Nairobi/Kigali - Rwanda Tuesday was opening a week of commemorations on the 15th anniversary of the beginning of the 1994 genocide, which saw 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus massacred.

The bloodshed began after Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane was shot down on the evening of April 6.

Within hours, Hutu militia began a pre-planned campaign to wipe out the Tutsis.

Kigali  - At the agricultural research station in Songa, nestled in the hills of the Southern Huye province of Rwanda, hundreds of cows graze amidst soft breezes under the warm afternoon sun.

"This is where it all begins," Jean-Damascene Rwemalika, the director of research at the facility says, pointing to the hills behind him.

The herd is part of the Rwandan government's plan to rebuild the economy destroyed during the 1994 genocide, in which around 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Kigali  - It is a process that spans several continents, costs hundreds of millions of dollars and unfolds across several legal systems - prosecuting those responsible for Rwanda's genocide.

In 1994 the world stood aside as ethnic violence ripped through the small East African country.

At the end of the genocide, as many as 800,000 people were dead, a country was destroyed and tens of thousands of the killers had fled to safe havens across the globe in an attempt to escape justice and retribution.

Nairobi/Kigali - Rwanda's ruling party the Rwanda Patriotic Front (FPR) has won a majority in parliamentary elections, preliminary results have revealed.

The FPR won 42 out of 53 seats up for grabs in Monday's direct vote, the electoral commission said.

The Social Democratic Party won seven seats and the Liberal Party four.

Overseas votes have still to be counted before the result can be finalized.

The commission said final results are not expected until September 25.

Some 24 female members of parliament were voted in by provincial and city councils on Tuesday, although results are not yet available. Youth and disabled representatives are due to be elected Wednesday and Thursday.

Nairobi/Kigali  - Rwandans went to the polls Monday to vote in parliamentary elections, with President Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) expected to stroll to victory.

The poll is the second parliamentary election since the 1994 massacre, when the Hutu militia and military massacred 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the space of a few months.

Tutsi-dominated forces led by Kagame ended the slaughter.

Some 53 seats are up for grabs on Monday, while 24 female MPs will be elected Tuesday by provincial and city councils.

Nairobi/Kigali - Rwandans were set to vote Monday in the second parliamentary elections since the genocide that tore the country apart in 1994.

A coalition led by Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) is expected to romp to victory once more in a complicated election that will be monitored by a team of European Union election observers.

Rwanda has taken great strides since the 1994 massacre, when the Hutu militia and military massacred 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the space of a few months.