Rwanda timeline: Descent into tyranny

Jan-April 2010 Opposition politician Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza of FDU repeatedly detained and interrogated over alleged links to anti-government armed group and accusations that she promoted genocide ideology.

Jan-May 2010 Leader of opposition Democratic Green Party denied permission to hold meetings or register for election.

10 March 2010 Human Rights Watch researcher’s work visa cancelled.

12 April 2010 President Paul Kagame announces in parliament that he would “kill flies with a hammer” – taken to mean critics in exile.

24 May 2010 Editor of Umuseso newspaper flees into exile after receiving repeated threats.

19 June 2010 Kayumba Nyamwasa, Rwanda’s exiled former army chief of staff – a critic of President Kagame – shot in South Africa in apparent assassination attempt.

(Rwanda’s President Kagame at the UN. Picture: Reuters)

24 June 2010 Bernard Ntaganda, oppositon politician from PS-Imberakuri arrested; in the months that followed, many party members arrested.

24 June 2010 Jean-Léonard Rugambage, deputy editor of a newspaper that reported on the alleged involvement of the Rwandan government in the attempted assassination of General Nyamwasa in South Africa is shot dead in Kigali.

14 July 2010 André Kagwa Rwisereka, deputy president of the Democratic Green Party, is found partially decapitated; his body dumped next to a river.

9 August 2010 Paul Kagame wins the election with 93 per cent of the vote. An organisation funded by UK to monitor the election, gives it a clean bill of health; Kagame congratulated by Andrew Mitchell, Britain’s former secretary for international development on a visit to Rwanda.

4 February 2011 Journalists Agnes Nkusi Uwimana and Saidaiti Mukakibibi are sentenced to 17 years and seven years respectively for insulting President Kagame; Nkusi’s 17 years was later reduced to four on appeal.

11 February 2011 Bernard Ntaganda, opposition leader, is sentenced to four years in prison.

12 May 2011 Anti-terrorism branch of the Metropolitan Police warn two London-based members of Rwandan diaspora that the Rwandan government poses an imminent threat to your life”.

13 Nov 2011 Joseph Bideri, editor-in-chief of New Times newspaper is arrested.

30 Nov 2011 Charles Ingabire, critic of President Kagame and editor of Inyenyeri News, is fatally shot in Kampala.

12 Feb 2012 Senior Rwandan diplomat expelled by Sweden for espionage, allegedly among Rwandan refugees.

27 June 2012 Kagame government accused by UN investigators of creating, arming and funding M23 rebel group in Congo, led by indicted war criminal Bosco Ntaganda.

Watch - Dispatches: Where Has Your Aid Money Gone?

28 July 2012 Britain suspends aid to Rwanda, following similar decision by other major aid donors. Southern African Development Community (SADC) condemns Rwanda’s destabilisation of Congo.

5 Sept 2012 Britain restores the suspended £16m tranche of aid.

13 October 2012 Theogene Turatsinze, former director of Rwanda Development Bank is murdered in Mozambique amid allegations of Rwandan government involvement.

17 Oct 2012 Prime Minister David Cameron hails Rwanda as a success story and role model for reform and development.

30 October 2012 Opposition leader Victoire Ingabire convicted on terror charges and genocide denial; sentenced to eight years in jail.