afrol News, 2 September - President Paul Kagame has threatened to withdraw Rwandan peacekeepers in Darfur if the country's deputy commander of the hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping force has not been approved and withdrawn.

Rwanda, which has about four battallions in Darfur, has so far become the largest contributor of troops in the troubled region. Already, more than ten of its soldiers were killed.

President Kagame's threats were exacerbated by the indictment of 40 senior Rwandan military officials, including General Karenzi Karake, by a Spanish judge Fernando Andreu for allegedly committing genocide and crimes against humanity during the 100-day long 1994 genocide in which the Hutu militias slaughtered at least 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

The International Criminal Court has also recently issued indictments against the officials.

Mr. Kagame used a local private radio program to vent anger on what he referred to as "false and wrong indictment by a Spanish judge." The indicted officials, including 11 generals, were also accused of killing nine Spanish citizens.

The president, who was himself indicted by France and Spain judiciaries over his alleged involvement in the genocide killings, was accused of lighting the genocide flames after he had ordered the shooting the plane carrying former president Juvenal Habyarimana.

Kagame denied the accusations, and blamed the Spanish judiciary of being "arrogant" as it lacked jurisdiction over an independent country like Rwandan.

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. "Some people in the west put themselves in the place of God, thing that they have authority over us."

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories