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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Rwanda
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1992-09-02
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Republic of (Republika y'u Rwanda) area
26,300 sq km/10,154 sq mi capital Kigali
physical high savanna and hills, with
volcanic mountains in NW features part of
lake Kivu; highest peak Mount Karisimbi 4,507
m/14,792 ft; Kagera river (whose headwaters
are the source of the Nile) and National Park
head of state and government Juvenal
Habyarimana from 1973 government one-party
military republic political parties National
Revolutionary Development (MRND),
nationalistic, socialist. exports coffee,
tea, pyrethrum, tin, tungsten currency franc
(129.48 = 1 Feb 1990) population (1989)
7,276,000 (Hutu 90%, Tutsi 9%); annual growth
rate 3.3% life expectancy men 45, women 48
language Kinyarwanda (a Bantu language),
French religion Christian (mainly Catholic)
54%, animist 45%, Muslim 1% literacy 61%
male/33% female (1985 est) GNP $1.7 bn
(1984); $270 per head of population
chronology 1962 Rwanda achieved full
independence as the Republic of Rwanda, with
Gregoire Kayibanda as president. 1962-65
Tribal warfare between the Hutu and the
Tutsi. 1972 Renewal of tribal fighting.
1973 Kayibanda ousted in a military coup led
by Maj-Gen Juvenal Habyarimana. 1978 New
constitution approved but Rwanda remained a
military-controlled state.
2.
Landlocked country in central Africa, bounded
to the N by Uganda, to the E by Tanzania, to
the S by Burundi, and to the W by Zaire.
government The 1978 constitution provides for
a president and a single-chamber legislature,
the National Development Council, all elected
by universal adult suffrage for a five-year
term. The president appoints and leads a
council of ministers. Rwanda is a one-party
state, the sole legal party being the
National Revolutionary Development Movement
(MRND), whose leader is the president.
history For early history, see Africa. The
population comprises two ethnic groups: the
agrarian Hutu, over 80%, were dominated by
the pastoral Tutsi; there are also a few
Pygmies. Rwanda used to be linked to the
neigbouring state of Burundi, 1891-1919
within the empire of German East Africa, then
under Belgian administration as a League of
Nations mandate, and then as a United Nations
trust territory. In 1961 the monarchy was
abolished and Ruanda, as it was then called,
became a republic. It achieved full
independence 1962 as Rwanda, with Gregoire
Kayibanda as its first president. Fighting
broke out 1959 between the Hutu and the
Tutsi, resulting in the loss of some 20,000
lives before an uneasy peace was agreed 1965.
Kayibanda was re-elected president 1969 but
by the end of 1972 the civil warfare had
restarted and in 1973 the head of the
National Guard, Major-Gen Juvenal
Habyarimana, led a bloodless coup, ousting
Kayibanda and establishing a military
government. Meetings of the legislature were
suspended and the MRND was formed as the only
legally permitted political organization. A
referendum held at the end of 1978 approved a
new constitution, but military rule
continued. Rwanda's population density has
led to soil erosion and cultivation of all
arable land, and dependence on foreign aid.