a shaft machine demolish a church where people sought shelter and whipped a child with a sword.
- Also see Abbreviationfinder.org to see the acronym of RWA which stands for Rwanda and other definitions of this 3-letter abbreviation.
However, prosecutors dropped the lawsuit against Major Bernard Ntuyahaga with the intention of bringing him to trial in Belgium. Ntuyahaga was charged with the assassination of Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and ten Belgian UN soldiers who protected her. But since the judges did not consider themselves empowered to extradite him to another country, he seemed instead to be free. However, the government of Tanzania later extradited him to Rwanda. There was great anger in Rwanda when the tribunal released one of the central instigators of the genocide, former Chief of the Political Affairs Department of Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, for trial reasons. He was also the leader of an extremist party and member of the board at a radio station devoted to the genocide. Rwanda suspended cooperation with the tribunal and issued an international arrest warrant on Barayagwiza.
Former Prime Minister of Sweden Ingvar Carlsson was commissioned by UN head Kofi Annan to investigate UN action in Rwanda in connection with the genocide. The report, which was submitted in December, drew sharp criticism of the UN’s inability to stave off genocide, despite the prior knowledge of such a preparation, and the latitude to intervene even when the disaster was evident.
In July, the transitional government extended its mandate by five years on the grounds that conditions in Rwanda do not yet allow democratic elections to be held. Local elections without party participation, however, were held in March.
RWANDA. – Territory of Central Africa already included in German East Africa, and currently, together with the neighboring territory of Urundi, placed under a Belgian mandate. Rwanda occupies the region between Lake Kivu and the course of the Kagera including the southern slope of the volcanic chain of the Kirunga, and is limited to the south by the course of the Akangaru (tributary of the Kagera) which separates it from the Urundi. Included between the Belgian Congo, the Protectorate of Uganda, the Territory of Tanganyika and Urundi, it covers an area of 26,000 sq km. for the most part occupied by volcanic hills and high shelves that reach 3000 m. interspersed with sinking areas whose bottom is occupied by closed lakes. Barely known for indirect information collected by travelers until the end of the nineteenth century, it was first visited by Lieutenant CA von Gotzen, who crossed it in various ways, and to whom we owe the discovery of Lake Kivu (1894). Included in the equatorial zone between the extreme latitudes of 1 ° and 3 ° lat. S., Rwanda has a tropical climate mitigated by the considerable altitude, so that the temperature drops even below freezing. The rains are abundant, divided into two periods: September-December and February-May. Numerous streams run through it, mostly belonging to the Kagera basin (Nile) and only a small part to that of Lake Kivu and its emissary Rusisi (Congo). The population, estimated at 1,450,000 residents, Belongs in different proportions, to three distinct ethnic groups: the Wahutu (Bantu negroes), farmers and herders of cattle who constitute the great majority, the Watussi Ethiopian people of tall stature, quick and intelligent, who constitute the ruling class and a few thousand Batua, pygmy hunters and craftsmen. Up to now Islamism has had little penetration in the country. Catholic and evangelical missions exercise their apostolate there and provide education there.
Politically, Rwanda constitutes a kingdom governed by a hereditary monarchy with absolute power, today held back by the Belgian authorities. Kigali is its capital. The country’s main resource is pastoralism; but the high population density would require a greater development of agricultural crops to meet the needs of food subject to the consequences of frequent famines. The soil is generally composed of laterite on the surface. The climate would also be suitable for European populations.
Rwanda together with Urundi, occupied by Belgian forces during the world war, came for the Anglo-Belgian agreement of 30 May 1919, ratified by the League of Nations on 31 August 1923, entrusted by mandate to Belgium which in 1925 aggregated them to the colony of the Congo, keeping them under a separate administration and under the authority of a deputy governor general. The mandate of Rwanda-Urundi covers a total area of 53,200 square kilometers and has a population of 3,450,000 residents Usumbura is its capital on Lake Tanganyika in Urundi; but it should be relocated to the new town of Astrida in Rwanda near the southern border. The vice governorate is divided into two residences with offices respectively in Kigali for Rwanda and in Kitega for Urundi. The mandate has its own budget which by 1933 amounted to 43 million francs for income and 64 million for expenses. Its external trade was 2 million for imports and 12 million for exports, mostly skins.
Climate
The two rainy seasons (March to April and October to November) are offset by a dry season (May to September). Overall, the precipitation decreases from west to east and amounts to an average of 800 to 1,000mm up to 1,600m and 1,650mm at 2,200m. The average temperature in Kigali is 20 to 21 ° C.
