Post- independence Rwanda inherited a legacy of public scrutiny of spheres of life; the first republic led by Grégoire Kayibanda excluded Batutsi from all positions of leadership and limited their access to education. The leaders concentrated all political and economic power in the hands of a few Hutu elites from the central region. Serious strife erupted in December 1963 with large-scale massacre of thousands of Tutsis as a result of an attack by Inyenzi, a remnant of the monarchy. Again, thousands of Tutsi fled to neighbouring countries. In 1965 Rwanda was declared a one-party state under MDR/PARMEHUTU, which was the architect of the racist ideology that was to be consolidated in the Second Republic under President Major General Juvenal Habyarimana. In 1969, Kayibanda was re-elected and the ruling party PARMEHUTU retained all the 47 seats in the legislative assembly. The First Republic , under President Gregoire Kayibanda, institutionalized discrimination against Batutsi and periodically used massacres against this targeted population as a means of maintaining the status quo. Some Rwandese groups in the Diaspora attempted, without success to stage a comeback through armed-through Inyenzi (cockroaches). Due to a combination of persistent persecution of Tutsis and Hutus from other regions, coupled by economic hardships, by 1972, the Kayibanda regime had become so unpopular and vulnerable. In July 1973, the Minister of Defense and head of the National Guard, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana led a coup against President Kayibanda. He suspended all political activities and proclaimed a military regime referred to as the second Republic. Subsequently, the end of the Second Republic and coup against Kayibanda led to the death of many prominent politicians from the central region-including Kayibanda himself. More Batutsi were killed. In 1975 President Habyarimana formed the Mouvement Revolutionaire Nationale pour le Developpement (MRND), a single ruling party that was to promulgate in 1978 a constitution that repeatedly returned him to office by organizing "elections" in which he was the sole candidate. Effectively, Habyarimana cemented a single party rule under MRND in 1975. In December1978, a new constitution was adopted in a national referendum, and Habyarimana, standing as a lone candidate; he was re-elected. The constitution confirmed Rwanda as a one Party state with (MRND) later in 1991 becoming MRNDD as the only recognized political organization.   Both the First and second Republics repeatedly stated that Rwanda was a small, overpopulated country that could not accommodate Rwandese refugees if they were to return. Increasingly, the population across the ethnic lines was marginalized and impoverished while Habyarimana’s regime became more violently intolerant. The divisions within the ruling Bahutu Akazu (ruling clique) that culminated in the coup d’etat of 1973 became more heightened in the 1970s and 1980s when the clique talked of Bahutu of the north and Bahutu of the south. Political activities outside MRND mainstream thinking remained banned to the extent that even the national assembly was comically referred to as “National Council for Development”. Pre-Arusha agreement The Rwandan peace process effectively began in March 1991 with the N’Sele cease-fire agreement. The actual Arusha peace negotiations began in July 1992. The first protocol on the rule of law was agreed and signed in June 1992. However, the process of negotiations to consider addressing the refugee problem begun in October 1982, when Habyarimana closed down the country’s border with Uganda after an influx of thousands of refugees fleeing from persecution from the then Ugandan President Milton Obote and his political party, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC). In 1983, Habyarimana agreed to resettle more than 30000 refugees, but in December of the same year, thousands of refugees crossed into Tanzania due to intimidation and persecution. On Habyarimana’s instruction, the central committee of MRND declared in July 1986 that Rwanda would not allow the return of large numbers of refugees, since the country’s economy was incapable of sustaining large intakes of refugees, intense land pressure, and what he referred to as, “grass is full”. In 1989 Habyarimana and president Museveni met and established a committee to investigate refugee repatriation, in 1990, the first report, argued, the adoption of liberal approach on the part of the government while indicating that emigration demands were unlikely to be satisfied. However Habyarimana continuously reneged and frustrated efforts to repatriate Rwandan refugees from neighbouring countries. On October 1, 1990, the Rwandese Patriotic Army/Front (RPA/F) attacked from bases in Uganda . The force was largely composed of Rwandese from Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA). It invaded from Northern Rwanda and