In an interview with Washington Post on 9 July 1997, Rwandan president Paul Kagame (then Defence Minister) recognised that Rwandan troops had played a key role in this AFDL campaign. According to President Paul Kagame, the campaign strategy comprised three elements: a) destroy the refugee camps, b) destroy ex-FAR and Interahamwe [a criminal militia that committed a genocide against Tutsi people in Rwanda in April-July 1994] based in and around the camps and c) overthrow the Mobutu regime (Campbell, 1997). Following her research into complete history of the Rwandan genocide and the crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), through unparalleled interviews with RPF defectors, former soldiers and atrocity survivors, supported by documents leaked from a UN court, Judi Rever, a Canadian investigative journalist and author, concluded that President Paul Kagame is “ultimately responsible for the killing of an estimated 200,000 Rwandan Hutu and Congolese Hutu in Zaïre/DRC in 1996-97 and countless Hutus who returned to Rwanda from refugee camps between 1995 and 1998” (Rever, 2018). Judi, in her book, compiled a list of “the most notorious criminals of the Rwandan Patriotic Front” made up of 20 high ranking officers.
The identities of leading officers and strategists may have been intentionally hidden by the RPF and ADFL in order to protect those responsible for war crimes. Nevertheless, some became known to embassies in Kinshasa, humanitarian organizations, and Congolese, as either strategists or field commanders, or both ( Campbell, S., 1997. What Kabila is Hiding: Civilian Killings and Impunity in Congo, Human Rights Watch ).
“Testimonies taken in several provinces of Congo as well as in neighbouring states concur that the perpetrators of most killings were from an ethnic Tutsi sub-group of ADFL troops, often described by Congolese as “Rwandan”, “Ugandan”, “Burundian”, or “Banyamulenge.” Numerous refugees described how, when overtaken by the ADFL or their allies during their flight, they had recognized and had conversations with members of the RPA who were from their home communes in Rwanda. Congolese villagers described numerous incidents in which refugees and members of the RPA recognized and spoke with one another in areas where massacres took place. Many commanding officers in areas where massacres took place, as well as troops under their command, were members of the RPA. Some stated that they had grown up in Rwanda, having left for studies or other reasons.
Languages spoken by perpetrators similarly indicates their origin as primarily Rwandan, eastern Congolese, or Ugandan. Congolese, foreigners in Congo, and refugees consistently described the perpetrators of massacres in several regions or those blocking humanitarian access to refugees as Kinyarwanda speakers. Many witnesses noted the divisions among the ADFL, claiming that the troops of the ADFL who killed were often from Rwanda, some speaking only Kinyarwanda.
Others witnesses stated that the perpetrators spoke Kiswahili as well as Kinyarwanda, sometimes mixed with French or English. This indicates that some of the troops involved in killings were likely to have come from southern Uganda, as well as eastern Congo and Burundi. Many commanding officers and troops in areas where massacres took place were fluent English, Kinyarwanda, and Kiswahili speakers, characteristic of members of the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) who invaded Rwanda from southern Uganda in 1990.
Certain military among the ADFL and especially the RPA appeared to be particularly motivated to kill refugees. Kinyarwanda and Kiswahili-speaking ADFL or Rwandan troops repeatedly demonstrated throughout the war a specific intent to hunt down and kill civilian refugees as well as armed exiles from Rwanda. Numerous residents of Mbandaka report that, upon the arrival of the ADFL on May 13, 1997, Kinyarwanda-speaking troops immediately asked “where are the refugees?” and proceeded to seek them out and begin killing. Human Rights Watch/FIDH received similar reports from towns between Kisangani and Mbandaka, where the first order of business for the ADFL upon arrival in a village was to eliminate refugees” (Campbell, 1997)