Paul Kagame

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Paul Kagame Full Name: Paul Kagame Alias: General Kagame Pilate The Bismarck of Africa Origin: Gitarama, Rwanda-Burundi Occupation: President of Rwanda (2000 - present) Vice President of Rwanda (1994 - 2000) Goals: Arrest critics of his regime (failed) Reconcile the nation (successful) Remain in Power (ongoing) Crimes: Political repression Corruption Assassinating dissidents Genocide War crimes Voter fraud State censorship Human rights violations Misogyny Xenophobia Caucasiophobia Ethnic cleansing Crimes against humanity Homophobia Americophobia Anglophobia Type of Villain: Anti-Villainous Tyrant

“	There are some who are afraid for the construction and unity of a country based on ideas.	„
	~ Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame (October 23, 1957) is a Rwandan politician and current President of Rwanda since 2000. He is the longest-tenured president in Rwandan history, as well as the first and only Tutsi to have held the post.

Though Kagame has received praise for making reforms to Rwanda's economy, education system, and healthcare, as well as turning Rwanda into one of the safest countries in Africa, he has also received widespread criticism for political repression, as well as forced disappearances and assassinations regarding his political opponents. He is widely regarded as a benevolent dictator and has often been compared to Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.

Biography

Kagame was born in the city of Gitarama, in the central region of the country, and emigrated with his family to Uganda, taking refuge from the attacks suffered by the Tutsis, his ethnic group, perpetrated by Hutus. At the age of 22 Kagame joined Yoweri Kaguta Musevini's National Resistance Army (NRA), armed guerrillas fighting for the overthrow of the Ugandan president Milton Obote. Having succeeded, Kagame founded the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1986, along with other Tutsi refugees, with the aim of seizing power in Rwanda.

With the attack that killed Rwandan Hutu President Juvénal Habyarimana in 1994, a civil war broke out, a conflict that opposed the Hutu and Tutsi. During the crisis resulting from Rwandan Genocide, the RPF took advantage of the situation to invade the country and ended the conflict by supplanting rival forces. A coalition government was formed, under the presidency of the moderate Hutu Pasteur Bizimungu, with Paul Kagame as vice president. Kagame was designated as the country's strongman, who was involved in that period in the First and Second War of the Congo, motivated by ethnic tensions and access to lucrative mineral resources.

In 2000, after disagreements, Bizimungu resigned, and Kagame provisionally assumed power, backed by Parliament. His government is accused of preventing freedom of the press and expression. Kagame was elected in 2003 by universal suffrage, although the election was very controversial.

Villainy

• Infamously, during the First Congo War, Kagame allowed troops of the Rwanda-backed Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo to murder Hutu civilians in retaliation for the Rwandan Genocide, with the "official" reason for doing so being to eradicate any Interahamwe fugitives; however, many of those targeted in these attacks were not Interahamwe members at all.
  • Most notably, assaults on Hutu refugee camps (with the 1995 Kibeho Massacre probably being the best example) and the slaughter of Hutus fleeing the assaults were deemed an act of genocide. This could also be considered collective punishment of Hutus.
  • As part of the invasion, Kagame sponsored two controversial rebel wars in Zaire. The Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed rebels won the first war (1996–97), installing Laurent-Désiré Kabila as president in place of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and renaming the country as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The second war was launched in 1998 against Kabila, and later his son Joseph, following the DRC government's expulsion of Rwandan and Ugandan military forces from the country.
  • Although Kagame's primary reason for the two wars in the Congo was Rwanda's security, he was alleged to gain economic benefit by exploiting the mineral wealth of the eastern Congo. The 2001 United Nations Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo alleged that Kagame, along with Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, were "on the verge of becoming the godfathers of the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the continuation of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo".
• Former Rwandan officials have alleged that President Kagame has ordered the murder and disappearance of political opponents. In a 2014 report titled "Repression Across Borders", Human Rights Watch documented at least 10 cases involving attacks or threats against critics outside Rwanda since the late 1990s. The organization asserts the victims were likely targeted due to criticisms of the Rwandan government, the RPF or President Paul Kagame.
  • An eight-year investigation by the French government also concluded that Kagame had ordered the assassination of President Habyarimana and issued arrest warrants for nine members of his inner circle. This result was subsequently disputed, and the United Nations refrained from issuing a definitive finding; however, a number of Kagame's closest aides have publicly accused him of ordering the murder.
• He has been accused of corruption and voter fraud.
• He was allied with autocratic Tanzanian president John Magufuli until Magufuli's death in 2021.
• He has censored the media, with media personalities critical of the government being offered bribes to report positive stories, threatened and thrown in prison.
• After his election, Kagame ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Pasteur Bizimungu on charges of treason widely regarded as false.
• He is alleged to have supported the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a terrorist group that operated in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the CNDP's successor organization, the March 23 Movement.
• He is believed to have ordered the rendition and arrest of Paul Rusesabagina in August 2020, accusing him of being involved with various terrorist organizations, including the FDLR. Rusesabagina had previously accused Kagame of directing the murders of imprisoned Hutus and government critics. Rusesabagina's lawyers have stated that he was tortured and that his flight was illegally diverted to Rwanda. The United Nations considers Rusesabagina unlawfully imprisoned.
  • After Rusesabagina’s arrest, numerous media sources in Rwanda have accused him of being a genocide denier despite his role in sheltering victims.
  • Ultimately, Rusesabagina was tried, and on September 20, 2021, he was convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment. His trial was internationally condemned as a sham and a manipulation of the justice system.