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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Rwanda rejects calls to indict president |
| 2006-11-21 |
| This is rich, given official France's aid and support to the genociders, before, during and after... and the still ongoing propaganda war waged by the quay d'orsay, "Marianne" or "Le Monde" (french rags) to absolve France by claiming there was a "double-genocide", and that the hutus french clients were no more to blame than the tutsis. Rwanda rejected calls by a French judge to indict President Paul Kagame over his alleged involvement in the death of the country's former leader. "The allegations are totally unfounded. The judge is acting on the basis of gossip and rumours," Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama said. Karugarama accused the judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, of playing political games over the allegations that will further worsen the already frosty relations between Kigali and Paris. "These are political games rather than a judicial process," he said. On Monday, Bruguiere said Kagame should face prosecution before the international war crimes court in Tanzania because of his "suspected involvement" in the death of then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana. But Rwanda has accused France of abetting the genocide, in which around 800,000 people, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, were slaughtered by Hutu extremists during a 100-day killing spree between April and July 1994. Paris has adamantly denied the allegation but Kigali has charged a commission with determining whether there is evidence to file a suit against France for damages at the world court. The Rwandan minister said his government would not respond to Bruguiere's allegations by seeking to indict French President Jacques Chirac over the genocide. Kigali would not be dragged into "a sad situation where we would also engage in similar games by indicting (President Jacques) Chirac or other senior French officials," he said. Bruguiere said Kagame should be arraigned before the Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which is currently hearing the case of several former high-ranking Rwandan army officers accused of genocide. Formed in late 1994, the court has so far tried 31 suspects, convicting 26 and acquitting five. Twenty-five trials are now in progress, with 12 awaiting their start. The tribunal last month rejected a request to consider an earlier account from Bruguiere into the killing of Habyarimana which reportedly named Kagame as the main decision-maker behind the April 6, 1994 attack in which Habyarimana, a Hutu, was killed. Habyarimana's aircraft was shot down and his death sparked off the mass slaughter. Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira and a four-man French crew were also killed in the crash. Kagame, who headed the Tutsi rebel force that took power in Kigali in July 1994, ending the genocide, has always denied any involvement in the attack on the aircraft carrying Habyarimana. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #1 Liberté, égalité, fraternité, genocidé. |
| Posted by: pihkalbadger 2006-11-21 08:53 |