France 'putting Rwanda on trial'

2008-11-17 21:11

Kigali - Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Monday that the arrest of one of his top aides on a French warrant was tantamount to putting his entire country in the dock.

Speaking at a press conference in Kigali, Kagame was still fuming at the November 9 arrest in Frankfurt of his chief of protocol Rose Kabuye, wanted by French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

"It is not only Rose who is in the dock, it is Rwanda that is in the dock," Kagame said.

Bruguiere issued warrants against Kabuye and eight other Kagame aides over their suspected involvement in the 1994 plane crash that killed then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and sparked the genocide.

Kagame's Tutsi regime, which accuses France of having supported the Hutu militias who carried out the massacres 14 years ago, complains that Europe is persecuting the genocide's survivors instead of hunting its perpetrators.

"They indict people falsely to cover their own responsibility," Kagame said.

The 2006 French warrants led to Rwanda severing its diplomatic ties with France. Demonstrations were organised for three consecutive days in the streets of Kigali following Kabuye's arrest and more are planned.

Kabuye is to be transferred into French custody on Wednesday.

Judicial sources in Kigali have said that Rwandan justice could soon issue warrants and indictments against some of the 33 political and military French officials named in an August report on France's role in the genocide.

"Possible indictments are part of many things we could do with the report. It will depend on many factors. For sure, the report will lead to something," Kagame said.

- AFP