Thousands of Tutsi fled into exile in Uganda, where they waited for the next 30 years for the chance to reclaim their power. By the time the Belgians ceded independence to Rwanda in 1962, the foundations for slaughter had been laid. In Rwandan society, the fault of an individual becomes the fault of a group. A whole family is held responsible for a prejudicial act committed by an individual and can be eliminated. In a traumatic situation, fear and uncertainty can lead to collective murder.
Vengeance breeds countervengeance.
Any effort by Tutsi to reassert themselves met with a vicious and murderous response. Ethnicity does not necessarily have to give rise to violence, but one can easily manipulate ethnicity to throw people against one another. When it suited his purposes, President Habyarimana could behave like a model multiculturalist. By the late 1980s his economy was gasping, famine was spreading, and his hold on power looked increasingly fragile. In a gesture of reform he loosened controls on the press and began negotiating to allow competing parties into the government.