The Hutu were officially removed from power and became the ruled. By 1959, a few African countries were free from colonial rule. In 1962, Rwanda got its independence from the Belgians. Furthermore, in 1978 Rwandans went to the polls, endorsed a new constitution and confirmed a Hutu Major General Juvenal Habyarimana as president. His goals were to promote peace unity and national development. .
During his reign, Habyarimana, refused to look into the plight of most of the Tutsi refuges living in the other parts of the world as he did not want any one into his already over populated country. Most Tutsis, living in Uganda, were not impressed by his remarks because they were Rwandans and had the right to return to their own country, but the government failed to unite the five hundred thousand Tutsi's abroad. The Tutsi's formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front(RPF) and was active in Uganda. In 1990, the group, with the help of the Ugandan army, under Youreni Museveni, invaded Rwanda from their base in Uganda. This move however failed. The Rwandan president got aid from man Francois Mitterrand, who supplied arms and equipment . The war went on for two years until a cease fire agreement was signed and the RPF backed out. The cease fire accord took was signed in July 1992, and a political talks began on August 10, 1992 in Arusha.
Meanwhile the Hutu extremists had created radio station which was aimed at intimidating the Tutsi, and advised the listeners to be aware of the Tutsi. A counterpart T.V station also terrorized the Tutsi as it showed the small scale massacres that were been carried out on the Tutsis population.
On April 6, the plane carrying president Habyarimana and his counterpart from Burundi was gunned down as it was about to land in Kigali. Both presidents were killed instantly. This sparked the event of genocide because Habyarimana's supporters thought that it was an organized murder by some Tutsi rebels.