Wars

Belgium at first maintained Tutsi dominance, but eventually ecouraged power sharing between the Hutu and Tutsi. The tensions between the two lead to a civil war, which forced many Tutsi into exile. When Rwanda became an independant nation on July 1, 1962, the Hutus had the power. In october 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, or RPF, who were Tutsi rebels in exile in Uganda, invaded Rwanda and attempted to overthrow the Hutu government. In August 1993, peace accords were signed, which called for a coalition government. However, after a plane was shot down in April 1994, killing the presidents of both Rwanda and Burundi, tremendous violence erupted between the groups. It is unclear which group is responsible for shooting down the plane, even though one theory does suggest it was Hutu extremists who were against the Hutu/Tutsi power sharing plan. The president's guard began to murder Tutsi opposition leaders, and soon police and soldiers began attempting to kill the entire Tutsi population. In a mere 100 days, beginning in April 1994, Hutu people rampaged through the country and slaughtered an estimated 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu sympathisers. A 30,000 member militia group, named the "Interahamwe", led much of the homicidal spree, but, pressured by radio propaganda, ordinary Hutu joined in killing the Tutsi as well. Despite the genocidal massacre seeming to be a spontaneous explosion of anger, it has been shown to have been carefully orchestrated by the Hutu government.

Picture from: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/514402/Rwanda/274459/Independence-and-the-1960s