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Senior Member
- Apr 2, 2012
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Kagame was born to a Tutsifamily in Tambwe, Rwanda-Urundi in October 1957 toDeogratius and Asteria Rutagambwa. In November 1959, an increasingly restive Hutupopulation sparked a revolt, eventually resulting in the overthrow of MwamiKigeri V Ndahindurwa in1961.
During the 1959 revolt and its aftermath, more than 150,000 people werekilled in the fighting, with the Tutsis suffering the greatest losses. Severalthousand fled to neighbouring countries including Burundi and Uganda.[SUP][6][/SUP] In all, some 20,000 Tutsis were killed.
In 1960Kagame left with his family at the age of two and moved to Uganda with many other Tutsis. In1962 they settled in the Gahunge refugee camp, Toro, where Kagame spent therest of his childhood years. Heattended Ntare Secondary School in Uganda. Duringmuch of this time Kagame was a "motivated student" and bore an earlyfascination with revolutionaries such as Che Guevara.
His military career started when he joined Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army(NRA) and spent yearsfighting as a guerrillaagainstthe government of Milton Obote in what is commonly known inUganda as the bush war.
On 27 July 1985, Milton Obote was ousted in a military coup led by Tito Okello. In 1986 the NRA succeeded in overthrowing Okelloand the NRA leader Yoweri Museveni became President of Uganda. Thissame year, Kagame as a Tutsi was instrumental in forming, along with his closefriend Fred Rwigema, the Rwandese Patriotic Front(RPF), which was composed mainly of expatriate Rwandan Tutsisoldiers that had also fought with the NRA; the RPF was also based in Uganda.
In 1986, Kagame became the head of military intelligence inthe NRA, and was regarded as one of Museveni's closest allies. He also joinedthe official Ugandan military.
During 1990, Kagame went to Fort Leavenworth where the U.S. Army gave him militarytraining. When the RPF started an invasion of Rwanda and his closefriend and RPF co-founder Fred Rwigema was killed under disputedcircumstances, the U.S. arranged the return of Kagame to Uganda and thence totake the leadership of the invasion, thus signaling that the U.S. was sidingwith the RPF against the incumbent Rwandan government. Broadening thisconnection, the U.S. andU.K. militaries provided further training and active logistical support to theRPF, which it used to take over power in Rwanda after 1994.
After comingto power, Kagame arranged for the RPA to receive further counterinsurgency andcombat training from U.S. Special Forces, which was put to use in the 19961997Rwandan-backed military campaign to overthrow the government of neighboring Zaire.
During the 1959 revolt and its aftermath, more than 150,000 people werekilled in the fighting, with the Tutsis suffering the greatest losses. Severalthousand fled to neighbouring countries including Burundi and Uganda.[SUP][6][/SUP] In all, some 20,000 Tutsis were killed.
In 1960Kagame left with his family at the age of two and moved to Uganda with many other Tutsis. In1962 they settled in the Gahunge refugee camp, Toro, where Kagame spent therest of his childhood years. Heattended Ntare Secondary School in Uganda. Duringmuch of this time Kagame was a "motivated student" and bore an earlyfascination with revolutionaries such as Che Guevara.
His military career started when he joined Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army(NRA) and spent yearsfighting as a guerrillaagainstthe government of Milton Obote in what is commonly known inUganda as the bush war.
On 27 July 1985, Milton Obote was ousted in a military coup led by Tito Okello. In 1986 the NRA succeeded in overthrowing Okelloand the NRA leader Yoweri Museveni became President of Uganda. Thissame year, Kagame as a Tutsi was instrumental in forming, along with his closefriend Fred Rwigema, the Rwandese Patriotic Front(RPF), which was composed mainly of expatriate Rwandan Tutsisoldiers that had also fought with the NRA; the RPF was also based in Uganda.
In 1986, Kagame became the head of military intelligence inthe NRA, and was regarded as one of Museveni's closest allies. He also joinedthe official Ugandan military.
During 1990, Kagame went to Fort Leavenworth where the U.S. Army gave him militarytraining. When the RPF started an invasion of Rwanda and his closefriend and RPF co-founder Fred Rwigema was killed under disputedcircumstances, the U.S. arranged the return of Kagame to Uganda and thence totake the leadership of the invasion, thus signaling that the U.S. was sidingwith the RPF against the incumbent Rwandan government. Broadening thisconnection, the U.S. andU.K. militaries provided further training and active logistical support to theRPF, which it used to take over power in Rwanda after 1994.
After comingto power, Kagame arranged for the RPA to receive further counterinsurgency andcombat training from U.S. Special Forces, which was put to use in the 19961997Rwandan-backed military campaign to overthrow the government of neighboring Zaire.