occupied several towns in the north and north-east. The Rwanda government accused the Uganda government of supporting these forces, and in response, France , Belgium , and Zaire sent in troops to rescue Habyarimana and he succeeded, temporarily to hold back the battled hardened RPA. Simultaneously, there was internal political discord and intense pressure to Habyarimana to open up and allow political pluralism. In June 1991, he agreed to a new constitution legalizing political parties. Consequently, and following a series of unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a transitional government, a broad based coalition government incorporating four main opposition parties-the revived MDR, the Parti Democratique Chritien (PDC), Parti Liberal (PL), the Parti Social Democrate (PSD) - together with MRNDD agreed and announced in the later part of 1991. Still due to regional and international pressure, a ceasefire between the RPF and Habyarimana forces was initiated and later a concerted peace process begun. The new transitional government and the RPF representatives engaged in negotiations. The first round of talks were held in June 1992 April in Paris and July in Arusha. These negotiations resulted in an agreement on a new cease- fire, effective from the end of July and a creation of military observers group (GOM) to comprise representatives from both side together with officers from the armed force of Nigeria , Mali , Senegal and Zimbabwe . However, subsequent negotiations in Tanzania during August, September and October failed to resolve outstanding problems concerning the creation of a neutral zone between the Rwandan armed forces and FPA the incorporation of the FPA in a future combined Rwanda national force, the repatriation of refugees, and RPF demands for full participation in a transitional government and legislature. In February 1993, violence resurfaced following the break down of negotiations, resulting in hundred of causalities on both sides. Thousands fled to neighboring countries due to renewed fighting. In May 1993, significant progress was made between the RPF and Rwanda government, when a timetable for the demobilization and reintegration of forces was agreed. In August 1993 the protocol on the integration of the RPA and the government forces was dully signed. A new transition government to be headed by a Prime Minister was agreed and installed by 10th September. But Habyarimana multi- party general elections were scheduled after 22 months. The UN Security Council in June approved the creation of UN observer Mission to Rwanda (UNAMIR), to oversee the implementation of the peace process However, the Habyarimana government failed to establish a transitional government by the stipulated deadline which heightened tension and suspicion. On January 5, Habyarimana was sworn-in as President of the Transitional Government for a 22 months period under the terms of the Arusha Accord, but the other members of the transition weren’t. The inauguration of the transition government and legislation, scheduled for the same day, was again postponed owing to political opposition to the proposed council of ministers at Habyarimana’s instance. The Genocide On April 6, 1994, President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down where preparing to land on its way from Dar el salaam, Tanzania where he had gone for a meeting with regional heads of state. Conspiracy theories still abound about the possible shooters of the plane. There are various view points explaining the sudden downing of the presidential Jet; but there is no doubt the genocide had systematically been planned well in advance. Lemarchanda notes of the circumstances surrounding the shooting down of the plane: Who actually fired the missile that brought down Habyarimana’s plane may never be known, anymore than that who ordered the missile to be fired. But if circumstantial evidence is any index, there is every reason to view the shooting of the plane as an eminently rational act from the standpoint of immediate goals The violence that followed was one of the worst in the history of mankind. Within a period of less than three months at least a million people was brutally massacred; thousands of women and young girls were raped, maimed-both physically and psychologically and bellies of pregnant women ripped open to see how a Tutsi fetus looks like. Post genocide After the genocide, a Government of national Unity, and a Transition National Assembly composed of all the political parties in the country, with the exception of MRND and CDR for organizing the genocide and seeing it through was put in place.  In July 1994, and with some alterations, the Arusha Accords were adopted by the transitional government as its constitutional base. In August and September 2003 presidential and legislative elections were organized respectively with President Paul Kagame and his RPF political party winning a landslide.