The US probably knew this. Joyce Leader, the US embassy’s deputy chief of mission in Kigali, had a conversation with a ‘well-placed Rwandan army colonel’ on 12 April. He told her that a secret military-civilian organisation was ordering the atrocities and the president’s death was the provocation needed to put a long-standing plan into effect.32 The moderates were not strong enough to prevent a Hutu Power takeover and in any case received no help.
