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11 - Rwanda

The Pursuit of Regime Security Gone Global

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  aN Invalid Date NaN

Klaus Brummer
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt
Šumit Ganguly
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
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Summary

This chapter explores how Rwandan President Paul Kagame has used transnational repression (TR) to maintain regime security by targeting perceived domestic enemies abroad. Kagame’s government uses surveillance, spyware, harassment, intimidation, assassination, and even military intervention to silence critics in the diaspora, especially political opponents, Hutus, former regime officials, and ex-military members. TR is facilitated through official institutions like the Diaspora General Directorate and embassies, as well as through partnerships with host countries, especially authoritarian ones. While Kagame’s regime is praised internationally for successful economic growth and peacekeeping efforts, this masks its authoritarian control, domestic suppression of dissent, and ongoing militarism in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The West’s failure to hold Rwanda accountable stems from guilt over the 1994 genocide and Rwanda’s strategic value in African peacekeeping and resource access. As Kagame reframes authoritarian measures as necessary for national unity and security, his global diplomatic expansion enables continued repression. Rwanda’s TR undermines global human rights norms and Kagame’s authoritarianism, enabled by Western interests, threatens both domestic freedoms and regional stability.

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