Paul Kagame

===Rwandan genocide===
{{Main|Rwandan genocide}}
On 6 April 1994, Rwandan President Habyarimana's plane [[Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira|was shot down]] near [[Kigali Airport]], killing both Habyarimana and the [[List of Presidents of Burundi|President of Burundi]], [[Cyprien Ntaryamira]], as well as their entourage and three French crew members.{{sfn|National Assembly of France|1998}}{{sfn|BBC News (I)|2010}} The attackers remain unknown. Prunier, in his 1995 book, concluded that it was most likely a coup d'état carried out by extreme Hutu members of Habyarimana's government who feared that the president was serious about honouring the Arusha agreement, and was a planned part of the genocide.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|p=221}} This theory was disputed in 2006 by French judge [[Jean-Louis Bruguière]], and in 2008 by Spanish judge [[Fernando Andreu]].{{sfn|Wilkinson|2008}} Both alleged that Kagame and the RPF were responsible.{{sfn|Bruguière|2006|p=1}} 

Rever also held Kagame responsible, giving as his motive a desire to plunge Rwanda into disorder and therefore provide a platform for the RPF to complete their conquest of the country. Evaluating the two arguments later in 2018, Caplan questioned the evidence used by Bruguière and Rever, stating that it has been repeatedly "discredited for its methodology and its dependence on sources who have split bitterly with Kagame".{{sfn|Caplan|2018|p=176}} Caplan also noted that Hutu extremists had made multiple prior threats to kill Habyarimana in their journals and radio stations, and cited eyewitness accounts of roadblocks being erected in Kigali and killings initiated within one hour of the crash – evidence that the shooting of the plane was ordered as the initiation of the genocide.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=177–178}}

Following Habyarimana's death, a military committee led by Colonel [[Théoneste Bagosora]] took immediate control of the country.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=224}} Under the committee's direction, the Hutu militia [[Interahamwe]] and the Presidential Guard began to kill Hutu and Tutsi opposition politicians and other prominent Tutsi figures.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|p=230}} The killers then targeted the entire Tutsi population, as well as moderate Hutu,{{sfn|Rombouts|2004|p=182}} beginning the [[Rwandan genocide]].{{sfn|The New York Times|1994}} Over the course of approximately 100 days, an estimated 206,000 to 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed on the orders of the committee.{{sfn|Meierhenrich|2020}}{{sfn|Guichaoua|2020|p=3}} On 7 April, Kagame warned the committee and UNAMIR that he would resume the civil war if the killing did not stop.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=247}} 

The next day, the Rwandan government forces attacked the national parliament building from several directions, but the RPF troops stationed there successfully fought back.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|pp=264–265}} Kagame began an attack from the north on three fronts, seeking to link up quickly with the troops isolated in Kigali.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=269}} An interim government was set up but Kagame refused to talk to it, believing that it was just a cover for Bagosora's rule.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|p=268}} Over the next few days, the RPF advanced steadily south, capturing Gabiro and large areas of countryside to the north and east of Kigali.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=288}} They avoided attacking Kigali or [[Byumba]] at this stage, but conducted manoeuvres designed to encircle the cities and cut off supply routes.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=299}}

Throughout April there were numerous attempts by UNAMIR to establish a ceasefire, but Kagame insisted each time that the RPF would not stop fighting unless the killings stopped.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=300}} In late April, the RPF secured the whole of the Tanzanian border area and began to move west from Kibungo, to the south of Kigali.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|pp=326–327}} They encountered little resistance, except around Kigali and Ruhengeri.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|p=268}} By 16 May, they had cut the road between Kigali and [[Gitarama]], the temporary home of the interim government, and by 13 June, they had taken Gitarama, following an unsuccessful attempt by the Rwandan government forces to reopen the road. The interim government was forced to relocate to [[Gisenyi]] in the far north west.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=410}} As well as fighting the war, Kagame was recruiting heavily to expand the army. The new recruits included Tutsi survivors of the genocide and refugees from [[Burundi]], but were less well trained and disciplined than the earlier recruits.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|p=270}}

Having completed the encirclement of Kigali, Kagame spent the latter half of June fighting to take the city.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=421}} The government forces had superior manpower and weapons, but the RPF steadily gained territory, as well as conducting raids to rescue civilians from behind enemy lines.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=421}} According to [[Roméo Dallaire]], the force commander of UNAMIR, this success was due to Kagame being a "master of psychological warfare";{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=421}} he exploited the fact that the government forces were concentrating on the genocide rather than the fight for Kigali, and capitalised on the government's loss of morale as it lost territory.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=421}} The RPF finally defeated the Rwandan government forces in Kigali on 4 July,{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|p=459}} and on 18 July took Gisenyi and the rest of the north west, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|pp=298–299}} At the end of July 1994, Kagame's forces held the whole of Rwanda except for a zone in the south west, which had been occupied by a French-led United Nations force as part of ''[[Opération Turquoise]]''.{{sfn|Dallaire|2005|pp=474–475}}

Kagame's tactics and actions during the genocide have proved controversial. Western observers such as Dallaire and [[Luc Marchal]], the senior Belgian peacekeeper in Rwanda at the time, have stated that the RPF prioritised taking power over saving lives or stopping the genocide.{{efn|Marchal told Rever, "Not only did the RPF not show the slightest interest in protecting Tutsis, it fuelled the chaos. The RPF had one objective. It was to seize power and use the massacres as stock in trade to justify its military operations. This is what I saw."{{sfn|Garrett|2018|pp=909–912}} Meanwhile, Dallaire wrote in ''[[Shake Hands with the Devil (book)|Shake Hands with the Devil]]'' that "the deaths of Rwandans can also be laid at the door of the military genius, Paul Kagame, who did not speed up his [military] campaign when the scale of the genocide became clear, and even talked candidly with me at several points about the price his fellow Tutsi might have to pay for the cause. The 'cause' was clear. It was not defeating the Government’s forces to stop the genocide as soon as possible. It was continuing the civil war until the RPF could take over the entire country."{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=154–155}}}} Scholars also believe that the RPF killed many Rwandan civilians, predominantly Hutu, during the genocide and in the months that followed. The death toll from these killings is in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.{{sfn|Prunier|1999|pp=359–360}} In her book ''Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda'', written for [[Human Rights Watch]], Rwanda expert [[Alison des Forges]] wrote that despite saving many lives, the RPF "relentlessly pursued those whom they thought guilty of genocide" and that "in their drive for military victory and a halt to the genocide, the RPF killed thousands, including noncombatants as well as government troops and members of militia".{{sfn|Des Forges|1999|p=691}} 

Human rights violations by the RPF during the genocide have also been documented in a 2000 report compiled by the [[Organisation of African Unity]], and by Prunier in ''Africa's World War''.{{sfn|Caplan|2018|pp=155–157}} In an interview with journalist [[Stephen Kinzer]], Kagame acknowledged that killings had occurred but said that they were carried out by rogue soldiers and had been impossible to control.{{sfn|Kinzer|2008|p=191}} RPF killings continued after the end of the genocide, gaining international attention with the 1995 [[Kibeho massacre]], in which soldiers opened fire on a camp for [[internally displaced persons]] in [[Butare Province]].{{sfn|Lorch|1995}} Australian soldiers serving as part of UNAMIR estimated at least 4,000 people were killed,{{sfn|Australian War Memorial}} while the Rwandan government claimed that the death toll was 338.{{sfn|Prunier|2009|p=42}}