THURSDAY, 2.00PM
RWANDA’S vice-president, Paul Kagame, has confirmed in an interview with the Washington Post what many have suspected: that the rebellion against former Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was planned in Rwanda as a response to Zaire’s support for Hutu militants.
Kagame’s account, the first official Rwandan acknowledgement of a role in the civil war, says that the initial rebellion in eastern Zaire was planned by Rwanda as a response to attacks from Hutu refugees based in Zairean refugee camps.
When the UN and Western powers ignored repeated calls to demilitarise the camps, Rwanda chose to take matters into its own hands, said Kagame. He said that the next phase of the rebellion, the decision to overthrow Mobutu, was also made in Kigali, and Rwandan soldiers played key roles in the capture of all four major Zairean cities.
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