Hirondelle News Agency (Lausanne)
8 September 2008
Brussels — Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said that Kigali was considering the possibility of issuing arrest warrants against French officials implicated by the Rwandan Commission for their role in the 1994 genocide, according to Belgian Newspaper Le Soir (The Evening) Saturday's edition.
"It is a possibility that we are considering [...]. Moreover, on a legal level, the French established a precedent. If they did it -- issue arrest warrants against Rwandan leaders -- we can also do it against them", the Rwandan President told Le Soir in an interview, referring to the arrest warrants issued in 2006 by French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere against nine officials of the Kigali regime for their alleged role in the attack, on 6 April 1994, against the plane of President Juvenal Habyarimana.
Early August, the special Rwandan Commission made their findings public, which implicated the French military and civilian officials in the genocide. More than 800 000 people were killed, mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, between April and July 1994, according to the UN.
Before resorting to legal recourse, Mr. Kagame stated that he was waiting for the French authorities. France as such, was examining, through its institutions its government, the findings of the Rwandan Commission, he said.
"They cannot simply sweep aside this report, moreover that many points had already been raised by the parliamentary investigation mission that was organized in France ten years ago", he stressed, criticizing reactions [heard] on the radio, where the commentators swept the Rwandan report aside..."
The Rwandan president also brushed aside any possibility of a particular arrangement with the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner or President Nicolas Sarkozy. "In a situation like this one, it is very difficult; things have gone too far. It is the French themselves, by their attitude, which made all of this much more difficult" claimed President Kagame.
He added: "the question asked exceeds by far the relations between Rwanda and France; it is a question of international justice, to know how European judges, acting within an individual capacity, can thus misuse justice and attack other countries, whereas the opposite is not true. Until now, such steps have always been from North to South, and I do not see why it should continue in this way."
In the same edition of Le Soir, Rwandan Minister of Justice, Tharcisse Kavugarama, announced that Rwanda would call upon the legal cooperation between States to continue the investigations into French officials among them Edouard Balladur and Alain Juppe, respectively Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during the 1994 events, as well as other high ranking military officials.
In case this does not work, Mr. Kavugarama warns that "international arrest warrants [...] should be ready within a month or two [for French officials]".
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The government of Rwanda must be joking. The truth must not be heard only from one side. The want to be believed in all the time. It is common sense President Paul Kagame together with his Ugandan mentor; Yoweri Museveni organised and orchestrated or masterminded the preparation to bring down the plane, killing the then Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and his Burundian counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira.
In this world no man will ever appreciate facing the truth. About genocide, following the death of the presidents, it is still going on even now as we speak. It is highly believed that many Hutus who fled the 1994 genocide were followed by Kagame troops supported by Uganda in DRC, then Zaire and massacred there. Today, the troubles and challeges faced by the great lakes regional was not caused by France per say but the leaders of the region themselves. Kagame and his government must face the reality by explaining why they killed Habyarimana after he had agreed to the peace deal in Arusha – Tanzania, rather sheer denial.
After my readings from the opinions of different specialists of Great Lakes region, with an independent point of view, I conclude that FPR of President Kagame, has much more advantage on the death of Habyarimana than any one else in the world. Yet, this is a judgment based on no proves. After my reading from different sources, I have also observed that contradictions of argument exist, which engendered in a series of questions. One of my questions is what happened to the elements of FPR stationed in Kigali. Regardless of whether they were 600 or 4000 as Jean Pierre Mugabe suggested, they should be the first target and first to fight with FAR. However, according to French parliament report, the fact is this FPR element did not star the fight in the afternoon of April 7th, yet although J.P Mugabe did not specifically mention what happened to this unity, but he argued that Kagame ordered all troops to attack immediately at the night itself. J.P. Mugabe also suggested that even before 4.6.94, FPR elements inside of Kigali had already finish their preparative movements, and other FPR forces were as well. Finally, in terms of involvement of secret service agencies, I am certain that the death of Rwandan president was direct or indirectly involved and knew by at least French, Belgian, Ugandan, FPR, Tanzanian, and Congolese (Zaire) agents.
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Henry muh, you are missing the point! What Kagame is saying, is simply that the role of France in Rwandan genocide has been established, with very clearly stated facts. It is up to you and your anti-kagame scheme supporters to come up with evidence that he or RPF as you allege, indeed downed Habyarimana's plane. Also I find it rather unfortunate that you find the death of Habyarimana and his entourage on the plane as a very powerful and legitimate justification for a genocide!!!
The French would certain show some respect by taking this seriously. It is certainly plausible that the French saw the whole situation theough 'Hutu' eyes and it blinded them to what was really going on. The French people deserve the truth and the Rwandan people deserve justice.