PARMEHUTU, which took 160 of 229 seats; Tutsi parties controlled only 19. The communal authorities immediately took local power from the traditional chiefs; many implemented feudal policies similar to that of the Tutsi elite, but favouring Hutu rather than Tutsi. Although after the elections Guy Logiest announced that "the revolution is over", tensions remained high and local massacres of Tutsi continued throughout 1960 and 1961. King Kigeli, living under virtual arrest in southern Rwanda, fled the country in July 1960 and lived for several decades in locations across East Africa before settling in the United States. Independence Rwanda settled into the new reality of Hutu dominance after the 1960 elections; Belgium and Logiest supported PARMEHUTU, and Tutsi influence dwindled. The United Nations Trusteeship Commission, dominated by countries allied with Communist ones and favouring the anti-Belgian, Tutsi UNAR party, lobbied for independently monitored elections. The commission sponsored General Assembly resolutions 1579 and 1580, calling for elections and a referendum on the monarchy; Logiest dismissed the efforts as "perfectly useless", and made little effort to implement them. A National Reconciliation Conference was held in Belgium in January 1961, which ended in failure. Logiest and Kayibanda then convened a meeting of the country's local leaders, at which a "sovereign democratic Republic of Rwanda" was proclaimed with Dominique Mbonyumutwa its interim president. The UN published a report that an "oppressive system has been replaced by another one", but its ability to influence events had ended. PARMEHUTU won control of the legislature in September 1961; Kayibanda assumed the presidency, and Rwanda became fully independent on 1 July 1962. The official rhetoric of the government during the independence celebrations placed emphasis on the accomplishments of the revolution, rather than commemorating the end of colonial rule. Aftermath Tutsi refugees and rebel attacks As the revolution progressed, many Tutsi left Rwanda to escape Hutu purges. The exodus, which began during the November 1959 arson attacks, continued steadily throughout the revolution. An official, late-1964 total of 336,000 Tutsi settled primarily in the four neighbouring countries of Burundi, Uganda, Tanganyika (later Tanzania) and Congo-Léopoldville. The exiles, unlike the ethnic Rwandans who migrated during the pre-colonial and colonial eras, were seen as refugees by their host countries and began almost immediately to agitate for a return to Rwanda. Their aims differed; some sought reconciliation with Kayibanda and the new regime, some affiliated with the exiled King Kigeli and others wished to