Theogene Rudasingwa, a Tutsi who was appointed Rwandas ambassador to Washington after serving as an officer in Kagames army, puts it bluntly:
If you differ strongly with Kagame and make your views known from the inside, you will be made to pay the price, and very often that price is your life.
Rudasingwa, who now lives in exile in the United States, describes Kagame as an extreme control freak who has concentrated power in the hands of a select group of Tutsis who, like Kagame himself, returned to Rwanda from years of exile in Uganda after the genocide.
When you look at the structure of key parts of government, leadership is occupied almost entirely by Tutsis from the outside, and this is especially true in the military, Rudasingwa says. As for the Hutus, they are completely marginalized, and things [for them] have never been as bad as they are today.
Almost the entire Hutu elite that was built up since 1959 is either outside the country or dead. They are marginalized and banished, forced into exile when they havent simply been killed.
The RPF saturates every aspect of life in Rwanda, said Susan Thomson, a longtime Rwanda expert at Colgate University. They know everything: if youve been drinking, if youve had an affair, if youve paid your taxes. Everything is reported on, Thomson says, and there is no appeal.