Photo: Brian Inganga Associated Press President Paul Kagame is an essential figure in Rwanda, where 65% of the population has only known him at the head of the country.
Posted at 8:28 a.m. Updated at 9:56 a.m.
Visionary hero who put an end to the genocide of the Tutsis and modernized the country for his supporters, despot muzzling all opposition for his detractors: one of the most divisive leaders in Africa, Paul Kagame shaped Rwanda for 30 years of an unchallenged reign.
He will preside over the destiny of the country for five more years, re-elected for a fourth term with an unprecedented score of 99.18%.
For 30 years, he has been an essential figure in Rwanda, where 65% of the population has only known him at the head of the country.
On July 4, 1994, this slender man with round glasses entered Kigali at the head of the Tutsi rebellion of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), overthrowing the extremist Hutu regime instigator of the genocide which left more than 800,000 dead, according to the UN, among the Tutsi minority . The genocidal regime also killed moderate Hutus.
Swapping his fatigues and beret for suits and ties, he became an influential vice-president and minister of defense. De facto leader of the country, he was elected president in April 2000 by Parliament after the resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu, before four plebiscite re-elections by universal suffrage (95.05% in 2003, 93.08% in 2010, 98.79% in 2017).
His three decades in power have made Paul Kagame one of the most divisive leaders on the continent.
Rwandan and foreign leaders salute his role as mastermind of the spectacular economic recovery of the country, bloodless after the genocide and today established as a model of development.< /p>
A fine strategist, he is the commander-in-chief of an army accused of destabilization by fighting alongside the M23 rebellion in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but which plays a crucial security role elsewhere on the continent (Central African Republic, Mozambique, etc.).
“PK” is also the VRP (Editor’s note: traveler representing usher) of a luxury ecotourism destination which is displayed on the jerseys of the Arsenal, PSG and Bayern Munich football teams. A glamorous image which masks a repressive regime, denounce human rights NGOs.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000In all these aspects, its control and that of the FPR is total.< /p>
“Paul Kagame shaped Rwanda, but he is also the product of Rwanda,” said the director for East Africa of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Paul-Simon Handy, emphasizing the Rwandan tradition of 'a strong state.
In the early 1960s, his family fled to Uganda to escape attacks on the Tutsi minority.
As a young man, Paul Kagame joined the National Resistance Army, the rebellion of Yoweri Museveni who took power in 1986.
He founded with other Tutsi exiles the FPR, which entered Rwanda in 1990 to overthrow the regime of Juvénal Habyarimana, dominated by the Hutus, opening a civil war.
When the Habyarimana's plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, Hutu extremists launched a campaign of massacres, which ended in July 1994 with the capture of Kigali by the RPF.
In its hunt for the perpetrators of the genocide, the FPR was accused by the UN of having killed, with its Congolese allies, several tens of thousands of Hutus in the DRC in 1996-1997. This subject remains very sensitive: Kigali considers the mention of these massacres to be negationism. Those responsible for these crimes were not prosecuted.
Eaten by the guilt of its inaction during the genocide, the international community will remain silent, preferring to support the renewal of the country (7.2% average growth between 2012 and 2022) and its remarkable progress in infrastructure, health and education.
It is only 'in 2012, after initial accusations of support for the M23, that the West will toughen up their tone and reduce their aid.
Criticism has since multiplied against a regime where dissident voices are stifled or forced into exile.
One of the most resounding cases is that of Paul Rusesabagina, Hutu owner of the Mille Collines hotel during the genocide who saved a thousand Tutsis, an episode which inspired the film Hotel Rwanda.
This exiled opponent was arrested in 2020 in Kigali, when he got off a plane that he thought was bound for Burundi. The Rwandan government admitted having financed the operation.
Sentenced to 25 years in prison for “terrorism”, he benefited from a presidential pardon.
“There is only one voice in Rwanda and no one contests it,” underlines Louis Gitinywa, Rwandan lawyer and political analyst, believing that “it is not good for a developing country. »
Only one of the eleven officially registered opposition parties does not support Paul Kagame.
The latter brushes aside accusations of authoritarianism. “Lies” from the West, he castigated in an interview with AFP in 2021.
When his party endorsed him to run for a fourth term, this father of four children and grandfather of two grandchildren accepted “this burden of responsibility”, but called on his supporters to find him a successor.
If such is not the case, constitutional amendments adopted in 2015 allow him to run again in 2029.
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