( CNN ) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame hit back Monday at human rights activists who say he 's behaving like an autocrat and fueling a bloody civil war in Rwanda 's neighbor , Congo . `` If you are talking about people in the human rights community from outside ... I have an issue with this , '' Kagame said , 16 years after he was hailed as a hero for ending a genocide that killed at least 800,000 people . `` You tend to make a judgment of a country , 11 million people , on what a couple of people have said and ( they ) do n't take into account what Rwandans say . '' Kagame added , `` Nobody has asked the Rwandans ... it 's as if they do n't matter in the eyes of the human rights people . It 's our own decisions in the end . '' He said everyone in Rwanda has to play by the rules and be accountable . `` There has to be leadership to make things move in the right direction , '' Kagame stated . Kagame 's comments came a month after the New York-based group , Human Rights Watch , said opposition activists are facing increasing threats , attacks , and harassment ahead of Rwanda 's presidential election in August . Human Rights Watch said opposition party members have suffered serious intimidation by individuals and institutions close to the government and Kagame 's ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) . The RPF took power in 1994 after its army swept into the capital of Kigali and overthrew the Hutu-dominated government responsible for the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans , most of them members of the minority Tutsi community . In the aftermath of the 100-day genocide , the fastest in modern history , Kagame transformed his country , turning it into one of the fastest growing nations in Africa and -- in the view of some -- a model of economic and social development . Kagame said Rwanda has made significant progress in erasing some of the scars left behind after the tragedy . `` That 's why the country is stable . That 's why the country is moving on . That 's why the country is developing . '' Kagame insisted he has nothing to do with the continuing civil war in mineral-rich Congo , even though he acknowledged that Rwandan troops intervened there a decade ago in an attempt to stop rebel groups from returning to Rwanda . The war became the largest and most destructive conflict in African history , costing more than 5 million lives , as various groups and foreign armies fought for control of Congo 's land and mineral resources . `` I can not be blamed for the problems of Congo or any other country , '' Kagame said . `` There are the Congolese who have their own country , who are supposed to manage it , who are supposed to govern it . It has nothing to do with me . ''
Human Rights Watch says opposition parties are facing threats ahead of elections . Kagame questions the opinions that outsiders may hold about Rwanda . Rwanda has made progress in erasing scars left from 1994 genocide , Kagame says . Kagame says he has nothing to do with the civil war in mineral - rich Congo .