- Rwandan has opened fresh row with its former colonial master after a Paris Appeals Court acquitted and discharged two Rwandans - Wenceslas Munyeshyaka and Laurent Bucyibaruta - accused of genocide playing crucial roles during the genocide. The suspects are former Catholic Priest and Prefect respectively.
Charles Muriganda, the Foreign Minister of Rwanda, said the outcome of the case was not a surprise to them. “I am shocked but not surprised by the French action,“ he said.
Since 1995, the French judiciary has been resisting the arrest of the two genocide suspects until 20 July when they were finally arrested.
Rwandan authorities maintained that the suspects have played key roles in the 100-day long genocide in which 900,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered.
The relations between the two countries have been soured by accusations and counter accusations played by officials of both countries during the genocide. A genocide arrest warrant against close aids to President Kagame by a French judge helped in fuelled the bad blood between France and Rwanda. Jean-Louis Bruguire accused the aids of playing crucial roles in the crashing of President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane, an event that spark off the genocide.
The case happens at a time when Paris and Kigali are said to be on course to repair a 10-month diplomatic and bi-lateral damage. Rwandan officials are yet to comment as to whether fresh row will have any negative impact on renewed efforts to restore normalcy between the two government.
Father Munyeshyaka has been wanted since 1995 when some genocide survivors pointed accusing fingers at him. A Rwandan military tribunal last November sentenced him to life in prison in absentia after he was found guilty of delivering hundreds of adults and children to the genocidal militias, which in turn brutally slaughtered them.
Mr Munyeshyaka was also found guilty of raping several young girls and women before handing them over to their henchmen.
Mr Bucyibaruta, Prefect in Rwanda's Gikongoro province was accused of direct and public incitement to commit genocide, complicity to extermination and murders constituting crimes against humanity.
The two suspects have been declared wanted by the Rwanda judiciary. Some genocide survivors also filed cases against them in France.
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