afrol News, 2 April - President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has damned the Spanish court for issuing arrest warrants against 40 Rwandan military officers, accusing them of committing genocide, terrorism and crimes against humanity.

Spain's criminal court presided over by Judge Fernando Andreu on 6 February said it would prosecute the officers, including 11 generals, indicting them of committing the crimes between 1994 and 2000.

The officers were also indicted of killing nine Spanish citizens, including six missionaries.

In his first public comment on the issue, Mr Kagame blamed the Spanish judiciary of being "arrogant" because it has no jurisdiction over Rwanda.

He said the action was meant to target him because all the "indicted people were under my command" and that the judge "should put the responsibility on my shoulders, and wait until I am out of office."

As a sitting head of state, President Kagame is immune from prosecution.

The furious Rwandan leader said going by the dossier, it was evident that the court had indicted the former Rwandan Patriotic Front, instead of individuals.

He wondered how a judge sitting in Spain could indict the whole leadership of a country.

"Just imagine the arrogance of it! How a Spanish judge sitting in a Spanish village feels a duty to indict a whole leadership of a country," Kagame said, adding that "some people in the west put themselves in the place of God, thing that they have authority over us."

Kagame's movement squashed the 100-day long 1994 Rwandan genocide which saw the mass slaughter of the minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu militia and government troops.

He said "some people in the west think that Rwandans or Africans are all killers." He disputed this notion, arguing that "the war we waged was to liberate our country."

Mr Kagame also blamed Judge Andreu for his failure to distinguish between genocide perpetrators, and those who squashed it.

The warrants were issued in response to a complaint filed by human rights activists in 2005.

Rwandan Foreign Ministry had earlier swiftly reacted to the warrants, describing them as "bogus" and "ridiculous." The ministry said the case was full of falsehood, arguing why the judge had not visited Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of Congo, scenes of the alleged killings.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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