Is Rwanda the victim of Western conspiracy against the leadership of Paul Kagame?

There are assertions that Paul Kagame has used western aid to build up a killing machine against all those who oppose him.

He has also been criticized for his role in human rights abuses in DRC and his support for rebel groups in the area. His operations are financed by western aid and vocal support predominantly from the US and UK. Fears are growing of genocide in the region.

When democratic governments choose to ignore human rights abuses committed by an autocrat they support, it is normally in the name of national security or shared economic interests. But in the case of Rwanda's authoritarian president, Paul Kagame, the overwhelming rationale is guilt.

The world stood by in 1994 as factions of Rwanda's then army, their allied militia and Hutu civilians shot or hacked to death an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. While the UN dithered, Kagame's commander of a Tutsi-led rebel army accelerated his military campaign and crushed the murderous regime and militia, some of whom fled into eastern Congo. In 2000, he took office as president, vowing to rebuild Rwanda.

Since then, his government has won international praise for its effective use of development aid, while the man himself has drawn endorsements from the likes of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.

Even with a third of government revenues still accounted for by aid money, donor governments have been quick to describe Rwanda as an economic miracle.

The US is retreating from years of solid public support for Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, in a major shift that suggests Washington's concern at continued bloodletting in the Democratic Republic of Congo now outweighs western guilt over the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The Rwandan government has hit back at the latest accusations of its support for rebels in the DRC, calling a detailed United Nations report that prompted the US, Britain and other countries to cut aid last week an orchestrated attempt to "cast Rwanda as the villain".

But Washington appears un-persuaded after publicly endorsing the report which lays out evidence of Rwanda providing fighters and military equipment to rebels in the eastern DRC where 18 years of conflict have cost the lives of several million people.

The US state department broke with its history of limiting criticism to private communications to say "we have deep concerns about Rwanda's support to the Congolese rebel group that goes by the name M23". Washington cut military aid and its war crimes chief warned that the Rwandan leadership could find itself under investigation by the international criminal court. 

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