'Rose is innocent!'
2008-11-19 18:16
Kigali - Thousands of Rwandans marched through Kigali on Wednesday in protest at the planned extradition to France of a top Rwandan official wanted for questioning over the assassination of a former president.
The German authorities have held Rose Kabuye, a senior aide to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, since arresting her on November 9 at Frankfurt airport under international warrants issued by France for her and eight other Kagame associates.
Her detention marked a new low in relations between the two nations that soured two years ago when the warrants were issued. Kabuye, who is also a former mayor of the Rwandan capital, was due to arrive in France later on Wednesday.
Thousands of demonstrators chanted "Our Rose, Our Rose" and waved Rwandan flags as they marched through the capital. Some waved placards: "Rose is innocent and she is ready to prove it."
The peaceful protest stopped outside the German Embassy, where a stage was set up and a live band sang Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights, by Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Some demonstrators wore patches with a rose flower, while others wore t-shirts decorated with Kabuye's face.
"Why did they arrest Rose, and not the genocidaires?" asked genocide-survivor Ididas Mpole. Kigali accuses Berlin of failing to detain hardline Hutu leaders Rwanda blames for the genocide.
"It just doesn't make sense," Mpole said.
French Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere wants to question Kabuye about a 1994 plane crash that killed then-President Juvenal Habyarimana - an event widely seen as triggering the start of the genocide of 800 000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
Lef Forster, Kabuye's French lawyer, said her plane was due to land in France at 14:10 GMT and she would be driven to the Paris law courts.
Berlin says it was obliged to act on the French warrants, but the Rwandan government says Kabuye was on official business and had diplomatic immunity. Kigali asked the German ambassador to leave and it recalled its envoy from Berlin.
Relations between France and Rwanda worsened further after an independent Rwandan commission set up to investigate France's role in the genocide heard in late 2006 from victims who said they were raped by French troops.
In August, Kigali accused 33 French political and military officials, including former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President Francois Mitterrand, of involvement in the 100 days of killings.
France, a supporter of the Hutu-led regime that ruled Rwanda in the years leading up to the genocide, has always denied any involvement in the massacres.