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Rwanda: Kagame Says French Nationals Will Be Indicted
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Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
2 July 2008
Posted to the web 2 July 2008
Kigali
Rwanda may file criminal charges against some French nationals over their alleged role in the 1994 Genocide in the country, President Paul Kagame has reportedly said.
Mr. Kagame said on Monday in Egypt that a report probing the role of the French establishment in the Genocide that left over a million people massacred was due out - marking start of proceedings against some officials.
"The report will name people who abetted the militia and hopefully our judges will enjoy indicting some of them," Kagame told Bloomberg Television in an interview at the African Union meeting in Sharm-el- Sheikh, Egypt.
He apparently did not identify the people who will be charged. The President said at a press conference last month that government was finalizing the report compiled by a seven-member panel headed by former Justice Minister Jean de Dieu Mucyo - to be published this month.
"There is no justice for Europe and justice for Africa that is different," Bloomberg Television quotes Mr. Kagame as saying. "If they are to be different it certainly can't be Europe extending its jurisdictional powers to other countries, especially in Africa."
Cabinet has already given a go ahead to a bill that would give Rwandan judges international jurisdiction - essentially meaning they can indict foreigners.
The charges against French nationals - if launched - would come after a French anti-terrorism judge Jean Louis Brugiuere issued warrants for senior military officials following a probe into the death of a former Rwandan leader, Juvenal Habyarimana. Judge Brugiuere accuses them for the deaths of French pilots aboard the plane in which President Habyarimana died.
Rwanda reacted by recalling its envoy in Paris and closed the French embassy in Kigali along with all interests including a primary/secondary.
In February this year, more indictments came from Spain for 40 top army brass on allegations of killing nine Spanish nuns and war crimes. In both charges, President Kagame is subject but was left out owing to presidential immunity.
Rwanda last year asked a United Nations court to quash those warrants. Political parties here have all come out to rally behind government with strong condemnation of the indictments. The latest block to show support has been senior religious leaders.
Recently, the African Parliament also added its voice to the controversy backing government after Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama presented Rwanda's case.
Now, the African Union leaders on Monday also ratified a statement condemning the "abuse of principle of universal jurisdiction by judges from some non-African states against African leaders" that violated sovereignty. African nations agreed not to execute arrest warrants issued by European courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy - himself named by a high profile witness to the Rwanda probe as part of the Genocide financing scheme - has sought to normalize relations since taking office. French Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner has already been to Rwanda but fell short of admitting any responsibility.
"We want to turn the page, we want to look to the future," Mr. Sarkozy said after meeting his Rwandan counterpart during an EU-Africa summit in Lisbon in December last year. Mr. Sarkozy described the meeting as "the start of a normalisation" of ties.
In the probe, numerous hand-picked witnesses pointed to alleged collaboration between senior French military officials in aiding the former government on orders from Paris - then under deceased President François Mitterrand.
From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Sarkozy was Minister for the Budget in the Mr. Edouard Balladur premiership. It is the same period that several millions of French francs were allegedly used to buy arms for the Habyarimana government - that would later serve the Genocidal machinery.
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Other officials on the Kigali radar include former premier Mr. Dominique de Villepin and current French envoy in Spain Mr. Bruno Delaye.
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| Copyright © 2008 Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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