Paul Kagame

Paul Kagame told Africa Confidential that he had no doubt that the RCD and its allies were stronger and better coordinated than the pro-Kabila coalition: ‘The RCD has not lost any ground and Kabila and his allies have not regained any...

At Congo- Kinshasa’s embassy in Brussels in December Kabila publicly called the Tutsi ‘slave-traders’; he described Rwanda’s Vice-President General Paul Kagame as a sadist and a blood-drinker and claimed that President Museveni had knowingly sent 1 500 HIV-positive soldiers to infect Congolese women...

After that he flew to the eastern districts pausing only to make a helicopter flight to consult with Rwandan Vice-President General Paul Kagame in Kigali and attend the Francophone summit in Paris...

Paul Kagame...

On his trip to Kigali in May with the Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast he was ambushed diplomatically by the government and Vice-President General Paul Kagame...

By 26 August Kabila could count on varying degrees of support from: • Zimbabwe: President Robert Mugabe was the strongest supporter of military backing for Kinshasa and was equally keen to assert his regional leadership credentials at a time of acute domestic unpopularity; Zimbabwe was a major arms supplier to Kabila before and after he gained power and has growing business interests in Congo; • Angola: fearful that Congo's instability will help Jonas Savimbi's União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola forces it was persuaded by Mugabe to help shore up Kabila as a means of securing the Congo-Angola border and cutting UNITA supply lines; on the back of Angola's involvement we hear that South Africa's Executive Outcomes are also working with Kabila with one report suggesting they might organise a cross-border attack into rebel-held territory in Eastern Congo from Central African Republic; • Namibia: helped persuade Angola's President José Eduardo dos Santos to join the pro-Kabila alliance; is giving logistical support but few if any troops; • Kenya: Daniel arap Moi's government has pledged diplomatic support for Kabila and hasn't ruled out military help; Moi instinctively distrusts any cause backed by Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda's General Paul Kagame; • Mozambique: facilitated disguised transhipments of Chinese arms for Congo through Beira corridor to Zimbabwe and on to Lubumbashi; • Tanzania: unease among some ministers about growing Tutsi influence military and diplomatic in the region but is also keen to maintain congenial relations with neighbouring Burundi and Rwanda; it hurriedly withdrew on 24 August some 600 troops and 200 policemen it had sent to Congo for training; • Congo-Brazzaville: has pledged total commitment to Luanda (whose troops help keep President Denis Sassou Nguesso in power) and by extension to Luanda's allies...

President Pasteur Bizimungu and Vice- President and Defence Minister Paul Kagame boycotted a reception for the UN Secretary General in May and Foreign Minister Anastase Gasana publicly rebuked him...

Paul Kagame...

Rwanda is also involved in what one US official called the ‘dual mediation' via its Vice-President and Defence Minister Paul Kagame...