In the history of man’s inhumanity to man, few chapters are as gruesome as that of the Rwanda massacres. When more than 800,000 people were massacred in a three and a half-month period beginning in April 1994, the Rwanda tragedy was defined by some in the context of ethnic animosity between majority Hutus and Tutsis minority. Others concluded that the source of crisis was a colonial legacy left by German and Belgian authority in particular which pursued divisive policy by favoring one group against the other. Still others argued that the crisis was related to the Franco-American rivalry in dominating Great Lakes region of Africa and Rwanda in particular. In pursuing the subject, two central questions have been raised in developing a research hypothesis; one, which is, what were internal factors that contributed or led to the occurrence of 1994 massacres in Rwanda? And the second is, how effectual the external factors were in this regard?  The research hypothesis is, essentially, 1994 massacres were neither the outcome of colonial legacy of discriminative and divisive policies pursued by Germany and Belgium in favoring Tutsis politically and socio-economically, nor the result of political and economic confrontation between France and US for domination of the Great Lakes region of Africa. It was not either the consequences of ethnic hatred per se in a sense that ancient tribal antagonism evoked Hutu majority to eliminate Tutsi minority. But the massacres were due to ethno-political conflict caused the Hutu ruling group attempt to maintain power; and the roots of struggle to cling to power between the two groups, are dated back to pre-colonial period. In testing the hypothesis, historical background of ethnic cleavages in Rwanda has been analyzed, as well as the role of colonial states (Germany and Belgium) in the related subject. Political developments during independence and post independence periods were examined. Then, internal crisis, which started with 1990’s civil war after the attack launched by Tutsi led rebels from outside, and political conflict motivated by a call for democratization by Hutu majority inside Rwanda, up to the occurrence of April 1994 massacres, has been analyzed, by showing how both internal and external factors contributed to the crisis. The US-France as well as regional states role in the conflict was also analyzed. The conclusion of the research was that external factors had the least effect on the crisis if compared with the internal ones. Furthermore, motives behind Rwanda massacres were more political than ethnical, since the regime made instrumental use of ethnicity to stay on power; while the Tutsi’s RPF rebels and political parties with Hutu majority, were fighting to have share on it. Even though apart from Tutsi minority Hutu moderates also were the victims of massacres genocidal killings were executed in Rwanda. Between the two great powers, it was France, which was involved in crisis to support the regime due  to its perception that power takeover by Tutsi, meant Anglo-Saxon domination in the Franco phone’s sphere of influence. This research has attempted to show that contrary to predominant perception, post colonial era African problems either political or even economic, are mainly due to lust for clinging to power and mis management of those in power.