President Paul Kagame: «The investigators have not even set foot in Rwanda.»

© UN / afrol News

afrol News, 9 March - The French judiciary again raises allegations against Rwandan President Paul Kagame. According to a new French report, Mr Kagame in April 1994 was responsible for the assassination of then-President Juvenal Habyarimana - an event that served as catalyst for the Rwandan genocide. Rwandan authorities forcefully reject the French accusations.

The new allegations against President Kagame surely will not improve the already strained French-Rwandan relations. Since the current government came to power by defeating the genocidal heirs of President Habyarimana in mid-1994, Paris has been hostile towards the leaders in Kigali. Several French sources have tried to connect Mr Kagame to the assassination of President Habyarimana, while it is official knowledge in Rwanda that France protected the genocidal government of 1994.

Rwandan President Habyarimana, his Burundian counterpart President Cyprien Ntaryamira, Rwanda's military leadership and two Burundian Ministers were in an aircraft on Kigali airport on 6 April 1994 when a rocket hit the plane and killed all of them. This event is said to have triggered the Rwandan genocide, which was already well-prepared by members of President Habyarimana's government. Almost one million Rwandans were slaughtered during the next few months.

Mr Kagame at that time was head of the Uganda-based Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebel movement, fighting the Kigali government that was increasingly hostile to the country's Tutsi minority. During the genocide ordered by Kigali officials, Mr Kagame led his RPF troops to victory, fighting the genocidal troops and ending the slaughter.

Ever since 1998, theories connecting Mr Kagame to the attack on the aircraft at Kigali airport have circulated. The UN was said to have a document proving the RPF was behind the attack, which the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in June 2000 unsuccessfully demanded to have released. President Kagame, in power since 2000, repeatedly has denied any RPF involvement in the attack.

The fact that one French government representative was among the persons killed in the aircraft caused the French judiciary to order an investigation into the attack. According to the French daily 'Le Monde', the National Anti-terrorism Division (DNAT) now has presented a 220-pages report to the national judiciary. The investigations have been headed by the prominent French anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

'Le Monde', which claims to have seen the report, says that Mr Bruguiere's report concludes that Mr Kagame was personally responsible for the attack on the aircraft. Mr Bruguiere allegedly had interviewed several ex-members of the FPR, now described as "dissidents", even an alleged member of "the commando" sent out to carry out the attack.

According to 'Le Monde', Mr Bruguiere's informants had indicated that Mr Kagame was aware of the risks of genocide but that he was willing to "sacrifice" the Tutsi population of some areas to be able to grab power.

The report by Mr Bruguiere further was said to make strong allegations against the UN and in particular UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The French judge is quoted saying that the UN and Mr Annan personally were trying to prevent his investigations. Mr Bruguiere re-launches the theory of a conspiracy between the UN and President Kagame, claiming the UN has something to hide in the case.

The French judiciary, now armed with a report they claims Mr Kagame's involvement in the attack at Kigali airport, still has not decided how to pursue the case. If Paris chooses to publish the still-secret report, this in theory should oblige the judiciary to issue an international arrest order against President Kagame and several of Rwanda's government members. This however would be sure to cause international protests and a revival of the many stories linking Paris to the genocidal Kigali government in 1994.

In Kigali, meanwhile, government officials find it hard to take the French accusations serious. President Kagame on several occasions has ridiculed the French investigation, noting that Mr Bruguiere not even has set foot in Rwanda. Servilien Sebasoni, spokesman of President Kagame's party, today told the French news agency AFP that the report "brings no new element, no new proof to back up accusations."

Mr Sebasoni added that France since 1998 had threatened to publish such a report and that it was obvious that Paris wanted to do this before the upcoming tenth anniversary of the genocide, to be marked on 7 April.

By Rainer Chr. Hennig

© afrol News

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